“This is much like a divorced couple arguing over custody and visitation rights over their shared children.”
Not really. We told him he could have the tree.
“There is resentment over the neighbor clearing his property to his property and water lines.”
I am going to suggest that you take a breath before you assume motivations of other people. That was mentioned only to point out that this tree was not a problem for anyone until then, and that we gave permission for him to remove it. There are no water lines in that location (?).
“There is a two story building that the neighbor has built that seems to be a point of resentment.”
Again, you are making assumptions here. This was mentioned because it is this building, that makes this a risky tree removal.
“Beckytate is OK with the neighbor paying to have her tree removed, knows it is a nuisance to her neighbor, insist that the tree work be performed from her neighbors property and ask if this tree 'might live' after having all of it's limbs and foliage removed. “
Partially incorrect. Yes, we are OK with allowing our neighbor to remove this tree at his expense. That seems fair enough, since it wasn’t a problem for him until his modifications. Allowing him to do this seemed like the right thing to do. However in fact we gave him permission to access our property for the purpose of removing the tree, and his crew staged there. In writing, he stated that he was going to remove it down to the top of his fence. He changed that agreement without communication. I am curious if it might live because we don’t know what to do now.
We definitely wouldn’t want to put our own worker in the position of having to deal with this guy. Be clear, there is no way to remove this tree without access from both properties. That’s the problem worrying us. Would you want to perform a risky tree removal next to an expensive structure for someone who has threatened to sue you for the express purpose of “costing you a lot of money”? We don’t say or do things like that. We try to give him space. He’s had problems with other neighbors also. We have asked for peaceful coexistence. He is unhappy about a lot of things, not just this tree.
“This is more about two neighbors being bad neighbors to each other than it is about a tree.”
”In my 35 plus years of being a tree service business owner I've gotten over being surprised at how often what is needed is counseling for neighbors that share property lines and there is very little if any 'arboriculture' involved. I pity the fool tree service company that enters into this swarm of bees.”
“Next up is having the tree work done then fighting over who pays the unpaid bill for services rendered.”
I can see how you might think this without the full context or being in our shoes. We pay our workers and treat people well. I’m sorry you have had these negative experiences and I can only imagine what goes on in these kinds of situations. If you Google fences and trees, they are a top neighbor problem issue, so I can see how at first glance this might seem like a stereotype to you. There’s a little more to this situation though, and why I asked if the tree will live. It’s hard to know what to do now. Believe me, he is dying to sue us for some thing and this feels like a set up. Sometimes things are not as simple as they may seem and this guy has a long history of playing games like this.
