My neighbor (for 18 years) just cut down a large tree on my rental property. I heard about this from my tenants. I am out of town, so my husband went over to look. Yep, it's gone. He spoke to the neighbor, who said she thought the tree was hers, even though it is clearly in my yard. There has never been any confusion about this - I have alway done the mowing around this tree.

This tree provided all the shade for my back yard, and without it my property is less desirable than it was before.

What can I do now? She left me a voicemail saying "Sorry! Didn't mean to cause a problem." We have always been on good terms, but this is certainly a problem.

Gotta agree with JB [OR]. Request her to replace the tree with a similarly mature tree of the same type.

What was her reasoning? Other than thinking it was hers? Was it lifting the sidewalk? Were the roots affecting the plumbing? What? I'm guessing by your description that you don't have side or back fences in your area. If it was in the back yard how could it have been much of a problem?

Her reasoning, she told my husband, was that some branches were hanging over her shed. They were. The tree was about 6 feet from the property line in my yard and her shed sits right at the property line.

Not sure how to find out who cut the tree down, though it's a good idea. I don't really have good pictures of the whole tree, either, except from Google satellite view - and that shows a huge tree.

I guess I start my having a landscape co out to give me an estimate to plant something that provides similar shade and privacy? This tree, as I said, was 20 years old and probably 18 feet across. It's not going to be possible to replace it with another.

ASAP get a police report.Get neighbor to give you name of cutter so you "can get them to come and deal with the stump... and that way you get that info. A demand letter is next and maybe have your atty. draft it.

As long as you KNOW the tree was on your property. Lot lines aren't always where we think they are... Thinking it might be worth it to ask for a lot line survey at her expense, along with planting another tree.

I would demand they take responsibility and agree to pay to have the stump removed and a large tree replanted in the area. Get several estimates from local nursery's.

If the neighbor refuses to pay, ask for their insurance information and submit a claim. If that doesn't work, file a police report asking for the cost to fix things. If nothing happens, then sue in court.

About two weeks ago we had a ferocious storm blow through here,Hamden and North Haven also got hit hard,It blew a big branch and several smaller branches from a big Oak in our back yard,came down partially on the deck

Laura,you think if you talked nice to her,you could get her to come up to New Haven and cut these up and dispose of them,I just hate the thought of hooking up the cord for the chain saw

I just saw something like this on Judge Judy this week. The tree was on Mr. A's property, but Mr. B. cut it down without permission--because Mr. B. thought it was on *his* property when it clearly was not.

Judge Judy awarded damages that Mr. B. will have to pay to Mr. A, in an amount so that Mr. A could get another mature tree... nothing was ruled about removing stumps or digging a hole for the new tree.

Unfortunately, most people will cry about how they are broke and gee, won't have any money to replace the tree they cut down, nor will they have money to remove/grind the stump. You can start out being nice, but I betcha dollars to donuts that you'll end up in court if you pursue this. My guess, and I could be wrong, is that she knew exactly what she was doing.

This would infuriate me. Did she use a company to cut it down? Seems to me you'd have a claim against them.

On a different topic. I once hired a tree service to remove a tree and grind some stumps. They went to the wrong address and di the work on someone else's house. Unreal. Then they demanded I pay for the work.

House and street numbers were the same. Except one was avenue and one was street, mine was avenue. I gave them the correct address and fortunately on the invoice they sent you could clearly see where they had written street over the word avenue. Meaning I gave them the right address, which they had trouble finding and so went to the house on the "street" address without checking with me first.

Where to begin. I'm a pretty peaceful person. Takes a lot to get me angry enough to seek justice for things I can forgive.

Cutting down a mature tree on property that's not yours is something I would not be able to ignore! Proper thing would have been to alert you to the problem of trees overhanging the garage, then come to some sort of agreement on what to do.

She decided to just take it on herself to trespass, destroy, and leave you without a valuable asset. Shade around here is pure gold. Drought conditions in our County caused me the loss of a few mature trees and I really miss the shade.

Unless your neighbor is under doctor's care for some major illness, or shows signs of being dangerous, I'd for sure talk to her (in person if possible) with a follow up of a written demand for payment for the complete cleanup and replacement of a mature tree. Forget the police, unless things go sideways. All they can do is stand by. It's a civil matter.

You don't even need a lawyer for this. Just document the entire 'crime scene' in pictures. Collect any pictures you have of the tree before the slaughter and demand payment. Then if nothing happens, take it to small claims court. Easy to do, cheap, and takes a bit of your time, but well worth it.

Judge will render a verdict and if she has no money, you can attach wages at her job, or you can put a lien on her property until you get paid.

Be sure to find out who actually cut the tree. If it was a business, you might be able to get something from them just by asking (they won't want bad publicity) since they obviously never verified that your neighbor owned that tree. They should have asked for something besides her word.

Survey? Do you have a survey for your property? The judge most likely will ask this question. Did you or your neighbor own the tree?

The cost of the mature tree and the cost of replacement are different depending on whose side or view point. Planting a young tree DOES NOT replace the lost tree. You may want to bring in a tree expert to give you a quote on the value of the tree. Also have your property surveyed THEN sue the neighbor. Don't waste your time talking to her. She was BOLD enough to cut the tree down. She will ignore your verbal conversation. Don't waste your time talking to her. PLUS she could accuse you of threats, etc.

Survey your property line. Establish the property line.

Tree Expert to give value of tree.

Cost to remove stump?

Then sue for the value of the tree, plus survey costs, tree expert cost, stump removal costs.

Also sue the tree removal company as well.

Take lots of pictures.

Also you may want to get written statements from the tenants and maybe neighbors who saw the tree being removed.

The neighbor could have cut the tree branches from the property line hanging on her property. And cut it to clear the entire tree on her side of the property. There nothing you could have done. Could this severe cutting killed the tree MAYBE!!!

HOWEVER, she crossed the line. YEP the property line!!! Now she will pay either in cash or with a lien against her property.

I think in TX, you can cut only the part of the neighbor's branch that is crossing onto your property, but not if it hurts the tree.

Yes, you can go to war with her but realistically, you'll be at war for as long as you both live there. Ask her to remove the stump and buy a reasonably sized tree and discuss with her where you should put it. Better to have friendlyish relations with the neighbor.

They have machines that can plant large trees. If she has a tree, offer to accept that instead. Let them move her tree to your spot if she doesn't want to buy a tree.

Laura,

I'm with Vee about getting photos NOW before the stump is gone.

Need more solid facts like location of the property line.

Awfully weird she would just decide to cut down a tree. Is there something else going on?

Grinding the stump and replanting will not break the bank, but do you really need a tree? It's just one more thing to maintain and clean up after.

Had same thing happen here 2 summers ago, huge Mulberry tree that shaded my entire back yard was in my fenced backyard, about a foot away from the fence. Tree shaded my entire back yard and about half my neigbors. It was not taken down, just brutally trimmed so it died later.

When I discovered it I found in Illinois there were definite statutes on this issue with strong clear penalties so I contacted the States Attorney, who told me there were 2 issues, Criminal Damage to Property and Criminal Trespass to Property. He then tole me to get a police report and opinions from 2 Licenced Arborists (at $125 & $150 each) and estimates to try to correct trim job in hopes it would survive (it didn't).

By the time I had paid my attorney and the fees for the Arborists I had put almost $500 into it.

Three months after I turned the info in to the States Attorney and multiple phone calls to push it along I finally got resolution.

Turned out the guy that trimmed the tree was a buddy of the States Attorney.

How did it turn out after the States Attorney found out he was a buddy of the tree trimmer?

I was told "You didn't have No Trespassing signs posted on your property so there's no case here, you could try a civil case but you'll probably lose and waste your money." My attorney told me it would cost between $1500 and $3000 to go to court. Tree trimmer wins.

I still say Small Claims Court unless you don't have any of those in your area. Here, it's only $30.00 to file up to $1500.00 claims, $50.00 for up to $5000.00 claims and $75.00 up to $10,000. claims. It's $35.00 for a process server and it's a very easy thing. I did it for a defective used dryer and won without saying anything but, 'yes' when asked one question. Got my money and the guy had to remove the dryer too.

And Tim, sounds like you might live in a small town where everyone knows everyone. Court might not be a good idea given that information about 'not going to civil court'. Sounds like the Judge might know everyone too. I can't imagine the huge cost of all that you had to do for nothing. So simple here for little stuff even up to $10,000.

Yikes, Illinois Tim! That stinks!

All my properties are posted and photo documented now Nicole[PA] so not even the State's Attorney's buddies can be exempted from the written statutes anymore by patronage or otherwise (well, at least from that particular crime anyway).

Rest assured I'd make sure it would cost you as much as the law would allow if you did it without my consent beforehand.