wrote in message
oups.com...
My ignorant neighbor planted 2 siberian elms right at the fence line
which is less than 6 feet from my back door. He also has a birch and
willow exceeding 30 feet approx 15 feet from my back door. All of
these trees are sitting on my roof and the siberian elms are reaching
into my backdoor and bedroom windows. He neglects them, won't trim
them and will not give me permission to cut them back. I live in
Canada and the law states that I cannot touch them. My only option is
to go to court.


I know nothing of Canadian law but this seems very much out of line with the
situation in other parts of the world that have as their background English
law. The situation is so common that you would expect the authorities to
have developed some less troublesome mechanism than going to court to
resolve it.

I would first be double-checking with a reliable source to make sure that
this advice was correct before going any further. I don't know about Canada
(again) but here you could approach a solicitor who was doing pro-bono
advice sessions or a chamber magistrate to get free accurate advice on that
situation in about 5 minutes.

If it turns out that in theory you do have to resolve it in court you may be
able to bluff the neigbour with a strongly worded solicitor's letter that
will cost you something but be much cheaper than a court appearance.

David