Thursday, June 22, 2006

Have mercy on me . . .

Massive storms haved rolled into our area with more thunder and vicious lightning. We have a tree in front of our house that has been loosing large limbs for the past couple of years since being hit by lightning. One limb demolished the back of our van last summer.

I just talked to Robert. He said the tree is waving like you wouldn't believe. I have had the Parks & Rec Department come out and look at it several times. They refuse to cut it down because it is a historical tree, and they say it is sound. Historical my butt, it's half dead and dangerous, and by the way how can a tree be historical anyway? I constantly clean debris from this dying tree of my lawn as large as me. (and that's big LOL) I even went so far as to send a certified letter to the Mayor about it saying that I have warned them on numerous occasions and if it falls on my house or property I am holding the city responsible (how's that for spunk AWB? *wink) Much talking . . . to no avail the tree still stands for now. Let's hope I can say that tomorrow.

However, my neighbors across the street weren't so lucky. Another tree fell on their house and demolished the roof and porch. Thankfully everyone was okay. My grandma always made sure that I enjoyed storms and was not fearful. She used to take us kids out on the porch during storms to watch. If this keeps happening I may rethink my philosophy on that! And by the way, another tree fell a block away and knocked out our POWER. This is beginning to not be funny.

2 comments:

Dan Turkette said...

I can't help but wonder if you don't have the right to cut anyhthing off the hangs over your property. When a neighbor's tree extends over your property line, that tree is violating your airspace rights.

From here:
http://www.uslaw.com/library/article/TNPPropertyCol0725.html


Thus, in the great majority of states in this country, if your neighbor's tree roots are coming onto your property, or if the neighbor's tree limbs are hanging over on your side, you have the absolute right to cut down the tree limbs or remove the roots--but only to the property line.

Under this rule, even if your property is destroyed, you do not have a case against your neighbor unless one of these things is present:


You can prove that your neighbor was malicious and permitted a willful destruction of your property, or

You can demonstrate that the tree will die if the roots are cut on your side of the property. In this case, there is a possibility that the tree may fall, causing further injury to person and property.

Sheri said...

Actually the tree is on the easement (sp?) and it "belongs" to the city.