A little background.
We live in a neighbor hood that everybody has a small lot. And we have been living to our current house for a little more than 1.5 years. In summer 2012, our neighbor tried to convince us to cut all our trees in my back yard for whatever reasons. And there are more than 10 big trees. We clearly told them that we wanted to keep our trees and had no plan to cut them.
In the past two weeks, the neighbor has been trying to talk us again to cut our tree stating our tree have caused falling leaves in his yard and blocked the air going through his house. At the mean time, he tried to convince us that he is doing it in our favor as well by saying that trees could cause diseases to our body and termite problems to our house. And he is going to be responsible for the cost to cut the trees. We of course told him again clearly that we wanted our tree and if our trees have caused problems to him, he has the right to cut the branches on his side. He didn’t give up and tried another couple of conversations with my hu*****and and me to try to cut our trees. During the last conversation, he and my hu*****and had quite an argument and I was cooking but I went out to have a small conversation with him and try to make peace with him. In the end, I told him that I would give his tree guy permission to come to my property to trim the branches hanging over his property but I need to be home at the time he was going to trim the branches. Also I told him that I would get back to him whether I wanted my trees cut or not. After that, I was trying to find a solution to make both of us happy because he is my neighbor and we probably are going to live next to each other for a long time. My friend even suggested to me that I can share the cost of trimming the trees with him to indicate that we want to be a good neighbor. And I agreed. So I called a couple of tree companies trying to find out the cost. And one of company I called was exactly the same company who was going to do the job for my neighbor. I told him that I wanted to make my neighbor happy at the same time I didn’t want to the trees cut. He told me that my neighbor had every right to trim the branches over his property and he was just going to cut 6 or 7 branches on his side. And I wouldn’t even notice any difference from my side. And he told me that he preserves trees and he needs my permission to get to my property to trim the branches right from the trunk. I was happy about the answer and told that I will talk to my neighbor then get back to him.
But I never have got a chance to talk to my neighbor yet, Last Thursday I was home expecting a piano tuner and my door bell rang. I opened the door and was surprised to see that was not the piano person. The person introduced himself as the tree guy that I talked on the phone and the same one who my neighbor hired to do the tree job. He told me he was going to prune the trees next day and asked my permission to come to my property. And I gave him permission. The following day, I couldn’t stay at home and had to go to office, But three trees were gone after I came back from work and the tree trumps were still there.
So my questions:
- I want to punish my neighbor for cutting the trees on my property and send him a clear message not to mess up with me again. I want to remove the trumps and plant three trees there again and want them pay the bill. Should I take it the court for this?
- Based on what I wrote, am I going to win this 100%.
