My neighbor cut down two of my tall pine trees. (Seattle: insurance, attorney)

[emme99]

About four weeks ago my neighbor was taking out his dead Scotch Pine trees out along his back fence line. We are rural, so there is a pasture all along the back. He had gotten some of his buddies to help and they came and cut down two of our healthy Austrian Pines which were mature trees. They had some hail damage from a storm earlier this summer, but were healthy and green. They immediately took them onto my neighbor's property but I grabbed a couple branches just in case. Well, after going back and forth and getting the value of the trees and what it cost to replace our grass the skidloader they used to take out our trees, my neighbor who has said that he takes full responsibility, does not want to pay and is now saying they had pine wilt which is common for his Scotch Pines. We took our branches in to a horticulturist and he deemed them healthy. Our neighbor still won't pay the 1100.00 value for each tree and just wants to pay for a 6ft. replacement w/out install. We gave him time, so now will be taking him to small claims court. This is trespassing and we are tired of this, not to mention our two beautiful 25ft. pines are gone, root and all. We have two gaping wholes in our now dirt, no grass. We are considering consulting an attorney before we go to court just to make sure we have everything we need.

[RVD90277]

sounds like you probably have a good case if you can prove that the pines were in your property line. even if they were damaged or sick, he can't go around cutting down trees in your yard....sick or healthy is irrelevant.

the cost of replacement is the cost to replace the trees the way that they were so 25 ft trees, not 6 foot trees.

[mkarch]

You need to move out of the city so people won't encroach on your land. (as is the common city data response).

[emme99]

Thanks, we are rural and have been quite good friends for a long time. It is just very weird that he came onto our property a good ten feet and took our trees. I think he has lost his mind because he called saying lets just work this out and talk about it, but we were met by the sheriff when we went out to where the trees were. We were not so forgiving after that since we were going to just be kind about the whole thing. We are going to sue for the full amount for small claims court in our state which is 3500.00 since the dirt work and sod is quite a bit by itself. Trees are 1100.00 each so we will probably hit that top number. Just hate to sue a neighbor, but we have done everything we can do. I can't believe he thought ours were scotch pines like his dead ones. We have lots of pictures, video, emails of his different stories. I hope it will be a short court visit. He emailed us and said he had filed an insurance claim about this which we do not understand how his insurance is responsible for any of it.

[StealthRabbit]

My neighbor cut down two of my tall pine trees. Oops... with his trees gone... your's might have been blocking his view ??

we have done everything we can do. ....he called saying lets just work this out and talk about it,...He emailed us and said he had filed an insurance claim about this.

Sounds SO much ezr to 'work it out (since you WERE friends and neither of you is going to be moving soon...)

I have had SO MANY city folks move to the country and be weird / unreasonable / likely to file suit rather than talk / resolve an issue. They make it hard to be a neighbor.
Granted; you claim to have damages and if the trees were on your property let him work it out! I can't imagine a dinky 25' tree being worth $1100, but if my neighbor's were all in a tizzy over such a thing... I would prefer to resolve and give them $2500 and plant 2 stink'n 'memorial trees' for them. I would come in and grade / re-seed / take out any extra stumps and brush... (i,e, OVER KILL repair)..

BTW... I took out 3 of my Neighbor's 300' tall trees they wanted down, and took down 3 of my 300' tall trees to improve their view... They are such Whiners, and will not take the top out of a sickly scroungy Maple that is now grown & blocking my prime view (they have several hundred trees). I have done 10's of thousand $$ in free machine work for them over 20 + yrs (took out over 200 stumps and regraded and reseeded for FREE during 4 weeks last yr)...

They will be grumps / whiners when I am long gone... but... hey... they are city folks in the country. They are aliens and are clueless about being a good neighbor. And yes... I will be out freezing my tail and blading snow for them this winter (for free). At least my 'Country cognizant' neighbors give me food and fuel for blading their snow. City folks (in the country) just sit indoors and hide behind their curtains to see that my dozer does not stray 3" off their driveway, or get a speck of gravel on their grass. It is a pain,,, but we are neighbors, and I have FORTUNATELY never had to live in town and never had a fence for my privacy NOR to pen my dog.

Time to 'Buck-up" and be a neighbor, not an adversary, You might be stuck a REAL long time, and he just might need to open a PIG FARM upwind of your patio.

[GoBlueInSeattle]

Originally Posted by emme99

We are considering consulting an attorney before we go to court just to make sure we have everything we need.

Assuming you can establish the trees were located on your side of the property line, Washington State's Timber Trespass Statute provides for up to treble damages when someone trespasses on your property and cuts down your trees.

Washington Property Lawyer: Timber Trespass

While you would be able to recover damages, you may find it difficult in practice to recover cost of your attorney's fees though.

[RVD90277]

for small claims court, you typically don't need an attorney so costs would be simple attorney consultation if the OP decides to do that...a few hundred bucks.

[emme99]

I am in the midwest where our pines don't grow too tall. They were a well needed windbreak along the North side of our property. It was well onto our property, we just can't figure out why since our neighbor has apparently lost his mind. He thought we had Scotch Pines which was not the case, and said he was doing us a favor since all of his have died while leaving two of his dead ones standing. Ours were healthy and since we have had three major hail storms in twelve years we are trying to keep all the trees we can, some other varieties of trees have just died. We don't have Scotch Pines which we had already told him and we also told him to please stay off of our property while he was taking out his own dead trees along the back of his property. I think just getting a legal consultation on the matter is well worth a couple hundred dollars. We aren't in it for the money, he has done more damage than just taking the trees. Our yard has to be graded and sodded, and next year we will plant the biggest trees we can get, which around here is a 6-8ft tree with a year warranty. We will be getting snow soon, so can't plant trees this late and get a warranty around here. Thank you for the input.

[Inkpoe]

Originally Posted by emme99

I am in the midwest where our pines don't grow too tall. They were a well needed windbreak along the North side of our property. It was well onto our property, we just can't figure out why since our neighbor has apparently lost his mind. He thought we had Scotch Pines which was not the case, and said he was doing us a favor since all of his have died while leaving two of his dead ones standing. Ours were healthy and since we have had three major hail storms in twelve years we are trying to keep all the trees we can, some other varieties of trees have just died. We don't have Scotch Pines which we had already told him and we also told him to please stay off of our property while he was taking out his own dead trees along the back of his property. I think just getting a legal consultation on the matter is well worth a couple hundred dollars. We aren't in it for the money, he has done more damage than just taking the trees. Our yard has to be graded and sodded, and next year we will plant the biggest trees we can get, which around here is a 6-8ft tree with a year warranty. We will be getting snow soon, so can't plant trees this late and get a warranty around here. Thank you for the input.

In the Midwest? Why are you posting in the Seattle/Washington forum?