What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Connecticut
Another tree issue.
This one appears to have twist which I hope I can explain without being too wordy.
We have a wooded lot behind our house, mostly Oaks and hemlocks. We don’t use the area. It is just there being part of our property, and all trees grew naturally on their own. We also have an inexpensive fence along the back edge of our property. Our neighbor on the other side of that fence has an immense wooded area that is true woods. He recently had installed an ornate vinyl fence around his property that took about a 100 sections (the math for the installation must have been significant, upwards of $300.00 per section supposedly). His fence is about 3 feet or so away from ours, running parallel along the boundary between us.
In the far corner of our property there is a very tall oak tree that grew naturally and grew to lean over his property. It has only two branches at the very top. It is a tall thin trunk tree without many branches other than at the top. Now to restate if you looked over our fence you can see his house in the distance (about 100 yards away or so) and nothing for as far as you can see but a wooded landscape filled with fallen trees among the living ones, brush, deep piles of leaves and other dead woodland materials.
Our tree died last winter and took a serious turn for the worse in terms of its willingness to remain upright. It slowly began to lean more toward his fence. Eventually, as chance would have it, it rested square on one of our fence posts which is supporting the tree keeping it from falling immediately. But it is putting great pressure on the post, slowly pushing the post in the direction of the fence. It will eventually topple over and that appears to be imminent unfortunately.
As soon as we noticed this problem we contacted a tree removal company who would not take the tree down because there is no access for his equipment where it is located on our property, and it was unsafe for him to climb. He also stated he couldn’t do it because the tree would damage the neighbor’s fence as well and he didn’t want the potential problem from that. He recommended that the threatened fence section be removed so that the tree could be removed safely, and not do any damage to the fence should it fall on its own (apparently the tree roots were dying and rotting under ground which we could not see until it started to lean after dying).
We immediately brought the situation to the attention of the owner of the fence and made about 7 phone calls to him and his wife over a short period of time discussing what might be able to be done to take the fence section down so we could do the tree removal. The home owner supposedly made an effort to contact his installer but had no luck getting in touch with the person. After a while they gave up and my wife said she would try to reach the installer to see if he would remove the fence section. We were willing to pay for the removal. We couldn’t reach him by phone so I went directly to his business and met with him (I had no problem finding him). Apparently, he was aware of the problem having spoken with someone working as a handyman for the fence owner and agreed to take the endangered fence section down and reinstall it when appropriate for $150.00. We thought that was a bit much but agreed to pay him his fee. He said he would get back to us when he could do the work. He never did. I tracked him down again and he still said he would do the removal but continued to avoid keeping his word. He did tell me there was a major issue of money involved between him and the fence owner with each saying the other owed $1500.00. He wouldn’t do anything for the fence owner but he would do it for us for a fee. We think this problem existing between the two is the reason for the resistance on the part of the installer to remove the fence for us. He wants nothing to do with the fence owner and was not sincere when he agreed to help us.
This all started in April and continued for months with us waiting for help which was not forthcoming. Finally, I ran into a fellow working a Home Depot who said he would do it for us. He came over, looked at the fence and said he would use a pry bar to loosen the sections and remove the threatened one. Yikes! This fence is supposedly put together with screws in some locations that may not be visible according to a couple of employees of the installer I spoke to, and the fence could be damaged in the removal process if it was not done properly. If the fence was damaged being removed I would then become responsible for replacing it. The neighbor stated I would be responsible for replacing it if the tree fell on it also. A real catch 22. We are in a difficult spot here. I contacted the fence owner again and told him the problem we had having the section removed safely and asked him to make another effort to have his (unfriendly) installer remove the fence section. He refuses to have any part of this fence removal issue. He says we should find someone else to do it if the installer won’t do it but also said if anything happens we are libel for damages. He won’t get involved. I even sent him payment of $150.00 to cover the costs which he would not accept and returned. He just won’t help and it’s his fence. We don’t know what to do.
My question is, even though it is our tree that is dead and it is going to damage his fence, are we libel in that we gave him advance notice of this eventual happening, even though we made every effort to secure help in the fence removal, as well as offering him payment to assist in the cost of the removal?
Sorry for the lengthy essay above but this appears to be a bit unique. We didn’t know the health of the tree until it died and can’t take it down because it will damage his fence.
Appreciate the input, Thank you.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Another tree issue.
This one appears to have twist which I hope I can explain without being too wordy.
We have a wooded lot behind our house, mostly Oaks and hemlocks. We don’t use the area. It is just there being part of our property, and all trees grew naturally on their own. We also have an inexpensive fence along the back edge of our property. Our neighbor on the other side of that fence has an immense wooded area that is true woods. He recently had installed an ornate vinyl fence around his property that took about a 100 sections (the math for the installation must have been significant, upwards of $300.00 per section supposedly). His fence is about 3 feet or so away from ours, running parallel along the boundary between us.
In the far corner of our property there is a very tall oak tree that grew naturally and grew to lean over his property. It has only two branches at the very top. It is a tall thin trunk tree without many branches other than at the top. Now to restate if you looked over our fence you can see his house in the distance (about 100 yards away or so) and nothing for as far as you can see but a wooded landscape filled with fallen trees among the living ones, brush, deep piles of leaves and other dead woodland materials.
Our tree died last winter and took a serious turn for the worse in terms of its willingness to remain upright. It slowly began to lean more toward his fence. Eventually, as chance would have it, it rested square on one of our fence posts which is supporting the tree keeping it from falling immediately. But it is putting great pressure on the post, slowly pushing the post in the direction of the fence. It will eventually topple over and that appears to be imminent unfortunately.
As soon as we noticed this problem we contacted a tree removal company who would not take the tree down because there is no access for his equipment where it is located on our property, and it was unsafe for him to climb. He also stated he couldn’t do it because the tree would damage the neighbor’s fence as well and he didn’t want the potential problem from that. He recommended that the threatened fence section be removed so that the tree could be removed safely, and not do any damage to the fence should it fall on its own (apparently the tree roots were dying and rotting under ground which we could not see until it started to lean after dying).
We immediately brought the situation to the attention of the owner of the fence and made about 7 phone calls to him and his wife over a short period of time discussing what might be able to be done to take the fence section down so we could do the tree removal. The home owner supposedly made an effort to contact his installer but had no luck getting in touch with the person. After a while they gave up and my wife said she would try to reach the installer to see if he would remove the fence section. We were willing to pay for the removal. We couldn’t reach him by phone so I went directly to his business and met with him (I had no problem finding him). Apparently, he was aware of the problem having spoken with someone working as a handyman for the fence owner and agreed to take the endangered fence section down and reinstall it when appropriate for $150.00. We thought that was a bit much but agreed to pay him his fee. He said he would get back to us when he could do the work. He never did. I tracked him down again and he still said he would do the removal but continued to avoid keeping his word. He did tell me there was a major issue of money involved between him and the fence owner with each saying the other owed $1500.00. He wouldn’t do anything for the fence owner but he would do it for us for a fee. We think this problem existing between the two is the reason for the resistance on the part of the installer to remove the fence for us. He wants nothing to do with the fence owner and was not sincere when he agreed to help us.
This all started in April and continued for months with us waiting for help which was not forthcoming. Finally, I ran into a fellow working a Home Depot who said he would do it for us. He came over, looked at the fence and said he would use a pry bar to loosen the sections and remove the threatened one. Yikes! This fence is supposedly put together with screws in some locations that may not be visible according to a couple of employees of the installer I spoke to, and the fence could be damaged in the removal process if it was not done properly. If the fence was damaged being removed I would then become responsible for replacing it. The neighbor stated I would be responsible for replacing it if the tree fell on it also. A real catch 22. We are in a difficult spot here. I contacted the fence owner again and told him the problem we had having the section removed safely and asked him to make another effort to have his (unfriendly) installer remove the fence section. He refuses to have any part of this fence removal issue. He says we should find someone else to do it if the installer won’t do it but also said if anything happens we are libel for damages. He won’t get involved. I even sent him payment of $150.00 to cover the costs which he would not accept and returned. He just won’t help and it’s his fence. We don’t know what to do.
My question is, even though it is our tree that is dead and it is going to damage his fence, are we libel in that we gave him advance notice of this eventual happening, even though we made every effort to secure help in the fence removal, as well as offering him payment to assist in the cost of the removal?
Sorry for the lengthy essay above but this appears to be a bit unique. We didn’t know the health of the tree until it died and can’t take it down because it will damage his fence.
Appreciate the input, Thank you.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?