Peter Jason wrote:
wrote in message
...
On Sat, 22 Nov 2008 17:03:51 +1100, wrote:
Has anybody had any experience of compelling a neighbour
to remove a
dangerous tree?
The tree is a massive euclaypt in the backyard of my
neighbour's
terrace house. Most of the tree overhangs my back yard.
On two previous occasions branches have fallen into my
yard - one
damaging the corner of the back verandah.
In today's wind a small branch fell on a friend's head.
She had to go
to casualty, but is bruised only.
The neighbour has been, and still is, uncooperative.
Incredibly, Council says I can remove branches that
overhang and are
less than 10 cm in diameter, but that's it.
Brilliant!
I can remove those that might hurt but not those that
would maim or
kill.
Surely there must be a procedure for getting a court order
for the
removal of a manifestly dangerous tree - regardless of the
wishes of
my neighbour and Council? Relations with that neighbour
(and only that
neighbour) are already hopeless, so there is no point in
discussing
the matter yet again.
Has anybody had this experience of dealing with a hopeless
neighbour
and council?
I live in NSW.
Thanks for the various comments. Given that the tree has
already
damaged my property (smashed in the bathroom ceiling two
years ago)
and now hospitalised (albeit for only 10 hours) a visitor
to my back
yard - the lawyer says the case is a lay down misere for
removal under
the 2006 Act mentioned by Phil.
In response to one poster, yes I know I can make property
insurance
claims (and have in the case of the bathroom), but now we
are risking
making life insurance claims.
There is nowhere in my back yard that is not overhung by
the offending
tree. Because of the lean of the tree, about 60% of the
tree overhangs
my yard and another 20% even overhangs the yard of the
next door
neighbour furthest from the tree. She too wants the tree
removed, so
we will have a dual action.
Evidently the 2006 act was introduced because of the
dangerous delays
and recalcitrance of Councils when it came to giving
permission for
the removal of manifestly dangerous trees.
I had to laugh when I again phoned the council's tree
preservation
officer to find out whether council could order the tree's
removal.
The officer evaded the question, but rabbited on about
conservation
principles, sustainability, negotiation, etc.. When I
mentioned the
relevance of serious personal injury and the 2006 Act she
said "Oh, we
don't like residents to pursue that course of action." I
hung up on
this irrelavant and patronising user of the royal 'we'.
I had a similar problem with a neighbour who had leaky
storm-water drains.
His water was percolating under my house. I proved this by
secretly pouring a strong blue dye into his spouting, and
then observing a blue colour welling up from the soil under
my floorboards.
Instead of raising hell by going to lawyers, who will keep
a contention going for as long as the money lasts, I
contacted a local architect who agreed to liaise with the
neighbour on my behalf and to explain the problem. The
neighbour agreed for me to fix the problem by having my
plumbers enter the that property and bypass the errant
drain (and surreptitiously pour a some concrete down the old
porous hole).
I paid for everything including the architect ($150.00),
the plumber ($200.00), and some sections of PVC conduit
($50.00).
All this was a mere bagatelle when compared with lawyers,
and time and frustration when done the other way.
I would suggest you offer to pay 1/2 the tree removal costs,
and failing results there, offer to pay all the costs.
It's all very sad, but there's no other way. Note too that
will build credit with the neighbour, and keep money out of
lawyer's pockets.
This is from the original post -
"Surely there must be a procedure for getting a court order for the
removal of a manifestly dangerous tree - regardless of the wishes of
my neighbour and Council? Relations with that neighbour (and only that
neighbour) are already hopeless, so there is no point in discussing
the matter yet again."
Since it was apparently no possibility of negotiating with the neighbour or
the Council, some legal mechanism was requested.
Sometimes there is no practical option but to deal with a lawyer.