Question Regarding Dead Tree For Rental Home

Location: Texas

Looking for advice involving a dead tree for a home I am renting. This is my first time renting a home so I’m not super familiar with everything and moved from another state recently. I’ve been living here for a couple of months if that helps. Basically I rent a newer home (built within last three years) in a subdivision with an HOA. The lease we signed states we are responsible for lawn maintenance (I.e., watering grass, mowing). The lease states explicitly it excludes things like tree trimming. Within the lease it states as well that it “includes the following but not limited to” so I’m assuming that adds other things that are not explicitly listed.

We received a notice from the property manager that they got a notice from the HOA. The HOA cited one of trees in our front yard as being dead and needs to be replaced. The landlord is saying we need to take care of this and any fines gathered we need to pay. I am fine maintaining the yard but I feel this falls out of that scope of general maintenance or is it one of those things that is up for interpretation.

Also to note our lease states we need to water the grass twice a week which we do unless it rains one day. Several spots of grass were also dead when we moved in which are now turning green. I will say upon inspection the tree does look dead but I honestly never noticed as I moved from a humid state and lots of the trees in Texas look the same to me (I.e. hardly any leaves). Any advice would be appreciated.