This is just to distract us from the covid pain. I hope it falls into c.f. category?
Our neighbors split their property and after some shady dealings they built a home for their son. Surrounding neighbors (us included) objected as it was shoehorned into a wild, wooded area that buffered neighbors in rural area. It has inconvenienced all of us AND they claimed "hardship" in order to not put the home in a place that would have not crowded us.
Son is obnoxious, rude and has been unkind (dead rodents in our path, nothing I plant grows, purposely broken fence, pretty much constant harrasment until I finally brought law into it after he endangered our house/family. We suspect that he may have mental issues. He is married but seldom works. His wife is unfriendly, rude, and spends a lot of in skimpy swim suit on driveway by our fence?)
NOW, one of our trees in the woods has fallen from our property over our fence onto two of his trees. It did not hit the ground.
He asked my husband to pay for the tree removal Easter Saturday and dh agreed to call tree remover. Dh was actually VERY angry bc he felt that the placement of his house and his loud and obnoxious ways has disrupted our normally peaceful lives.
Neighbor put himself in the woods where trees normally fall as matter of course. He doesn't live in a neighborhood.
DH was professional and polite. Now the tree remover (decades of experience) said that it is VERY expensive (thousands) and would require a crane and as far as he is concerned it is not our responsibility. The tree has fallen onto his property, it just has not landed. If it had hit his shed or home, his insurance, not ours would take care of it.
We don't have any extra money. We are finally recovering from paycut and need it for our dc's education.
He has incredibly expensive things like boats and vehicles, even a time share helicopter! His home is not in danger. They do not have children to be endangered. He is worried abt losing his trees but he also broke rules and removed far more than he was allowed to remove (part of his unending noise.).
I suspected he was up to something as he was nice after 10 years of harassment. Now we know he was; it is his responsibility.
Should we offer to split the cost in an attempt to at last have peace? Do you think he would stop being so obnoxious? Would we be unreasonable to tell him that legally it is his problem? I feel guilty as it is our tree.
Is he a sneaky cf who should accept his legal obligation?