A woman has revealed the furious note she received from her neighbour regarding her tree’s branches hanging over his fence – and the lengths he went to have his own way when she didn’t respond.
The Wisconsin local took to Reddit on Thursday to say that she owns a healthy honey locust on her property, which has a branch that hangs over her neighbour’s yard.
Over the years, the neighbour has either trimmed the branch himself or sent a note asking for her to trim it, which she had done to the best of her ability.
However, three weeks ago he sent a letter requesting that she cut the branches of the tree, which she didn’t respond to.
This week, the woman was shocked when a contractor pulled into her driveway and the neighbour began to speak “VERY loudly” to him so that she would overhear their conversation.
“Yeah I don’t even know who owns that f***ing house,” he allegedly said, adding: “I’ve asked them dozens of f***ing times over the years to cut the f***ing tree. But they don’t want to do s*** and now I’m the one that has to f***ing deal with it.”
The moment left the woman flabbergasted, especially as it had only been two weeks since she received the note and they had been amicable over the years about the branches over the fence.
After the incident, the woman received a heavily worded letter in her mailbox from the neighbour.
“As a homeowner and neighbour, I hope you take the right action and responsibility to pay for YOUR own tree on your property to get trimmed,” they began, adding: “That is part of being a homeowner, taking care of that stuff.
“I asked you nicely a couple [of] times and you have not taken any action. I now have to pay $500 out of my own pocket to maintenance your tree that is hanging over my property and halfway over my house.
“Please be a responsible homeowner and do the right thing, would be pretty c****y of you not to!!!!!”
They signed off the letter, writing: “I should not be liable to pay for your property maintenance.”
The woman voiced her frustration in the Reddit post, revealing that she works full-time and has children to take to school and after-school activities during the week.
She added: “Not only is it just a busy time for us – this is a BIG cost for me. It’s something I need to plan and budget for. I can’t just pay a couple [of] hundred dollars the day he wants it done.”
The woman also noted that “pruning method matters”, adding: “How his people trimmed it caused epicormic regrowth – which is what you get when a tree is cut back too hard or not pruned to proper growth points.”
She finished off the post by revealing that she was over her neighbour using her “mailbox as his personal message board” instead of just talking to her in person.
“I would’ve been willing to split the cost…if he acted [reasonably]. But he’s trying to guilt trip me [because] I’m not moving fast enough to HIS liking.”
She quipped: “Heck, maybe I’ll wait for him to have it trimmed and then have it completely removed.”
Social media users flooded the comments, with many pointing out that whatever is on the neighbour’s side of the fence is “his problem”.
“S*** on his side is his legal responsibility. THAT SAID, you might not want his hack and slash ass to be hack and slashing your trees,” one person wrote.
Another person pointed out: “His ignorance of the law doesn’t make it your responsibility. Any contractor that does work on it does need to obtain your permission to enter into your property.”
“Tree branch over his property is his problem. Tree falls on his property it’s his problem. You just need to tell him, ‘it’s not my problem’.”