Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious, do the neighbors benefit from having those lower branches gone? Do they now get more light or air circulation? I can't understand why they'd have the tree guys clear the branches all the way around.

Some people are weirdos about trees.

I'd be pissed they trespassed on my property. For example, who knows if the tree cutters were self insured? If not, they could try to sue if they got hurt on your property. It's not ok to enter someone else's property without permission. To clarify, were they actually in your yard cutting, or cutting them from his side of the property?

When they came around to cut the branches on our side, they were in our yard. We spoke with the crew and they were very apologetic - the foreman said he's been doing this for 25 years and knew that the owner's directions were wrong/illegal. We told him it wasn't his fault, just wish he had refused to do it.

That’s BS. If he knew it was wrong and illegal and had 25 years of experience to know better, he shouldn’t have done it. Likely the crew did it and not at the direction of the owner. Owner may just be treating as not a big deal because they don’t see it as one, or because they don’t want to be blamed.

Anonymous wrote:Time for a fence

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!’
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
‘Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.’ I could say ‘Elves’ to him,
But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father’s saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’

Anonymous wrote:Man, we battled our neighbors over this (posted here about it years ago, he threatened us with guns, came out with a knife when our landscaper was outside, etc.) for years. We finally removed the bushes that were causing him so much angst and planted bushes that grew fairly fast but also densely so that they provided privacy and went up and not as much out. Three years later we can barely see their yard, the bushes don't encroach at all, and that was the goal. Haven't spoken to him in years.

Couldn’t a fence have solved the issue?

Anonymous wrote:I would not do or say anything further until you’ve significantly calmed down and the anger has subsided. It is best to act with a cool head in these situations.

This is excellent advice

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Man, we battled our neighbors over this (posted here about it years ago, he threatened us with guns, came out with a knife when our landscaper was outside, etc.) for years. We finally removed the bushes that were causing him so much angst and planted bushes that grew fairly fast but also densely so that they provided privacy and went up and not as much out. Three years later we can barely see their yard, the bushes don't encroach at all, and that was the goal. Haven't spoken to him in years.

P.S. Bamboo is incredibly fast growing and great for privacy but you need to maintain it a lot because of that.

also illegal to plant in some jurisdictions and, regardless of legality, your neighbors will hate you

Anonymous wrote:I would not do or say anything further until you’ve significantly calmed down and the anger has subsided. It is best to act with a cool head in these situations.

This...because if you upset your neighbor, he could come back and cut down the entire 1/2 of the tree that overhangs his property, which will kill the whole thing.

I had a neighbor do this.

Neighbor A refused to care for his cypress (leyland) trees he planted too close together. So neighbor B cut the bottom 10 feet that were on his property hoping to convince neighbor A to do the same.

Neighbor A was so pissed, he tried to force B to replace them. Instead, B cut off the tree limbs on his property all the way to top of tree.

Anonymous wrote:Man, we battled our neighbors over this (posted here about it years ago, he threatened us with guns, came out with a knife when our landscaper was outside, etc.) for years. We finally removed the bushes that were causing him so much angst and planted bushes that grew fairly fast but also densely so that they provided privacy and went up and not as much out. Three years later we can barely see their yard, the bushes don't encroach at all, and that was the goal. Haven't spoken to him in years.

P.S. Bamboo is incredibly fast growing and great for privacy but you need to maintain it a lot because of that.

Man, we battled our neighbors over this (posted here about it years ago, he threatened us with guns, came out with a knife when our landscaper was outside, etc.) for years. We finally removed the bushes that were causing him so much angst and planted bushes that grew fairly fast but also densely so that they provided privacy and went up and not as much out. Three years later we can barely see their yard, the bushes don't encroach at all, and that was the goal. Haven't spoken to him in years.

Neighbor did same thing to us. We told their yard person never ever to trim our side again.

I would make it very clear they are not allowed on your side of the property for any reason whatsoever. I would do nothing beyond that and never speaking a word to that neighbor again and ignoring them forever.

Anonymous wrote:That’s horrible. You need to go to township to see what ordinances are. They vary widely. If it is determined they had no right to cut branches on your property from trees that originate from your property, then you can think about next steps. I assume you could report and they would be fined, or you could go to neighbor and ask for remediation, like they plant fast growing trees/shrubs at their cost or something.

You're entitled to replacement value. That's what makes tree lawsuits over cutting down neighbor's trees hilarious. Mature trees can be replaced with mature trees, they just cost a fortune, but that's not your problem

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like the trees were planted to close to the property line in the first place. Pine trees shouldn’t be that close and that big they encroach on neighbors yard.

NP. +1. We bought a house with four several large trees directly on the property line around our home (so bordering three neighbors) and it's been a nightmare to deal with two of those neighbors who seem to think they can withhold permission for us to do ANY trimming whatsoever to those trees on OUR side of the property line because they are just old curmudgeonly farts.

You don't need their permission. Cut away.

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like the trees were planted to close to the property line in the first place. Pine trees shouldn’t be that close and that big they encroach on neighbors yard.

NP. +1. We bought a house with four several large trees directly on the property line around our home (so bordering three neighbors) and it's been a nightmare to deal with two of those neighbors who seem to think they can withhold permission for us to do ANY trimming whatsoever to those trees on OUR side of the property line because they are just old curmudgeonly farts.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Time for a fence

+100
Funny you said this - we used to have a fence that we took down about ten years ago. Regretting that decision...

I'd put a new one up that looks nice from your side and ugly as sin on the other side. Like paint it fluorescent pink and maybe mount motion sensor lights that shine into the neighbor's yard at the top.

Anonymous wrote:I’d be pissed at the tree guy who knew it was wrong and did it anyway. WTF?

Some of these are just goons who do anything for a buck.