r/Treelaw Neighbor Cuts Down Tree, Pays $750,000!

welcome to our slash tree law where trees get revenge yes back by a very popular demand we have another tree law video for you today because tree law is the best now half of you are eagerly rubbing your hands together in anticipation because you know what's in store the other half of you are like tree law what's the big deal about tree law oh you sweet summer child you're about to find out why you should never ever mess with another man's trees our our first post is from dank Doritos a good friend of mine about four years ago inherited the house of his grandparents he decided to live there for the time being until he decided what to do with the house he grew up in it so he didn't really want to sell it not even a week after he moved in he got a visit from a neighborhood committee they said they are the three board members of the homeowners association of that community and are here so he can sign his membership papers they were extremely nosy and rude for example one tried to get into the garage without so much as asking when he stopped him and asked him where he wanted to go he had the audacity to say I need to check your garage if everything there is in order I have a right to do this by weekly and denying me access is an offense that will cost a fine he then had enough of their audacity and kicked them out of the house while doing so one of the board members chefs some papers in his face and told him he needed to sign this right now he had lived there a week already and the HOA claimed this had to be signed before he moved in once they were gone he took a look at the papers they were effing ridiculous and gave the HOA rights that were simply effing surreal they had for example a right to visit your home bi-weekly and check that you do not use the garage for storage don't have gasoline or containers in your garage same goes for gas you had to mow your lawn every week snow had to be shoveled three two hours when it snowed starting at five o'clock in the morning you could not park more than one car on your grounds except inside a garage and tons of other BS a few days later they came back and asked him why he did not sign the papers yet they also wanted to check the garage again this time he would not even let them in and told them he would never become a member of their stupid Club to them that meant war within a week they had sent him fines north of $1000 some of them were for denying him access to his home each worth 250 dollars my friends simply did not take them seriously and use their stupid letters to help fire his grill then came the day when they went extremely too far he came back and one of the board members had broken into his garage stood in it and was writing things down on his notepad but that wasn't even the worst part he had two wonderful oak trees in the front of the house they had been planted by his great-grandparents when they were newlyweds and had moved into the house the age away was in the process of taking them down oh they had called a professional crew for this one was already so damaged basically all the twigs were already down it was just a stump that was left the other one they had just started with he F being lost it he told the tree crew to stop right the F now and explain to them that he was the owner and what they did was highly illegal they had no idea since the board member claimed these trees were in violation of the rules since supposedly too many leaves went to the neighbor's garden he had told them that was no legal reason to take them down but the board member claimed I had given my okay because the trees were in violation of rules of the HOA he looked it up later they actually had a bylaw that if a garden produces more than 140 litre sack of leaves within two weeks the garden owner needs to take down the offending trees within two weeks he told them he would overlook them trespassing if they would be witnesses in court for him here comes the revenge part of the story he proceeded to call the cops and the board members for trespassing and damage to private property they actually had to use a bolt cutter to get into his garage he always had it close with a big bike lock after they tried to get in it twice before the trial must have been glorious not only did they have to repay him for the lock in the tree which was worth a ton of money north of 50k if I remember right Plus damages for the second tree he had a professional tree person look after it so all the damage healed properly which alone cost nearly $1000 but these idiots actually thought the trial would have been unfair and tried to fight it which probably cost them an additional ten to fifteen K in lawyers and court costs all in all this trial must have cost them over a hundred and twenty thousand dollars then he went to civil court and sued them for emotional damage he told them how much these trees meant to him since his great grandparents had planted them with seeds from the home country he really laid it on as thick as he could plus he felt threatened by the HOA and can hardly sleep because he always fears they'll try to get into his house the court unsurprisingly bought it and gave him five hundred thousand dollars plus the cost for a new state-of-the-art home security system so he could finally feel safe again in his own home so put all together he cost the HOA nearly seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars they had to file for bankruptcy and get a person to check the book so my friend would get his money the best is the latest and oh boy it is meanwhile in the process the meat Peter actually found out that these three pricks had been defrauding the H away for well over ten years and we're giving out as many fines as they possibly could so they could use it to bolster their income all three had to sell their houses so they could pay out my friend now he is one of the most appreciated neighbors in the area and he constantly gets invited over for grilling and whatnot you see most people never wanted the HOA in the first place but the board member practically forced him to sign the contract claiming it would not be optional and if they did not sign before moving in it would be a $500 fine only six of the over 50 members actually wanted this HOA and people think they did it to get part of the action as a reward for spying on their neighbors to find violations I like to think that I like to think that one of those grill outs was the neighbors gathering in front of those HOA members as they moved out can you imagine can you imagine 30 happy neighbors eating burgers grilling hot dogs and drinking beers laughing as those HOA members had to move out of their house that they had to sell to pay this dude more the moral of the story don't cut down another man's trees our next post is from throw away hi a friend told me to check this up out for legal advice I'm not sure whether this is worth getting a lawyer over but I am pretty pissed so I moved into my current house about two years ago it's a beautiful 3 acre property mostly flat except for about a dozen large trees bordering part of a road that runs alongside my property I'm not sure what type they are but they're pretty big I think they're Oaks I love them they provide some great shade in the summer during part of the day and are just pretty my neighbor doesn't like them he's not really my neighbor since his house is quite a bit down the road but he's the closest one to me when I first moved in he came over and introduced himself and asked if I planed to do anything about the trees I was confused and told him no he told me a little bit before I moved in one of the trees had a branch break off and fall into the road causing an obstruction that lasted a whole day according to him he said the previous owner didn't care and didn't cut down the trees but he the neighbor hoped that I would I told him I would talk to the previous owner and see about it I did that and though it was two years ago as I recalled the owner told me he went out and moved the branch the moment he saw it we talked a bit more and I decided not to cut down two trees like I said I liked them anyways that's all the back story that I think matters so I was away this past weekend weekend visiting family for our annual reunion I come back and honestly almost drove past my own house because I was so used to seeing the line of trees and they weren't there he cut down all my trees oh I immediately went and asked him and he said he had them removed due to being a hazard and that it was legal because the city signed off on it I was livid but just left and told him to stay off my property there aren't even stumps guys they are completely gone I asked my other neighbors one who lives down the road the opposite way and another across the way what happened and they said he had a company out there cutting them down all week one of them asked him about it and apparently he showed them some document from the city that gave him permission to remove the trees is that true can he just remove my trees should I call a lawyer about this should I call this city I don't even know where to start it's left the whole area of my property an ugly strip of dirt and loose earth I know the trees are definitely on my property the previous owner and real estate agent walked around with me and I remember them showing me the extent of the property and it's not like the trees are right up against the road the trunks were like 15 to 20 feet in from the road and were probably 15 feet apart I'm not sure but they stretched a pretty good amount along the road and some of the branches definitely hung over the road what should I do edit so I've been meticulously checking this for comments thank you so much to everyone who has offered advice I also called the previous owner who was rather surprised to hear from me and told him what happened he was also pissed he told me those trees had been there since before he bought the house twenty-something years ago and he also told me what kinds he says they were white oaks oh but I'm gonna go with what some people suggest it and hire an arborist to come out by the way I should have been more clear whoever removed the trees didn't take out all the stumps I meant like the classic two-foot stump wasn't there they were trimmed down to like a few inches barely noticeable and there is a lot of loose dirt like they tried digging or something I'm going to talk to the police tomorrow and see if I can talk to whoever is in charge of these matters with the city hopefully they can tell me if they gave permission to my neighbor or not thanks everyone quick update hi everyone this blew up overnight and I am so thankful for all the advice this was a busy morning but I think I'm on the right track some of your comments were shocking our trees really worth that much I know my neighbor is a little wealthy since he's told me about a summer house he has in Sun River is that okay that I mentioned the general area of his summer home but I don't know if he paid for this or what I went to the police first thing and asked to report trespassing and possible vandalism the officer took down my story and I even brought him some photos which he asked to keep he then told me handed this kind of pissed me off that unless I had proof of my neighbor cutting these trees down are giving authorization to cut them down it may turn into my word against my neighbors he suggested I just pursue this in court myself is he right I don't want to question a police officer but I want to be sure while at the police station I asked who I should talk to specifically with the city about permits and free removals and the officer told me to try the Public Works which matched what a user commented thank you I went home and called them the lady asked for my street address she could check it against her records and I did and she found nothing not a single thing she said there was nothing regarding my address or property in the last six weeks I noted that and thanked her then I called an arborist like many of you suggested and made an appointment for later this week she the arborist also asked that I have some photos of the trees when she comes which is fine since I have more finally I looked up companies that do landscaping or logging our tree removal covering all my bases since I really don't know who would handle tree removal anywhere other than a forest anyways after calling a few places I got one who confirmed that they did the job and told me they were following a city order that call was after I called the lady at the public works for my city and she told me there was no record of my address did my neighbor lie to this company they didn't ask me for more details and when I asked who showed them the order they said they couldn't tell me WTF is that true I'm going to look up some law offices in my general area and reach out about all of this does this fall under a specific type of law office should I hire a specific lawyer sorry I'm really out of my league here I'll let you all know what happens though thank you again for this great advice and support side note I went through the comments of this thread and a lot of users are theorizing that the neighbor probably created a fake legal document from the city and used it to lie to the tree company and all of the neighbors then later Opie posted an incredible updates hello legal advice community I have not forgotten about you who helped me set on the path to justice I'll get right to it I can't speak to all the details and I'm sorry about not continuing to update after everything got under way I figured it would be best not to to keep it short we my lawyer and I spoke to the police who then spoke to the neighbors down and across the street the ones who witnessed my trees getting cut down who stated they saw the neighbor and the company cutting down the trees and then finally they spoke to the neighbor I don't know much beyond that with the criminal investigation what happened with the whole city document or the company and why that is will be explained below I hauled his butt into court well first the arborist came as did the surveyor the trees were on my property and they were White Oaks the arborist gave me an estimate of having 15 mature White Oaks brought and replanted on my property which was just shy of six hundred and fifty thousand dollars though he did say some trees would die would die and that would drive the cost up I also had my property appraised for the difference before and after losing my trees it then became a question of whether I wanted to pursue my lost trees and see how much their lumber was worth or sue for the replacement costs and loss of property value basically do I want the trees back or do I want the cost of the ones I lost apparently you can't have both well guys I picked the trees the actual court stuff started a lot sooner than I thought we filed a few weeks passed and a few days before our day in court his lawyer reached out with a settlement offer apparently he was wealthier than I thought we accepted and while I can't speak to the details of it yet I'm getting the trees back it's going to take a long time apparently several months possibly all the way until September since this process didn't start until just as week due to the holidays but I will have all 12 trees back on my property at no cost to me my neighbor has also put his house up for sale and I haven't seen him for quite some time now oh well there's a bit more to the settlement but I don't feel comfortable speaking to that hopefully that's understandable I remember some of the comments about whether the trees were a hazard to the road based on how far they were from the road I ended up having to check with the county not the city and they send someone out to measure and mark the band my trees were at least 5 feet beyond it so outside the boundary not even close just thought I'd add that in I've got to say I think the opie in this story is a much better person than I am given that choice I would have easily picked the payout 650 K for the trees plus the difference in property value which I'm just gonna guess here was probably about 50 K I would happily take a check for $700,000 from my douchebag neighbor what about you guys would you pick the trees or would you pick $700,000 let me hear from you down in the comments that was our slash tree law and this is our slash puppy bloopers then came the day when they went extremely too far when they were newly you go when you go when they were newlyweds and him when they were not when they were talking what's wrong boots you will read about tree law you want to help me read about tree law when they were new room when they were newly was dog what do you want pooch you go you go boy you go boy [Music] when they were new mutts when they were newlyweds when they were new dog when they were newlyweds when they were doing when they were when they were when they were newlyweds when they were newly when they were all right go cuddle come on come on you go boy they actually had a by log you go I'm begging you man they actually had a bylaw that if you go please man please dog [Music]

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Views: 793,025

Rating: 4.9434009 out of 5

Keywords: reddit, r/, rslash, r\, sub, subreddit, best of reddit, reddit top posts, top posts, top posts of all times, funniest posts, funny, comedy, funniest reddit posts, funny reddit posts, funny reddit, fails, cringe, prorevenge, r/prorevenge, prorevenge posts, prorevenge funny, prorevenge fails, pro revenge, funny pro revenge, tree law, treelaw, r/treelaw, r/tree law, nuclearrevenge, r/nuclearrevenge

Id: N2yQV4mvmYg

Length: 20min 12sec (1212 seconds)

Published: Sun May 12 2019