My neighbor had 22 trees taken down in one shot on his 3/4 acre lot. He did not like the leaves in the fall and he was going to do some half-baked landscaping and the trees did not fit his plan. Anyway I agreed to have two trees that were on the border taken down to - and he paid for it. Anyway about three times in the next 1.5 years he asks me to remove some of the other trees - the ones that I have written about here.
Then one weekday morning at 5:30am - here comes the crazy neighbor's wife. I was actually lying in bed as the alarm had gone off and had to put some pants on to answer the door. Well wacko's wife asks me to give them permission to take down a cherry tree on the corner of our property lines - as it screws up his master landscaping plan. The tree trunk was about 3-4' inside the border line, and while some of the branches on one side went over the border - he wanted to whole tree down. I was a bit PO'd that she had come over to early and told her no, that I would not give permission to take down the tree and that I like that tree quite a bit.
Flash forward 45 minutes or so - and here comes her husband knocking on my door. He is a bit agitated and he cannot believe that I would not give him permission to take the tree down. He wants to show me how this tree is ruining his plan and why it must come down. He told me that it was within his right to take it down and that he had talked with a lawyer who confirmed that. I told him that he could trim any of the branches that overhang his property, but that he was off-base and full of it if he thought he could take down the tree. He couldn't believe that I did not go along with his plan and was questioning me if I thought he didn't know what he was talking about. I dropped some 4 letter words, told him what I thought of his mental stability and told him to get the hell out of my yard. Then I head off to work.
Flash forward to that night - I was telling my Dad about the morning encounter when my parents stopped by that night. My Dad went out with me to see the tree so he could find out what the guy was talking about. I went out to the tree and only half the tree was left:
Property line looking one way:
Property line looking the other way:
The area was all cleaned up - could not see many chips at all. I was PO'd and went to talk to a neighbor who is retired. He heard the chainsaw and saw that there was a tree company there during the day. I called the Police - the responding Officer shows up, checks it out and then goes to talk to the neighbor. After about 15 minutes - he comes back to me and tells me that the guy is insistent that he is in the right and that a lawyer confirmed it - the Officer told him that his lawyer was full of it and that he had no right to tresspass on my property to cut down 1/2 the tree. He questioned the guy about what he was thinking - telling the guy that you just screwed a relationship up with a neighbor. Now instead of having someone to look out for your house, collect mail on vacation, etc. - that guy is done with you. The officer was right - I have not spoken to him in 4.5 years since he did that. Well that is not true - I asked him to confirm the border again, and when he did I asked him why he was dumping his riding lawnmowers grass clippings on my compost pile and told him to cut the crap.
I thought about bringing the neighbor to small claims court, but dropped it. What I figure is that he had this planned and that his wife thought oh no - I better go over and get permission for what my husband has planned. When I said no - he just went ahead with the plan with the tree service he had contracted with.