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We are asking what we should do in regard to the property owner, not how to take the tree down. She doesn't strike us as easy to deal with...
Since you don't own the property, it's not your responsibility, nor is it your decision to make. You might be in a court room if you do. If someone started taking my trees down (dead or not) I wouldn't hesitate to sue for thousands of dollars including planting a new one.
The only "RIGHT" and legal way to go about this is to talk to the owner. If they cant be reached or talked to, its time to move to another location then.
If landscaping and pruning isn't part of the lease, I'd be careful who you call to get estimates and what you touch on that tree. Since you already touched the tree you're doing something illegal. If it damages the house you will be responsible to fix it. If the tree damages the house by nature, its not your responsibility to fix. As long as you let the owner know that its possible it could fall then you covered yourself.
Sounds like you need to find another place though.
Since you don't own the property, it's not your responsibility, nor is it your decision to make. You might be in a court room if you do. If someone started taking my trees down (dead or not) I wouldn't hesitate to sue for thousands of dollars including planting a new one.
The only "RIGHT" and legal way to go about this is to talk to the owner. If they cant be reached or talked to, its time to move to another location then.
If landscaping and pruning isn't part of the lease, I'd be careful who you call to get estimates and what you touch on that tree. Since you already touched the tree you're doing something illegal. If it damages the house you will be responsible to fix it. If the tree damages the house by nature, its not your responsibility to fix. As long as you let the owner know that its possible it could fall then you covered yourself.
Sounds like you need to find another place though.
Go back and reread the OP post. The tree (is) on his property. What he is looking for is to get permission to use the neighbor's property to take it down safely.
Get the friendly tenants to report the tree to their landlord as a problem. They can then get permission for you to do what is necessary to remove the tree at "no cost" to the landlord.
Work through the friendly tenants if possible. They swing more weight than you do.
The tree is on their property. They own the tree. In order to take it down, they need access from the neighboring property.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LIcenter
Go back and reread the OP post. The tree (is) on his property. What he is looking for is to get permission to use the neighbor's property to take it down safely.
Ugh, Needed more coffee I guess. Sorry
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rothwells mum
We are asking what we should do in regard to the property owner, not how to take the tree down. She doesn't strike us as easy to deal with...
If she isn't willing to cooperate or doesn't want to talk to you just go to City Hall and tell them what your willing to do.
I say Just mail the owner a letter to say "let this letter serve as a heads up we'll be on your property to have access to removing our tree and will clean and make sure there is no debris or damage to the lawn". Send it certified mail so you have proof they received the letter.
In some parts of the country, yes- mine included. Ash Trees can be huge(!) That would be lower than an average bid where I live. OTOH, you might be able to find someone to do it for less who is equally qualified.
Once I polled some of my former neighbors, I found someone reliable for less.
FWIW, my new neighbors just had a massive weeping willow tree removed. Really sad since it was an amazing tree. 4K was the low bid ;(.
To do it legally, you need permission or a court order. If you get permission, you should get it in writing and include a provision allowing you to repair any resulting damage to their property. (Unless you already have an easement in their deed, which would be pretty unlikely.)
To do it illegally, you need a boom truck.
Either way, if you damage the property (i.e. leave ruts, wood or sawdust) you will likely end up paying for it. It is usually much cheaper for you to just repair any damage than to have them do it.
If you hire a third party, you can more or less make it their problem, at least initially.
One of our neighbors hired a tree crew to take down a tree of that size. It was about 4' in diameter. Not sure how wide your ash tree is. They charged $15,000 to remove the tree. There is a reason they charge that much. The tree guys are not getting rich. It takes a lot of labor to take down a big tree safely and dispose of the remains, or at least cut it into manageable sized pieces.
We had to clear a ton of dead ash trees from our property before we moved our house there. I had them cut the trees into 4' lengths intending to cut them to firewood size over time myself. It took me about 5 years to get through that pile and now I have a huge pile of cut to size logs witting to be split (I split about a dozen cords already, but I think it is less than half).
I do not know how much I saved doing some of it myself, but not sure it was all that much. I am a lot slower than the professionals because I do not have any giant commercial grade chain saws (mine needs constant adjusting, sharpening, refilling, etc) I am not five people (only one) and my job and back limit how long I can play with cutting up moving and/or splitting logs at any given time (about two to four hours a day each day of the weekend, If I do not have other commitments).
so while you will likely take less than 5 years, my point it this is a surprising amount of work if you DIY and it may take a long time if you also have a day job.
Oh and Ash is really hard, especially if it is dead. Be sure you have a commercial style chain on your saw and ideally three chains and someone to sharpen ones not in use while you are cutting. I recently helped my dad cut up a sizable ash that fell over in his yard. We are not entirely done, probably 95%, but using two chain saws, we had to change/sharpen the chains 9 times. The best day of cutting, we had spare chains and had one person just sharpening them while the other two were cutting.
In some parts of the country, yes- mine included. Ash Trees can be huge(!) That would be lower than an average bid where I live. OTOH, you might be able to find someone to do it for less who is equally qualified.
Once I polled some of my former neighbors, I found someone reliable for less.
FWIW, my new neighbors just had a massive weeping willow tree removed. Really sad since it was an amazing tree. 4K was the low bid ;(.
My neighbors down the street had to pay 3,000 to remove a 60 year old tree with a 3 ft trunk that was uprooted and hanging sideways toward their neighbors house from a storm in February. When they called their insurance company they said to just let it fall on the neighbors house and their insurance would have to pay for it. We were like wow that is a seriously unethical person at that insurance company. The tree could have fallen right on the kitchen and killed someone.
We aren't thrilled that we have to take out the Ash tree as we are tree huggers not haters. However, having dead and dying heavy branches 50-60 ft in the air that could easily put a hole in our roof or fall on someone is a different story.
We live in a neighborhood where most of the trees are quite large and were probably planted in the 50's. This tree is at the edge of our property inside our side of the fence but the canopy straddles both yards.
Mine was rotten and cut like paper. I had it down and cut up in less than 10 minutes.
The pieces we have cut so far have teetered between two extremes- easy to cut through and wow that was rock hard and very heavy. We were able to cut down a gigantic branch that was over our roof last fall and it was a lot of work. It provided our fire wood for the whole winter.
To do it legally, you need permission or a court order. If you get permission, you should get it in writing and include a provision allowing you to repair any resulting damage to their property. (Unless you already have an easement in their deed, which would be pretty unlikely.)
To do it illegally, you need a boom truck.
Either way, if you damage the property (i.e. leave ruts, wood or sawdust) you will likely end up paying for it. It is usually much cheaper for you to just repair any damage than to have them do it.
If you hire a third party, you can more or less make it their problem, at least initially.
One of our neighbors hired a tree crew to take down a tree of that size. It was about 4' in diameter. Not sure how wide your ash tree is. They charged $15,000 to remove the tree. There is a reason they charge that much. The tree guys are not getting rich. It takes a lot of labor to take down a big tree safely and dispose of the remains, or at least cut it into manageable sized pieces.
We had to clear a ton of dead ash trees from our property before we moved our house there. I had them cut the trees into 4' lengths intending to cut them to firewood size over time myself. It took me about 5 years to get through that pile and now I have a huge pile of cut to size logs witting to be split (I split about a dozen cords already, but I think it is less than half).
I do not know how much I saved doing some of it myself, but not sure it was all that much. I am a lot slower than the professionals because I do not have any giant commercial grade chain saws (mine needs constant adjusting, sharpening, refilling, etc) I am not five people (only one) and my job and back limit how long I can play with cutting up moving and/or splitting logs at any given time (about two to four hours a day each day of the weekend, If I do not have other commitments).
so while you will likely take less than 5 years, my point it this is a surprising amount of work if you DIY and it may take a long time if you also have a day job.
Oh and Ash is really hard, especially if it is dead. Be sure you have a commercial style chain on your saw and ideally three chains and someone to sharpen ones not in use while you are cutting. I recently helped my dad cut up a sizable ash that fell over in his yard. We are not entirely done, probably 95%, but using two chain saws, we had to change/sharpen the chains 9 times. The best day of cutting, we had spare chains and had one person just sharpening them while the other two were cutting.
My husband has boom insurance and knows what he's doing so that isn't the issue. It may take us 5 years to cut the entire tree down but that's ok. We just really need to address the canopy that is half dead 50 ft up. The trunk is probably about 2 ft wide. The quote we got from the tree guys was just to take it down to 15 ft and not for any of the clean up. We can use the wood as firewood as that is the best way to be rid of it to prevent spreading the EAB.
We have all of the signs of EAB- D shaped holes, serpentine trails underneath the bark, half dead canopy, Woodpeckers all summer long (at least now I know why they liked that particular tree so much).
We are in the process of getting permission from the neighbor so we just have to wait for a response. If she says no I guess the next step is city hall? I hate to go that route as we like to be on good terms with neighbors but I don't really see what else we could do if she doesn't get it.
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