What is the name of your state? South Carolina.
A few months ago, my next door neighbor cut branches and limbs from several medium and large trees, and cut down several small trees, on my property, all without my knowledge or consent. None of the trees were encroaching in any way on her property; in fact, the area is a good 50+ feet from her house. She admitted she did it, saying she "just couldn't stop herself" and she "knew she shouldn't." Another neighbor saw her do it and when he questioned her, she told him she didn't like how it looked and gave him the impression that she and I had discussed her doing this. (We didn't!) I wasn't sure what to say to her when she told me she did it, especially without a witness, so I just said I was glad to know who had done it and walked away. I put up a No Trespassing sign and ever since have been trying to figure out what to do about the look of the area. The vegetation she cut off leaves me with very little privacy in my back yard, and the cuts to the trees are badly done. I've got to get some trees removed (the ones that she cut to stumps or are too badly damaged to survive), get the ones that will live re-cut correctly so they'll be healthy and look decent (they are really disfigured right now), and plant new stuff to give me my privacy back. It's a really oddly-shaped area with lots of obstacles to plant around, and I've started on the project with several landscape professionals who didn't follow through, so I'm still trying to figure out what to do and what it will cost, so I can confront her and say "here's what it will cost to fix what you did, and I expect you to reimburse me for it." If she refuses I'll take her to magistrate's court, although of course I won't say that to her (I know that could be taken as a threat or extortion). The thing is, it's now been four months, and yesterday she did it again. I want to send her a certified letter telling her to stay off my property, but I don't have enough information to address the damages or reimbursement issue. To top if off, there's a chance she actually thought she was being HELPFUL but hacking up my trees, which is beyond reason (wish you could see how ugly they are now) but might somehow make sense to her.
A few months ago, my next door neighbor cut branches and limbs from several medium and large trees, and cut down several small trees, on my property, all without my knowledge or consent. None of the trees were encroaching in any way on her property; in fact, the area is a good 50+ feet from her house. She admitted she did it, saying she "just couldn't stop herself" and she "knew she shouldn't." Another neighbor saw her do it and when he questioned her, she told him she didn't like how it looked and gave him the impression that she and I had discussed her doing this. (We didn't!) I wasn't sure what to say to her when she told me she did it, especially without a witness, so I just said I was glad to know who had done it and walked away. I put up a No Trespassing sign and ever since have been trying to figure out what to do about the look of the area. The vegetation she cut off leaves me with very little privacy in my back yard, and the cuts to the trees are badly done. I've got to get some trees removed (the ones that she cut to stumps or are too badly damaged to survive), get the ones that will live re-cut correctly so they'll be healthy and look decent (they are really disfigured right now), and plant new stuff to give me my privacy back. It's a really oddly-shaped area with lots of obstacles to plant around, and I've started on the project with several landscape professionals who didn't follow through, so I'm still trying to figure out what to do and what it will cost, so I can confront her and say "here's what it will cost to fix what you did, and I expect you to reimburse me for it." If she refuses I'll take her to magistrate's court, although of course I won't say that to her (I know that could be taken as a threat or extortion). The thing is, it's now been four months, and yesterday she did it again. I want to send her a certified letter telling her to stay off my property, but I don't have enough information to address the damages or reimbursement issue. To top if off, there's a chance she actually thought she was being HELPFUL but hacking up my trees, which is beyond reason (wish you could see how ugly they are now) but might somehow make sense to her.