COVID-19 is being blamed for a record number of disputes between South Australian neighbours, with many of the quarrels relating to disagreements over trees.
The Legal Services Commission said it handled a record 8,400 disputes last year, with disputes over trees soaring by 24 per cent since 2019.
Over the past year there have also been more than 5,000 fencing disputes, 120 enquiries about neighbourhood noise and 100 enquiries about dogs.
The commission's Chris Stone said part of the reason for the increased number of disputes could be people were spending more time at home due to the pandemic, and higher-density living was becoming more common.
"The last couple of years, a lot of us have been at home a lot more, either working from home or isolating at home," he said.
"A lot of us are sitting in our makeshift workplaces looking out the window and we're noticing trees or we're noticing things about neighbours or the neighbourhood generally."
Urban sprawl was also blamed, with Mr Stone saying people living in close proximity to each other often noticed what was happening in their neighbourhood.
"There's been a lot of development, subdivision in neighbourhoods, in particular inner-city neighbourhoods, and people are living a lot closer," he said.
"They are noticing trees [and] boundaries are sometimes having to be moved because it's actually discovered they're not actually in the right place and trees can interfere with that."
Mr Stone said many of the complaints related to issues with trees above ground and below ground — from trees being too close to fence lines through to issues with root systems lifting concrete and paving.
While most complaints with neighbours can be resolved outside of court, Mr Stone said many of the enquiries coming through to the commission needed intervention.
"The people we hear from in a very broad way are the ones where the problems haven't been resolved by conversations, so we don't hear the good stories unfortunately," he said.
"But we would always recommend trying to have a constructive, reasonable and calm conversation with your neighbour.
"Go and knock on the front door. If you haven't, go and introduce yourself.
"It's extraordinary how many of us don't really know our neighbours these days.
"If you can establish a conversation and a good dialogue with the neighbour, that is the ideal way to solve the problem … court should always be the last resort."
