My neighbors cut down a lot of my tree!

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Kelly

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I had to move a few years ago, due to my husband’s job. We used to live on three wooded acres in Georgia. I LOVED living there, everything in my life was perfect. The Church I attended was great, my homeschool association was great, my job was great, my house was great, everthing was great! Fast forward a couple of years-----nothng is great. I am living in a different city, state, everything is different and nothing is great . Nothing is even good, except a tree that I love, a beautiful 100 year old Live Oak. This tree reminds me of home, of everything that means home to me. Well, today my neighbors took it upon themselves to cut down quite a bit of the tree, most of which is in my yard. I am so upset, I have been crying all afternoon. I realize it is only a tree, but I am so upset, and my neighbors don’t even care, we’re expecting a tropical storm and they are elderly from Wisconsin and think trees have no place near a house! I am just so upset and depressed:(
 
looking at the damage from old live oak and mesquite trees in our recent fling with Dolly, I am moved to say your neighbors may have saved your life, or at least your pick-up truck. seriously, I know what you mean, neighbor 30 years ago did hire someone to cut down a tree on our lawn (which actually belonged to the city, so they got fined for doing it) because they claimed we deliberately allowed the leaves and debris to float over to their side. whatever. one of the few elms left in town at that time, irreplacable, so I can relate.
 
Kelly said:
I had to move a few years ago, due to my husband’s job. We used to live on three wooded acres in Georgia. I LOVED living there, everything in my life was perfect. The Church I attended was great, my homeschool association was great, my job was great, my house was great, everthing was great! Fast forward a couple of years-----nothng is great. I am living in a different city, state, everything is different and nothing is great . Nothing is even good, except a tree that I love, a beautiful 100 year old Live Oak. This tree reminds me of home, of everything that means home to me. Well, today my neighbors took it upon themselves to cut down quite a bit of the tree, most of which is in my yard. I am so upset, I have been crying all afternoon. I realize it is only a tree, but I am so upset, and my neighbors don’t even care, we’re expecting a tropical storm and they are elderly from Wisconsin and think trees have no place near a house! I am just so upset and depressed:(
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I’d call a game warden about it; they had no right to violate your property. If it was the city or power company who ordered the tree down due to a potential threat to power lines it would be different.
 
Depending on your state they may well have the legal right to cut down any part of your tree overhanging their property. I did this to a neighbours trees a few years ago - they refused to keep them in check, so I took matters into my own hands. BUT - the bits of the tree remains the owners property so anything they cut down MUST be returned to you or they are breaking the law. Now, how did they manage to cut down so much of your tree - did they enter your property without your permission - if so do them for trespass. And theft of your property if they didn’t return any of the tree they cut down to you. But if your tree was overhanging their property and you refused to keep it trimmed because you loved it but it was causing them issues, then I don’t blame them - I hate selfish inconsiderate neighbours.
 
From what you are saying, it does sound like it was actually their tree but just was in part of your yard, right? Or was it your tree and in part of their yard? Either way, seems if you shared it on both of your property’s that either of you ought to have informed the other. That would have been nice, I am sorry that it made you so sad.
We had a beautiful, live, lovely, huge oak tree several years ago that got struck by lightening, split right down the middle and was a mess. Thankfully, it was low enough after that, my husband, one of our sons and I were able to take the rest of it down. I miss it too, it had a nest of squirrels that lived in it. They moved on down the road.
On the other side of our yard we had another huge tree that was on our neighbors side of the yard but that mostly hung over on our side, (the actual trunk and roots were in her yard), when a terrible storm took that one out, she hired someone to clean up the mess of that and their idea of cleaning up was to push it into our yard, 🤷 We of course just got right out there and cleaned up that mess too, (we would have done it to begin with but were busy helping with a bunch of other things at the time and hadn’t gotten around to that tree yet.) So basically she paid someone to push it all to our yard and we cleaned it up for free. Pretty strange.
Like puzzelannie said though, it probably is for the best, those oak trees don’t seem to do too well in really bad tropical storms or hurricanes. By the way, I’ll keep you in my prayers for your safety and for your sadness.
 
hugs for Kelly

We’ve had a few tussles with our neighbors over the years about trees. A couple of years ago some new people moved behind us and cut off every bit of our old, huge Maple tree that was hanging in their yard. Obviously it was within their rights, but there were a few words exchanged when they followed it up with asking us to completely cut down another tree. The tree is still here, the neighbors are not anymore, btw.

I would say a little prayer for your tree, that it will stay healthy and continue to flourish despite it’s “haircut”. We have go chop some branches off our crab apple tree tomorrow and I plan on saying a prayer for the tree’s continued health. After all, everything living belongs to God, right? So He does even care about our crab apple tree and your Live Oak! 🙂
 
As another poster stated, its quite legal in my state to cut down any overhanging tree in your property. Take another look at your plat of survey. Did you get a staked survey prior to closing? Anyway, if you take a look at your plat of survey, you should be able to determine your property lines. If your tree was overhanging in their yard, and they feared damage to their property, or just plain did not care for the mess or the shade it gave, then they really should have told you about it out of kindness first, but if you live where I do, they could do this easily.
And, yes you may have liked the tree, but they dont have to like it.
 
oh, kelly. i’m sorry. so sorry. a great tree is a fine thing. people used to live their whole lives in relation to their trees.

i remember reading a published pioneer journal that told how, according to homestead customs, a 16 year old boy went out with his father to get a head-knocking. the dad took his son walking around the property boundaries (presumeably very large plot in those homestead days) and knocked his head against each significant tree so he’d remember the property lines. the fellow wrote those trees were important to him-- after his dad died, he remembered something his father told him at each tree.

yeah. people become attached to their trees.

but this is hard to hear:
Fast forward a couple of years-----nothng is great.
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i’m sorry you find yourself in such a place in your life-- unsettled, unwelcomed and unfulfilled. but wherever you are Kelly, God is there. and God is great. and His love for you is great.
 
Sounds like the tree is not the real issue, it is being homesick and lonely and sad.

Been there, done that - is there any way you and your family can make plans to moving back to your home in Georgia? Being home is important, family and old friends are important.
 
How much of it was on their yard? It may very well be legal for them to remove what was over their yard.

We have neighbors who have a large weeping willow tree. From a distance, it is beautiful. However, as it got bigger, more and more of it overhung our yard. It is not that beautiful to US.
The neighbor who lived there before was always good about keeping it trimmed and trimming our side. Unfortunately, she moved, and the new neighbors have not trimmed it. In fact, the fronds have gotten so long, they have a difficult time mowing under the tree, and now it is becoming overgrown with weeds and thistles - thistles which are now spreading into our yard.

We do give this tree “haircuts” to keep our flowerbeds that are at the back of our yard in the sun, and to make it possible to mow the back strips of our yard without getting tree branches caught in hair.
 
notsmart said:
As another poster stated, its quite legal in my state to cut down any overhanging tree in your property. Take another look at your plat of survey. Did you get a staked survey prior to closing? Anyway, if you take a look at your plat of survey, you should be able to determine your property lines. If your tree was overhanging in their yard, and they feared damage to their property, or just plain did not care for the mess or the shade it gave, then they really should have told you about it out of kindness first, but if you live where I do, they could do this easily.
And, yes you may have liked the tree, but they dont have to like it.
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A survey is the thing to have and examine. In my state whatever part of the tree hangs over the lot line is yours and you can cut the tree at will. A survey should show the monumentation. Find the monumentation and look to see if what they cut is over the lot line.
 
A tropical storm is coming my way, and my neighbor has a big OLD tree? If any of it overhangs my property, which could be damaged, I’m cuttin’ any and all parts of that tree that are over my property line!

My family’s shelter is more important than any tree! Sorry…
 
I am sorry for your sadness and your homesickness. hugs for you.

Nothing more to offer then just hugs
 
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