Count me in the “never hurts to ask” group. Others have stated the reasons well so I won’t go over them again.
Asked. Answered. Case closed.
Maybe.
If your tree mysteriously dies in the next few months or even next year I would certainly have a specialist look into the why of it. There are many ways of killing off unwanted trees.
Please don’t be mad at people who have to cut down all the trees in their yards, tho. Please, please!
Some trees are just really old, and have never been properly cared for, and they get too big, and they have a lot of fruit. I mean a lot. More fruit than humanly possible to pick before it falls to the ground. Because the trees are just so darn tall. And so it falls to the ground and rots. And rotting pears stink. Especially the pears from 4 huge pear trees and the apples from 4 huge apple trees. And you know what eats rotting pears? Bees. Bees and hornets and my dog. Sometimes my dog eats the bees. And then I have a dog with bees shooting out of its mouth. It’s just not pretty. So I had no choice. NO CHOICE but to cut the trees down.
I just want to let you all know that I am very sorry. VERY sorry. And I feel sorry every day. I mean it. 
(ps I am overjoyed that my neighbor has a 40-foot maple in her yard that gives me near full shade after 5 pm. Because I have no trees. No trees in my yard. Well, one tree. But it is very sad and I had to remove its broken limb today because it fell off. It was not my fault. It fell off. It is sad.)
ZipperJJ, I think you had all of us on your side until you admitted that cutting the trees down means one less dog running around with bees shooting out of its mouth. The world needs MORE dogs with MORE bees shooting out of their mouths.
You know, every once in awhile, a sentence comes along that makes me fall in love with this place all over again.
Well, if it’s any consolation she got bit in the butt the other day by some sort of bee thing. She had no reaction to the bite during or afterwards even tho the scary flying thing drew blood.
I have come to the conclusion that since she is not having any sort of allergic reaction, she is either undergoing some sort of hornet mutation (perhaps turning in to a Bee-Dog Overlord) or quite possibly is ALREADY a Bee-Dog Overlord.
Yet another reason why the trees had to go - they might have facilitated my dog turning in to a mutant bee.
(sorry for the hijack Furious_Marmot…I just feel really guilty about my tree situation!)
When we moved into our home, it was lovely, with nice shade trees on both adjoining properties. Not for long.
It seems the next-door neighbor’s husband had been trimming one of their trees the previous week, and had fallen out of the tree; he suffered a broken back, and died shortly after. So the neighbor had every single tree on her property cut down, within a matter of days.
I still feel bad about it, but I termed it the “de-forestation project,” and my husband said that she was all, “I’ll get you, tree, and your little friends too!” She’s still quite bitter about trees, and has advised me to have ours cut down. I never met the man, and I’m sorry he died, but her response was so surreal that it made me giggle a little.
And we’re leaving our trees up. If my husband falls out of a tree and dies, I’m still not chopping down every other tree on the property for revenge.
NinetyWt this city does stupid stuff all the time. This spring they were going to pass an ordinance to cut down every ash tree in the city, because when the Emerald Ash Bore is found, many of the trees will be killed. It got put on the back burner after a couple weeks. They don’t want the town treeless, but that’s what cutting down every healthy ash tree in the city would do. Let’s not be sensible and just stop planting ash trees, and cut them if it shows up.
Maybe you haven’t met many lawyers. Black and white thinkers. Absolutely nothing inbetween.
Natch. It would never occur to him not to ask.
Ah. My condolences.
Our city seems to be attempting to achive the Municipality With the Most Imbecelic Ordianaces Evar[sup]TM[/sup] designation. Last year brought not only the aforementioned Tree Preservation Ordinance but also a wacky law which demands that, if you enclose your garage to make more living space, you MUST build another garage of equal size on your property.
And absolutely no open carport either !! :rolleyes:
Oh, yeah? Well, I have a robotic Richard Simmons!
(As for the topic, I’m not quite sure that asking once and accepting the “no” - which as far as I can tell is all the neighbor did - constitutes a “demand.”)
Heaven forbid you are the only house that doesn’t fit in to the neighborhood.
In a city I used to live in an 80-yo guy was arrested for climbing up into a neighbor’s tree and cutting limbs off it because they blocked his view from his upstairs windows into her windows. I **it you not.
Tell him to fuck off.
Originally posted by Mama Tiger:
Here on Hawaii, we use the term “trash trees” with a very specific meaning: they are invasive species that cause problems, even if they are attractive to look at. For example, one kind of “trash tree” here is called the “gunpowder tree” because when it falls over – which it often does in storms, because it is very fast-growing and therefore spindly and weak – it makes a sound like a gun going off. These trees are actually rather pretty; I hate it when they come to our house to get rid of them. But, if they don’t get taken out, they’ll just rob nutrients from indigenous plants, get real big, and fall over.
I doubt this is what your neighbor meant, but that’s one definition of “trash tree.”
Oh, I believe you that there are genuine trash trees. We actually had one small one that we cut down – some previous owner had planted and nurtured a crepe myrtle into a tree shape overhanging the driveway, so they dropped shit on the cars year-round. That one we took down and replaced with shrubbery. But the trees the neighbors took down were mostly tall, lovely, healthy pines, not invasive, not included in anyone’s definition of trash except hers.
We started calling her the Treekiller.
I think that just to be on the safe side, I would take dated photographs of those trees just to document their size at the time that he happened to ask you about cutting them down. It could be that he is just a very straightforward guy and will accept your answer. But just in case…
Bloody hell, I wouldn’t want you miserable lot as my neighbours!
What’s wrong with asking if a neighbour would consider cutting down or trimming a tree? Trees grow, so shade that was OK 10 yrs ago might be a problem now.
My parents were (politely) asked to trim our fast-growing pines back as they’d got to the point where they totally overshadowed the neighbours behind us. My dad decided it was easier to chop the lot of 'em down - they’re only trees, but we have to live with our neighbours!
Context is everything, but if you don’t ask you never get.
Document this conversation and photograph your tree from many angles. Today!
He’s a lawyer right?
If you decide to have it trimmed, which would be very neighbourly of you, photograph that as well, keep the bill, document the day.
Then, rest easy. You have done all you could. If anything untoward happens to the tree you have a little evidence on your side. Should things escalate, again you have documention on your side.
In the interim, I would be very warm and approachable with him. He asked you politely. You responded in kind. Your relations should remain friendly. It can only help regardless of how this situation developes.
Good luck to you and keep us posted!
(disclaimer: Indiana law w/o specific cite. I live in NC now. YMMV)
Legally, if the tree overhangs the property line, he can trim the overhanging limbs to the property line without your permission. Any further, and he’s in trouble. If the tree is totally on your property without overhang, he’s SOL. You are not obligated to trim or remove your tree to suit him.
That said…
There’s unrest in the forest,
there’s trouble in the trees…
You said you’re relatively new to your house. Maybe the lawyer neighbor had a bad relationship with the previous occupant who stalwartly refused to trim/cut down the tree. Maybe he figures since your house has a new owner he can get you to do something with the tree. Although this doesn’t explain his making the same request to the other neighbor.
Five years ago the house we just bought was on the market. The absentee owner’s realtor hired some guy to cut down all the trees around the house. ALL the trees.
My new neighbors still get visibly upset when they relate how they had to run out and stop the guy. According to them he wasn’t even an arborist of any type - just some guy with a chainsaw and a mission.
The thing is, some of the “beautiful” trees he cut down were planted less than 12" from the foundation of the house and are largely responsible for the total destruction of the gutters on several sides of the house. And I wish he had managed to finish off the two spruce trees in the back before they stopped him. They’ve been hacked within an inch of their lives and left to just stick out sadly.
I’m all for trees, but good, well situated *proper * trees. Ones that threaten my house deserve to be dispatched. (as do the dolts that planted 30’ trees within arm’s reach of a wood sided house)