Killing a tree.

[K, T, E & N]

You want to take about morons! Just drive around my neighborhood and count into the triple digits the number of trees that have been planted directly below the power lines. And now that they're getting trimmed back (if you want to call it trimming) by the city to prevent winter-time iced limbs from taking out the lines - the homeowners are up in arms over the "UGLY" way that the trees are trimmed. Oh, but lets see! Come winter and their power goes out because a limb dropped on the line and knocked it down - they yell the loudest that they are not being taken care of properly by the power company and are being ignored in the winter.

Kim

[zxcvbob]

Here, it's the city that plants the big maple and elm trees right under the power lines.

Bob

[Peter Jason]

O thank you!

This supportive post has steeled my resolve to undertake the death of this tree and I shall follow your advice to the letter.

I have long been vary of neighbours and have always lived on a corner (you get one less) and everything I do and don't do is calculated to avoid them.

I have no experience with lawyers in these situations, but the business world has taught me that once one has entered a dispute with anyone, the lawyers play cat and mouse with both sides to make as much money as possible for themselves. Lawyers are useful for setting up contracts etc and possibly investigating a prospective neighbour to see if he is barking mad, but they should be assiduously avoided. For example, how high can one build a boundary fence?

Friends of mine who have become enmeshed in these neighbour-disputes find themselves in a lengthy war of attrition with endless visits to "tribunals" of varying sorts where the wheels grind extremely slowly.

And dogs? When I was a boy, the neighbourhood where I lived was notorious for poisoned pooches. The technique was to get a lump of meat and cut a slot into which one inserted a quantity of strychnine, thereby guaranteeing the demise of a barking pest. They are easy to kill.

[SVTKate]

Oh my God! You lived on the OTHER side of the moron that caused me to sell my last house.. didn't you! neighbors can be a real pain. That's why I made a point of finding property this time with room to buffer the neighbors.

[Tom Jaszewski]

especially when out spraying deisel fuel....

Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets. To plant a pine, one need only own a shovel.

-- Aldo Leopold

[sherwindu]

You don't want to tip off the neighbor of your intentions, so you dig this huge trench around your property? This neighbor may be a jerk, but he's not necessarily stupid. Every village has a Public Works Dept. and/or Building Department. I would inquire with them if there are any violations of code. You may still be held responsible for killing this tree, even if you work exclusively from your property. There are specialized tools that some municipalities have that can be used to cut the roots without digging big trenches. Try your local government first, before you take any desperation steps. Also check your local ordinances and regulations to see if you have any grounds for complaint.

Sherw> Peter,

[Gideon]

Several comments:

1) Drainage trenches for so-called "French drains" are extremely common and they often include lateral collectors that are extremely close to each of the two sides of the property in addition to an interceptor/feeder trench located extremely close to the rear property line. They are not a violation of code anywhere that I know about and I've failed to notice any SWAT teams shown on the 11 o'clock news, converging upon some homeowner with his rented 6" trencher and a few hundred feet of black flexible PVC drain pipe.

2) I live in a city, not in a village. The only villages I've ever seen have been in quaint 1940's style movies, generally set in England. But apparently we are being led to believe that in your village it is illegal to dig a drainage trench around your property but there is no problem asking the municipality to drop by and cut the roots of a neighbor's trees?

3) Where did you get your law degree?

Gideon

================

Sherw> Peter,

[Rick]

[Bill]

Then you are woefully ignorant.

I suspect, as with most minor crimes, the police don't care unless it is reported.

Hence your ignorance in the matter.

It is here. One of the reasons to get a permit is you get a map detailing the various utilities that pass under your property so as not to cut them with your trenching tool.

Maybe he should just go ahead, run his trencher into a gas line. The resulting explosion should cure his problems.

Ther're supposed to know where the utilities are buried.

And your's?

Bill

[SVTKate]

Awww shaddap kid, ya bother me.

[Starlord]

How about dilling a hole in your head and filling it with something toxic? At lest the tree gives off O2 and not troll waste like yours.

[Starlord]

I would not want to live near you, I always heard New Zealand was a peacefull place. But your "Good neighbor is a dead one" sure is not peacefully, I'd have to set up some claymores and a few punji stakes to keep you off my land.

[Starlord]

Well after the tree dies and they can plainly see it's death was caused by you and the first good storm hits and the tree falls and crush's your house, I'll wonder who you'll blame for that?

Look in the mirror at the dipstick.

[Wolf Kirchmeir]

This is real damage, and the tree's owner is responsible. Take him to court. Established tort law tells you that you can sue for damages to your property caused by that tree. You can probably start with small claims court, depending on the dollar limits in your state or province.

Common law says you can cut off any part of the tree that overhangs your property. I don't know if that includes roots. You don't need permission, but it might be politic to tell the neighbour what you intend. Just make sure you don't encraoch on the neighbour's property. IOW, if you kill the tree, you've damaged his property, and he can sue you, and you can be charged with mischief or worse.

In most cities and towns, there will be ordinances that you can use to make the tree-owner do what needs to be done, or get the city to cut down the tree. If the tree belongs to the city, you may have to sue. But the city should have rules and procedures about maintaining the "urban forest", so there should be no problem, apart from the usual bureacratic delays.