We used to have good relations with our next-door neighbors. Typical neighborly greetings, pick up each other’s mail while out of town, discuss the weather, etc. Then, yesterday,he announces that his backyard grass isn’t getting enough sun because of one of our trees (and one of another neighbor’s trees as well), also he’s going to build a sunroom, but “what’s the point if his backyard has so much shade”. His solution? He’d “like it” if we cut down our tree and he’s going to ask the other neighbor to cut down his as well. Mrs. Furious_Marmot tells him we are not going to cut it down, but we’ll think about having a tree doctor trim it.
Leaving aside the obvious questions: Who doesn’t like shade? Who the Hell does he think he is?
Also leaving aside the obvious arguments regarding the rationality of these demands: People buy houses in this neighborhood because of the trees. Removing the tree will almost certainly lower the other neighbor’s property value (its a 30’ oak). My tree only shades his yard in before noon. All of the trees in question lie completely outside of his property.
He is out of his freaking mind. Guess it can’t hurt to ask though. I would be too flabbergasted to respond if a neighbor asked me to cut a tree on my property that was not physically encroaching his.
We used to have good relations with our next-door neighbors. Typical neighborly greetings, pick up each other’s mail while out of town, discuss the weather, etc. Then, yesterday,he announces that his backyard grass isn’t getting enough sun because of one of our trees (and one of another neighbor’s trees as well), also he’s going to build a sunroom, but “what’s the point if his backyard has so much shade”. His solution? He’d “like it” if we cut down our tree and he’s going to ask the other neighbor to cut down his as well. Mrs. Furious_Marmot tells him we are not going to cut it down, but we’ll think about having a tree doctor trim it.
Besides the obvious questions: Who doesn’t like shade? Who the Hell does he think he is?
And the obvious arguments regarding the rationality of these demands: People buy houses in this neighborhood because of the trees. Removing the tree will almost certainly lower the other neighbor’s property value (its a 30’ oak). My tree only shades his yard in before noon. All of the trees in question lie completely outside of his property.
What is he up to? He’s a lot older than us (old enough to be my grandfather) and has lived here for 20+ years, whereas we just moved in. Also, he has higher social standing, being an Ivy League lawyer, while we are merely grubby scientists. Is he trying to see how far he can manipulate us, like, if we say no, then nothing more is ever said about it and if we say yes, he knows he can walk all over us? Will refusing to cut down the tree lead to some kind of retribution? We don’t want to do anything to the tree, as we’ve been waiting for it grow so it will shade our yard in the afternoon. If I already had a nasty history with this guy I’d tell him to bite my shiny metal ass, but as it is, I’m stumped.
His request sounds unreasonable, but I think foliage is responsible for a lot of neighborly tension. We have an awesome stand of bamboo that sits precisely on our property line. Fortunately our property manager deals with it, but it seems to me that over the years that darned bamboo has been the source of more than one disagreement with the folks next door.
I think my response would be a “you gotta be kidding me” laugh and look, followed by walking away. If he pressed the issue, I’d give him a firm NO and warn him that if he messed with my tree, I’d have him charged with trespassing and property damage, then I’d sue him.
At my old house, directly across the alley, a guy was renting a one bedroom house. In the back yard was a huge monster oak tree, probably four feet across at the base. Fucker wanted to cut it down and asked me for help. HE WAS A RENTER!!! I told him that if he did cut it down, he’d have the entire neighborhood on his ass regardless of what the actual property owner decided to do about it. He changed his mind.
Well, let me go out on a limb here. I wood suggest that you tell him to leaf your tree alone.
You’ve already told him no, so I’d consider the issue closed unless he chooses to reopen it. As for his motivation, I’d guess he’s just a jerk who thinks his yard is too shady.
I’d talk to the other neighbor, and see if either of you can get a good idea of what he wants.
Maybe some selective trimming might make him happy, a branch or two. Treat him seriously, see if you can figure out exactly where the sun is ‘blocked’ by the trees. Do a sketch or two, and then come to a decision that ‘well, to give you this much sun, we’d have to cut about 20 feet off the top of the tree, and we really can’t do that’.
Just because he’d “like it” if you cut down your tree doesn’t mean you have to cut it down. It’s your tree, if it’s healthy and not likely to blow down in a storm, do what you want with it. But you are under no obligations to landscape YOUR yard to suit HIS desires.
Trim it if you want to. If you don’t, then don’t. He can’t force you to do anything.
Wouldn’t you just love to see inside people’s heads sometimes? I’m guessing his thought processes went something like this;
“I want a sunroom. It’s too shady for a sunroom because of those trees. Those trees aren’t mine; I’ll have to ask the neighbours to cut them down for me.”
and didn’t go any further than that, into how inappropriate and unreasonable his request was, and how people just don’t ask for stuff like that.
Ask for money.
A lot.
Enough so it would be OK by you.
Ask in writing.
If he turns you down, say “Too bad, but I made you an offer”.
If he does something snotty, like cutting the tree without your permision (possible), then you have the written offer as proof that you tried to compromise.
Maybe he’s developing Alzheimer’s disease. Ask his wife.
I’m sorry, but I don’t see how the request as detailed in the OP is unreasonable. He asked, you said no and given reasons. End of story. He may simply not have the same attachment to these trees that you do.
This reminds me of the city water works. They put up a telemetry antenna on a sewer lift point. They could have put it ten to fifteen feet over, and had a clear path. No they killed off around twenty pine trees that were about forty five years old, with defoliant. They cut down a few, and left a corpse of dead pines, so their antenna didn’t have to be moved. :mad:
Your neighbor is a pompous jerk. Or, as picunurse suggested, possibly starting some kind of dementia.
I didn’t mean for it to sound like I think the sequence of request-response-full stop is unreasonable. Far from it, I think that is the best way for this sort of thing to be handled by reasonable, civilized people. What I find unreasonable is the content of the request: I don’t understand why he thinks 2 of his neighbors would spend their own money on semi-permanent, detrimental changes to their property in order to improve his own. An imperfect analogy would be me asking him to paint one side of his house black because I dislike the way it currently reflects through my windows in the afternoon. My inability to comprehend this thought process is the main reason I started the thread. You point out that he may prefer grass to trees, which is something I had not considered. From that perspective, I could imagine that he would view his request as no more consequential than asking for a hand with moving a sofa. Thanks. At any rate, it’s less stressful than thinking he’s suddenly become a jackass or that he’s suffering from the onset of dementia.
Maybe he doesn’t think this, but he wants to know. I agree with Quartz, there’s nothing wrong with asking – for all he knows maybe there’s some reason you don’t like your tree. Some years ago a neighbor of mine took a tree out to provide a bigger play area for the neighbor kids – IIRC they wanted to play soccer and it was in the way. Of course it was also isolated in a rather big lot, and it’s shade did no one any good unless you went over to it and had a picnic.
We had a next-door neighbor who, when she moved in, promptly cut down every single tree on her property, and the two houses down the street her brother owned. The entire south half of our block was denuded of trees. Our electric bill took an immediate jump since this was south Louisiana. She was always nagging the sweet old lady across the street to cut down her huge pine trees, but Miss Mary just scoffed at her.
And why did she cut down all the trees? They were “trash trees.” I guess that means they’re living things that shed leaves and such on her lawn. But to my joy? Miss Mary’s trees survived Katrina unscathed. 
I suspect your neighbor just doesn’t care about trees the way you and I (and Miss Mary) do.
I’m from the “it never hurts to ask” camp.
I don’t think his question was out of line or unreasonable. How does he know you like the shade or trees or whatnot? Maybe you are just keeping that tree because it’s easier than cutting it down. On the other hand he certainly could have phrased the request better - sounded more like an order to his secretary than a request to a neighbor.
Now, if you say “no” and he keeps asking or creates a fuss then he’s a complete ass.
ETA: BTW, not that you asked, but I am totally pro tree. Don’t cut it.
This seems odd. Most city water departments can’t afford to spend extra money. Why would they want to spend money on defoliant/cutting down the few trees if they could have installed the antenna elsewhere? There may be some restriction on the antenna & telemetry system which mandates that it be installed within x inches of the pump station (for example).
BTW great morphing of “copse” and “corpse”. 
Furious, some communities now have Tree Preservation ordinances. Our city has adopted one which states that any landowner cutting down a tree over a certain caliper (I think it’s 4") must replace that tree with a number of new trees - there’s some formula about the caliper of the new trees, and the number. If your community has this type ordiance, your neighbor might not be aware of it. You may be able to tell him it’s against the law to cut your tree down.