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January 31, 2006

Advice on fallen tree

So a neighbors tree fell into our backyard a week ago. My wife went round to talk to the neighbor (he lives on the block backing onto ours) and he was rude and disinterested.
Its pretty clear he is not going to do anything about it, or maybe has the means to, so what is our recourse? I've tried calling 311 but they just said its on private property so the city cannot help. Any advice appreciated.

Posted by anon at 10:35 AM | Comments (15)
Categories: Environmental

Comments

I'm no expert but I would write your neighbors a letter telling them that you will hire someone to come remove the tree (or move it into their yard) if the problem is not taken care of by DATE XX and that you will send them the bill. Keep a copy.

If the problem is not taken care of it, take photos of the tree and follow through, per above. If they refuse to pay the bill, you could eat the cost... or, if you're feeling somewhat agressive, you could file in small claims court.

Posted by: carrie at January 31, 2006 5:04 PM

Get a chainsaw, cut up the tree and throw the logs back into your neighbor's yard.

Posted by: Anonymous at January 31, 2006 5:08 PM

Take photos first, very important. I'd call 311 again and get another phone rep. 311 can be very helpful, but sometimes their reps are a bit slow on the uptake. You might get someone the second time around who's a bit more diligent and can lead you in the right direction. If you write a letter to this neighbor, make it as objective, level-headed, and non-threatening as you can. And as the previous poster said, keep copies of absolutely everything.

Posted by: Anonymous at January 31, 2006 5:09 PM

This happened to us last summer. The neighbor behind us was unfriendly but not wholly uncoopertive, letting us have access to the tree through her house. We called our homeonwners insurance provider and they told us to first take pictures. We paid about $1,000 to have it removed, and were thinking of having our insurer go after the neighbor's insurer for reimbursement, but they said we'd only be covered for the first $250 and that our premium could go up, so we just decided to swallow the cost.

Posted by: alex at January 31, 2006 10:16 PM

It is your neighbours responsibility to take care of the tree, but if he's unwilling you may need to go to the small claims court. If you decide to take care of it yourself, legally you should return the portion of the tree that landed on your property to your neighbour. Also, get multiple quotes for clearing the tree and returning it to your neighbour -- if you go to court it will help to show that you attempted to mitigate your costs.
Good luck.

Posted by: Anonymous at February 1, 2006 11:25 AM

This is an interesting concern as there is a white pine tree in my neighbor's yard which is taller than my 4 story brownstone and whose branches are totally across the width of my backyard and whose branches go across the extension part of my house which causes me to constantly having to climb out onto the roof of the extension to clean out the drain of pine needles which are clogging the drain. If the tree should ever fall over I will have no house left. The neighbors could care less. Their comment to me was 1) the tree has to grow somewhere and 2)the tree has always been there. Of course the tree has been there but of course trees continue to grow. I am so frustrated and nervous.

Posted by: Susan at February 1, 2006 11:40 AM

To Susan, I think that you can legally clear branches that impact or touch your house if you can easily reach them (or hire someone to do it). I would inform the tree owner that you're going to do trim those branches and state your reason...clogging my gutters, dangerous for you to have to climb your roof to clean, etc. I once had a next-door neighbor cut branches of my maple tree out front because they hung over his front yard and he didn't like it. I was furious that he didn't tell me first, but later I found out that he was within legal bounds to do that (whether I liked it or not).

Posted by: Anonymous at February 1, 2006 4:10 PM

Thank you for your thoughts. I know that legally I can cut the branches overhanging my yard But the problem is the branches which overhang are many many feet above ground i.e. about the third story of the house. No way can I reach it and when I tried to have someone climb the tree and go and trim, the owners stood there and only allowed the branches to be cut at the property line which is almost impossible to reach when the branch extends so far across (you can't exactly safely climb across a limb that needs to be cut. Another words they would not allow the limb to be cut from the trunk and they did not want the cuttings in their yard and they stopped me after I had only done a few branches. So what happened of course is that the trimmed branches just grew out again.

Posted by: Susan at February 1, 2006 4:25 PM

We have a neighbor who refuses to maintain his property and trees. We had the tree, which was brushing the roof of my house, trimmed entirely from our yard. Call an arborist/tree guy- they have chain saws on long poles and can do this for you from your side of the property line, from the ground and from your roof. They won't need to climb the tree. You are legally within your rights to protect your property. Take pictures of the existing problems, overhang and plugged gutters, in case things get sticky with the neighbors. And you need to have a licensed guy for the job-with insurance. The city may require that- they require at least a pruning program certificate for street tree pruning and those folks are really limited as to what they can prune if they are not licensed tree guys. They may also know the exact law about trimming over your property and will be able to relay that to the neighbor when the guy gets pissy.

Posted by: Diana at February 1, 2006 7:06 PM

Diana thank so much for all the very helpful information. I had no idea you could put a chain saw on a long pole. Would you be willing to let me know the name of the person/company you used? If you prefer to send me a private e-mail my address is:
sjbinkov@gmail.com. Many thanks

Posted by: Susan at February 2, 2006 5:32 AM

Thanks for all the help. An update on our situation. The 'owner' does not seem to live at the house so we have to try and find her. It's likely we will have to go through the small claims court to at least get a lien on the property for what it will cost us to clear up.
I'll probably cut it up and leave the biggest pieces in his yard and remove the rest myself.
In the mean-time though, the bigger problem is the rest of the tree, still standing but dead and waiting fo rthe next storm. Everyone was lucky this time it missed all the houses, next time someone may not be lucky.....

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