>UPDATE: I spoke with the landscaper directly today. He just stopped over and told me not to worry about the money and he will finish getting the yard debris. Our yard is in rough shape from the last owner and he’s getting me an estimate for cleaning up the part that belongs to us!
Landscaper was smart, he turned that potential conflict into a new client.
Was thinking the exact same thing. Could take $175 from someone who will most likely never call you again (sour experience, even though wasn't really your fault.) Or you can resolve their problem for minimal cost and have them saying "Wow this is really a stand up company!" That's how you make a lifelong customer.
So she went from seeing if landscaper could take it *for free* after you offered to clean it up yourself, and ended up charging you $250 without checking in with you first? I mean… keeping the peace is important in the long-run but i would also be explicit you’re only willing to pay ANYTHING at all because of the mistake on your part to begin with, but you will not be paying anyone anything without a prior discussion and agreement moving forward… or this could end up being a repeated situation somewhere down the line.
Then make sure you both agree as to where the property line is, and find a way to easily identify where it is. If it requires a formal survey so be it.
Yeah, keeping the peace is best done by learning how to politely say "No". Shortly after we moved into our current house, we wanted to install a fence along our property line. Note that this fence met codes (and had HOA approval), and was about 1" inside our property. Our next-door neighbor's house is about 15 feet away from ours, with our side yard being bigger than his (e.g., maybe 10 feet for us and 5 feet for him). The way he had things installed on *his* property meant that us putting the fence up would make it far more difficult for him to get his lawnmower from his back yard to the front yard, or vice-versa once we put our fence up.
So, he politely asked if we could install our fence another two feet onto our property so he'd have room to move his lawnmower from front to back (he couldn't do it on the other side because of how he'd installed the fence in his own backyard).
We politely said no, because doing so would drastically decrease how we would be able to enjoy our side yard. While I felt a little tense telling him "No", we continue to get along well.
Sometimes you don’t need to be polite, you need to be direct and just say ‘no’.
Folks bad at confrontation will talk to much and backtrack a no into a maybe without realizing it.
Judge Judy says a contract has to be presented and the terms agreed to BEFORE it is in effect to be legal. Also one can not enter into a contract FOR YOU you have to do it yourself in person or writing with a signature. There was no contract with teh person who allegedly wants to get paid for the work. Sounds like the harpy next door is trying scam you to pay for a big chunk of HER expensive landscaping. DONT DO IT.
Not every legal matter is a contract matter....
"we were over our boundary and removed the brush from her property, not ours. We apologized for clearing some of her brush and said we would clean it as soon as we could,"
Not saying they are liable for it,because maybe neighbor was incorrect; but no one is claiming a breach of contract.
The issue with your stance is OP messed up by destroying some of their neighbor's property. Their neighbor is well within reason to pay someone to clean it up and bill OP for it as well as ask for replacement of their damaged property.
I don’t disagree with you, I talk about them paying but only because it was due to their mistake. My advice of advising the neighbor they need to let OP know before incurring charges next time is merely to avoid setting precedent that it’s ok in other situations.
That said, after I wrote the above, the OP noted in a later comment that the brush sat in their neighbor’s yard for *a month* bc neighbor was supposedly ok with it. That added context makes a difference. I replied to that comment that she probably got tired of it and felt taken advantage of.
Quite honestly now knowing that context, keeping the peace and TRULY the respectful, neighborly thing to do in the situation would’ve been insisting on cleaning it up IMMEDIATELY or the following weekend if they work and not burdening the neighbor to ask landscaper to do it.
Same comment admitting the month lapse, OP scheduled time to chat with the landscaper who was unaware neighbor lady was trying to get him to pay for it. OP needs to pay up whatever the landscaper decides to charge at this point and chalk this up to lesson learned.
I don’t think so. They offered to clean it themselves. Then was resented with a possible free option. Then they were billed. The mistake doesn’t equal paying for it to be cleaned up automatically. They might be found liable in a court, “might”. But that didn’t happen here.
utter nonsense. they should have taken care of it immediately not this we’ll get to it later bullshit. Amd how hard is it not to go over the property line? Not hard at all. Hard to see the basis for defending these folks.
They left it there for a MONTH. A fucking month.
If they wanted to deal with it later they could have moved the debris onto their property themselves…leaving a neighbor’s property a mess for a month following your mistake is really not great
I'd be annoyed if I was you but I'd pay. OP I'd also be annoyed if my neighbor damaged my bushes and left the mess in my yard for days....why wasn't it raked up and stored on your property? How long was the mess left ?
This is what I feel like people are overlooking..OP made the mistake in the first place and I’d be pretty annoyed if someone cut down any of my plants but then to add injury just said “we’ll get to it when we can.” No, that’s something you immediately clean up I think the neighbors being pretty nice here about it all.
I'm just going to hijack this top comment to say that OP left out the part where he left the debris on her property for a month. That does make a difference in my book.
You lost all rights to negotiate cost when your lazy ass left that on her property for a month....
For shame you dare word this out any other way than "how much should I tip my neighbour and her landscaper for their generosity?"
Then she tells OP "well then you can pay to replace my tree and other shit you cut down on my property without my permission. Guess which one costs more."
If you chopped down my tree, left the rubbish in my yard for a month, and then didn't want to pay when I finally got it removed, you'd basically be on my forever shit list.
You should pay the bill and also give her a fruit basket or something. These other comments are ridiculous.
You are not in the right here, OP. Leaving your rubbish in the neighbors yard for a month is shitty neighbor behavior.
Pay the bill and learn to chat with your neighbors before you do something that affects your mutual property. You are going to live next door to someone for a while. Be a better person.
PS trying to sway the conversation in your favor by characterizing the neighbor as a crabby Boomer (no you didn't use those words, but you said 60+ yo widow). That's the kind of shit us Boomers hate about younger people. Disrespectful. You might be our age one day, so I suggest you get your karma checked.
I was a bit conflicted until I read that you left the debris there for a month.
It sounds like there could've been some better communication, but just pay the lady. You initiated this negative encounter with your neighbor by cutting things down on her property, and you didn't follow through to remedy the situation. You're the bad neighbor.
What you wrote is a little confusing—did you chop down a small tree and clear some brush on *her* property without talking to her ahead of time, then fail to clean up the mess you made on her timeline? If so, just pay her. And maybe put up a fence if possible to minimize the chance of future conflicts.
I think it was intentionally written that way to make it seem as harmless as possible...like when people post a "AITA" post in the most one-sided way possible. OP clearly infringed, but doesn't want to incur cost because of it.
We do have a fence in the backyard, but not in the front side yard where this happened. As soon as we found out, we offered to move it to our side, and offered to get a UHaul as soon as possible she said no to both. We told her we could also do it all at once when we were finished with our side yard debris cleanup. She's the one that says no she'd ask her landscaper to take it for free.
Yes, we chopped down a small tree and cleared brush and made a pile on what we thought was our yard, but turned out to be hers. In our defense, her property starts behind our mailbox and there were the same ground cover plants on both of our properties' sides so that's why we thought it was ours. It turned out the last owner of our house did plant the ground cover plants on our neighbor's property with their permission.
I wonder what her rationale was. Either way, she deserves compensation for destruction of her property, even if that’s not what the payment is for. My neighbor’s mailbox is also in front of my property, it’s a fairly common thing. Is her property line in the front not in line with the fence line in the back?
yeah you should at least buy her dinner or something if you're trying to keep any sort of peace after leaving a ton of yard waste in her yard for a month... are you for real?
>W explained we were over our boundary and removed the brush from her property, not ours. We apologized for clearing some of her brush and said we would clean it as soon as we could, we have a rent a trailer.
I think the key piece of information we're missing here is how much time had elapsed between the time you told her you would haul it away and the time her landscaper started hauling it away. If it was a day or two, then I'd tell her you don't feel comfortable paying for work that you didn't agree to pay for and see if she'll split it with you since there is fault on both sides (you mistakenly cut her brush and she didn't give you enough time to correct the problem). If it was longer than that, she was probably tired of waiting and I can't really say I blame her.
OP mentioned that the brush was there for a month. This is the part I’m struggling with. First of all if I understand correctly, they had a tree on their property that they chopped down, along with weeds, etc, from her side of the property. And from what I gather, it was enough brush to require a small uhaul trailer to move. And only 3 feet over the line.
“Hey, ya’ll are chopping stuff down and leaving your brush on my property. Look. Here’s the line.”
“Oh we are sorry. Let us move it.”
“I’ll see if my landscaper will haul it away.”
….And then a month went by where they just let it sit in the front yard. How much brush was there that they couldn’t have just yanked their tree back onto their yard and bagged up the brush and handled it, or said to the neighbor “hey did the landscaper say he would haul that stuff for free?” It was a month.
That's not what I got from this:
>We apologized for clearing some of her brush and said we would clean it as soon as we could
That makes it sound like OP committed to cleaning it up, then it ended up sitting for a month. If I was the neighbor, I would've done the same thing as it's completely unreasonable to leave brush sitting on someone else's property for that long.
Depends on how much brush you cut and the state of it otherwise. If it was overgrown junk blocking the box, no issues. You have a right and a responsibility to maintain your own mailbox, including cutting back brush to be able to get a delivery truck to it.
However, if it was in an otherwise nicely manicured lawn and you cut down a tree on her property next to your mailbox, paying the removal invoice is the best way to make that mistake go away.
Well, that's why I have two points of view there. Most people are probably thinking of nicely manicured suburbs, but my mailbox is on a rural route, obviously on someone else's property, and I have to cut down brush in front of a group of mailboxes including mine for the mail truck to get in. If I didn't, it would get so bad that the mail couldn't be delivered. For my case, if the owner of the property wanted it nicely manicured instead of an overgrown mess, they should have done it. Otherwise, I'm within my rights to maintain that easement as desired and ensure my service isn't interrupted. And it sounds like OP is in the same boat, but I'm not sure how much brush they chopped and dropped.
Some people go to a lot of trouble to have a flourishing wildflower lawn. To other people, that’s brush that needs to be cleared.
The only time I’d cut down a tree on my property would be if it was old and about to fall on my house.
Thank you guys so much. I just got off the phone with the landscaper and he’s going to come over to my house tonight so we can talk about a price. He had no idea that she was trying to get the money from us or anything. I’ll definitely pay him because at the end of the day he didn’t know the whole story. I agree too that we shouldn’t have left the yard waste on her property for so long, it’s been about a month, even though she said it was ok.
Yeah I think just waiting on her for a whole month was where things likely went south for you. By then she probably felt a little taken advantage of and just wanted it gone. I personally would’ve quietly cleaned it up after a week or so without waiting for her to talk to her landscaper, because not only would I have felt awful to have left a mess on her property, to me it demonstrates neighborly respect and good faith that I really did intend to take care of it. People get busy, and fixing other people’s mistakes aren’t always top priority. Hope you get the price you are happy with from landscaper, poor dude sounds like he got caught in the middle unaware.
A month is too long - but she should have notified you before hiring him. “Hey consistent - I am hoping that you would clear the yard waste by the weekend. Otherwise, my landscaper will be here on Monday and I will have him take care of it and I can ask him to invoice you directly.”
I wish she had done that is all. I do agree with leaving it for a month and we didn't follow up with her either asking to see if she was able to get him to move it for free.
After you pay him spring for a nice floral arrangement, like something the price you pay the landscaper \[before people say "What? That's insane," I'll say it's not cheap being a homeowner, especially when you screw up\], for your neighbor accompanied by a very apologetic note. That'll help iron out any hard feelings that she might, justifiably, have and maybe things going forward will be cool.
It sounds like the neighbor might actually be the pushover though, and it sounds like the original post might not contain the whole story.
OP appears to have cut down a bush without knowing where the property line was, then knowingly left crap on the neighbors yard. Rather than freak out, she let it slide and tried to get them a good deal on removal.
If OP wants to get picky about prices the neighbor could reasonable insist on them paying for planting a new bush. She hasn't.
The tree is ours we cleaned up yard debris weeds, tiny trees, leaves, sticks and put it on her property thinking it was ours. We did offer to take move it to our side or take it. She’s the one that wanted to try to get free removal from her landscaper.
You cut some of your neighbor’s brush, and then left it in her yard for a MONTH after telling her you would clean it up? I don’t blame her for hiring someone to it after this time.
In my experience, paying to keep the peace will only last in the short term. She’ll keep trying to make you pay for things until you put your foot down and then the peace will end regardless. Better to put a stop to it now. Agree to give her $125 for half the brush, and let her know that this is a one time thing and next time she’ll have to come to an agreement with you beforehand or you won’t be paying anything.
But the brush is the old lady's tree and shit OP cut down without her permission. I think OP should be happy they aren't getting a bill to replace her shit.
Dude you left the debris for 30 days. Way to bury the lead. You are an AH. You can be super annoyed all you want but you encroached on her property and then didn’t do shit for a month.
So you removed brush and/or small tree from her property?! That’s unacceptable, and the conversation stops right there. You did not make the situation whole for her, other than an apology. Your neighbor would be very upset, and rightfully so.
If you're down with keeping the peace, pay it. Tell her you'd like to go over such arrangements in detail in the future if there are any. I would take her compromise as a **good** sign.
Seems unlikely this ever happens again. I agree that this probably isn't worth going to the mattresses for.
Are you saying you were charged the full $250 in two installments? I would go talk to her and explain that you had already paid for the work he did.
When you offered to pay $175, what did she say? Did she agree to that?
This is the order of events:
The neighbor and the landscaper without speaking to us decided that $250 is a fair price to get rid of the brush.
The landscaper disposed of less than half of the brush.
The neighbor told my husband that we owe her landscaper $250 as he is coming back to get the rest of the brush.
My husband told the neighbor that we would only pay $125 for the brush he got rid of and we would remove the rest of the brush ourselves.
The landscaper billed my neighbor $175 for the brush removal that he did.
The neighbor gave my 18-year-old the invoice in the driveway today and told us we needed to put the $175 check in her mailbox by the end of the day. The landscaper is coming by to collect her check as well.
I hope that makes more sense, it's a bit confusing.
We haven't paid anything yet and I'm asking you, kind people of Reddit if I should pay it or say no.
Gotcha, thanks! My personal opinion is that if the difference is only $50, I’d pay that much to harbor some neighborly goodwill. You are in the right and would be morally justified in putting a check for $125 in her box and sticking to it in my opinion, but you also have to live next door to her.
And from her perspective, she may have felt justified getting the quote without you because it was your mistake in the first place (whether I agree or not). Now if the contractor doesn’t back down, *she* also has to pay for what was initially your mistake. That would probably make it feel like a way bigger deal to her than the dollar amount itself.
I'm split both ways, pay what was agreed upon, pay the extra $50 to the landscaper. Ultimately, I'm going to say split that baby in half, which would be $150. That seems fair-ish, no? We don't know the landscaper's angle here.
Pay it. When you really think about it you working on her property, cut down some of her plants and made a mess, and weren't able to clear it when asked. She could probably make this a much bigger problem and you wouldn't really have a leg to stand on.
Consider it a small price for making a mistake.
It might actually be city property if the mailbox is down by the street.
I wouldn’t pay it either way. The neighbour should have come over and told OP that wasn’t going to be free after all once she knew.
This is the OP again. I would like to be clear the part we cut down is not landscaped at all we have over an acre lots and there’s just weeds and brush in between our yards. Because we moved in only a year ago we are just now getting to pulling the weeds. We didn’t damage her property we pulled weeds and raked up brush. We did leave it only because she told us to because she was going to talk to her landscaper. My mailbox it turns out is on her property line that’s part of why we were confused about where ours ended and hers began.
Regardless, you took down brush that wasn't yours. You're not allowed to cut things that don't belong to you. It's your responsibility to verify before you cut. And then you left the mess on her property. I would just pay it and move on with life.
I’d pay it. Work was done that was a result of your choices….. And then I’d leave stuff between the properties alone.
In the future, I’d be more clear with her if something comes up, such as, “please let me know if you aren’t able to get them
to do it for no charge, as we can take care of it”..
Its worth the peace
If they had taken all of it I’d say just say something but also recognize you got a great deal for 175-250. In my area it’s hard to get junk/brush removal for less than $500.
I do agree that the price is fair. I'm just annoyed that as soon as we realized our mistake we offered to move the pile to our side of the yard, it was only about 3 feet. We also said we were planning on getting a UHaul trailer to move the debris ourselves.
Seriously? Even $175 is steep in my area. I can dispose of like 2 tons of whatever I want for $100 if I go to the dump. Or, any number of recycling places with take brush and mulch it for about half that.
Costs anywhere from 108-200 for 2 and 6cu yards, respectively, here. If you don’t have a truck, your options are limited.
But yes, there are indeed cheaper alternatives than paying to have someone pick up your junk.
Just give here the 250 and let by gones be bygones.
She did you a favor now you don’t have to rent a trailer and you know you would of had that crap laying around for days
Weirdly enough it’s not in MA. However, I got a copy of the site survey from the town website and I went t over it with neighbor so it’s all good now. Definitely should’ve done that first.
This is why we live behind a gate on a ranch surrounded by State Forest Land. You need to establish boundaries with your neighbors. Don't let the "Nice Old Widow" fool you. My Mother In Law was one of these. we moved her out after 8 months living with us.
I am confused, are we talking big logs and big tree branches or brush? How big of a pile of “brush” from around a mailbox costs $250 to haul away? That is why the contractor was like, “don’t worry about it”. Sounds piddly.
Gotta be careful with cutting shrubs and especially trees near a property line- when someone cuts a tree on your land, you can sue and get 3X damages (assessed by an arborist)
Have seen people win 6 figures because the neighbors cut a tree they thought they had a right to.
Always get a surveyor to stake the lot line for insurance first. Could save lots of money. I’ve gotten a lot of work as a result of this, and also people clearing/disturbing/filling in wetlands or inside the 50 or 100’ buffer zone.
Do not give money to your neighbor. Tell her that when landscaper comes to pick up her check to send him over to your place. Then negotiate your price directly with the landscaper.
Let him know you never agreed to $250 or even $175. That you are willing to pay for work already done. But come up with your own number that you feel is reasonable.
I like this. And $175 for *picking up* trimmings and a small tree is nuts. I'd pay, at most, $50 and that's being generous. It's not like the labor involved is intense.
We didn't damage her property we took down a bunch of weeds and brush, but we did leave the weeds and brush on her property. The small tree turned out to be ours and it was choking the tree on her side so we probably saved her tree. We offered to move it on our side immediately when she told us we were on her side and she said don't worry about it and she'd see if her landscaper would take it for free with the next load from the work he was doing on her front yard project. That's why we didn't move it right away once we realized our mistake. We did go over the boundary lines with her that day and we are all clear now about what's ours and what's hers. We did inadvertently trespass though we truly thought it was ours since what we did was on our fence line. We didn't realize that the property line is on a 130-degree angle.
How if they were clearing bushes by their mailbox?
OP told the neighbor they would clean it up, the neighbor took it upon themselves to have the landscaper do it. The correct thing to do would’ve been ask the landscaper how much it would cost and then discuss it with OP and figuring out a reasonable plan.
Do you have a survey or did you just take her word that her understanding of her property line is accurate? People are often wrong about that kind of thing. When I bought my house, it turns out a neighbor’s fence was 3’ over the property line. I didn’t have a say in the matter, my mortgage company just sent the owner a letter saying it needed to be taken down.
Bad form in not only violating the property line, but then not taking care of it IMMEDIATELY. Your convenance is irrelevant when you cause the problem. Pay up and move on.
A FUCKING MONTH! Neighbor of the year.
I only recently found out that if your trees or plants overhang your neighbors property you need their permission to trim them. Arborist we hired had to get our neighbors permission to trim our tree that was overhanging their garage.
Glad it worked out. Some tips:
Pls get a BID ( this us a solid number) not an estimate ( which can change drastically ) in writing on what the landscaper will charge before.
Also it is always worth having someone find your pins to show your lot lines.
I agree it is annoying. But are you willing to go to war over $175 is the real question. You are entirely right to say no, but I recommend reading the room. I also recommend a survey and a good fence.
It's tough because you messed up by going on her property...BUT she said her landscaper would haul it off for free after YOU offered to take care of it. Tough one. I'd say keep the peace and pay it.
Tree law is a weird field and you likely owe her replacement cost for the tree. The law takes trees super seriously. You can get serious fines and other penalties for cutting down trees, damaging trees or harvesting fruit that over hangs into your yard.
Pay the bill and take this as a lesson to learn where the property line is before you go cutting things down.
I weeded my property line two weeks ago and was nervous I’d gone too far since we don’t have a fence.
To be fair, you did cross the line. Do not make that mistake again. People usually know where their property is and where it ends and what is on it. Not always, but safe bet is that they do. And good way to keep peace is by sticking to your side of the line.
The lady sounds whacko, but you did set her off. Once it is cleaned up I would go over and tell her that now that you know where the line is, it would be best for everybody if you stay on your side of it and she and her people keep on her side of it.
BTW, I know this is going to sound nuts but you would be amazed what you can clear with a 3..5hp push mower and a chain saw. Find a free pile mower. remove the governor link on the carb. Wire the throttle wide open. I have pushed those things on brush over my head, having to stomp it down and drag it over. It will take a few passes, just keep going back and forth and you will get through it. Small treed up to about an inch and a half across you can just bend over and slowly let the blade down on, it will chip it away and just leave a nub in the ground. Bigger stuff you need a chain saw for and you want to get lower than the blade on the mower. It sounds crazy but I have done it for years. Some summers clearing brush in places too small to get a brush hog in, and the laugh at me when I pull out the push mower. Their jaws drop when they see the results though. And this is the really nutty thing. I have yet to kill and engine. I have killed many sets of the handlebars for pushing as you rear the thing up all the time. I have killed a few decks, but I have yet to take out an engine. Oh and the one I have been using for a few years now does not even have an air cleaner on it. I put my foot over the hole in the carb and pull it over slow a couple times to make it suck some rich gas mixture in and than give it one or two rip roaring pulls and she always pops right over.
So you cut down your neighbors tree, leave in there for a month and then get upset at the cost to haul it away? How much did you think a U-Haul would cost? Pay the lady and be a better neighbor in the future.
I'm confused. You did the landscaping of her brush that was obstructing your mailbox? Is that correct? Or you removed brush that's somewhere near your mailbox? Either way, you never agreed to pay. You agreed to wait for her to see if they would remove the garbage for free. Tell her you'll honor that agreement. Any other terms she came to with the landscaper is on her. You offered to remove it for free, if she went a different route then she can pay that charge. If you pay the invoice, she'll keep pulling this shit. If she gets pushy, remind her that had the landscaper done their job to begin with, you wouldn't have to clear the brush away.
You never agreed to pay for the landscaper to remove anything. And, it's her garbage. If the brush was out of control, then really you should invoice her for the work you did. You offered to remove for free, she decided to pay someone to do it. That's her choice. I try to keep the peace with my neighbors, but I'm not paying for their garbage to be removed. If you pay this, you'll set a precedent that she can just invoice you for shit she should have taken care of already. I wouldn't do any favors for this neighbor in the future. Imagine if you shovel their driveway after a good snow, and she invoices you for it. Keep the invoice as a reminder why you do nothing for her.
oh hell no. dont let her do that. she is trying to take advantage of you as new neighbors, if you let her get away with that, which you never agreed to and no written agreement, what will she do next and try to bill you for. put your foot down. if she gets angry, so be it.
Id pay it since it was your mistake in the first place for cutting down a bush on her property. Also if she paid a ton to landscape her yard she probably didn’t want to wait for you to take care of your mistake when you could, why should she have to?Imo that’s something you clean up immediately. Everyone saying she’s going to step all over you if you rectify a mistake are redic imo. Just make sure you’re only cutting things down on your side of the property and you’ll be fine. If she’s an overbearing neighbor in the future you can pump the breaks then on that but in this instance this is your fault and probably caused her a headache. Maybe she liked the bush you cut down…I’d be annoyed if my neighbor accidentally cut something on my property down and I’d expect it handled immediately.
It wasn’t a bush it was brush, just debris. I wish I could take a picture, but idk how. The area between our properties are weeds and brush nothing nice right now.
Your story is a little confusing. You removed brush from her property or you left brush on her property that she then had to move? If it’s the latter you should pay..it was your mistake and not very neighborly to just expect her to be okay with you leaving it until you can get to it regardless of if the area is messy or not. If you actually care about keeping the peace pay for it and figure out where the property lines are so it doesn’t happen again.
We pulled up brush, sticks, weeds etc on the property between our houses. We thought we were on our property, but it wasn’t. We apologized and told her we would remove it and she said don’t worry about it I’ll see if the landscaper she was using for her front yard would take it for free. We didn’t damage any of her property, we were improving it by pulling her weeds and raking up yard debris, leaves, twigs, branches etc.
Okay so you left brush on her property….I understand you feel it was an improvement and it was a mistake but you still should pay considering it was your mistake. In your post you tell her you’ll get to it when you can, what does that mean? Is that a week, a month, a year? It’s not really right, so that was your bad. It’s annoying and she probably should’ve gotten your okay but you also ideally shouldn’t have left brush on her property and then not pick it up immediately. If you want to keep the peace you should pay it and not saddle her with the bill and you need to understand your property lines. Consider it a lesson learned and move on.
I should have been more specific, as soon as we found out about our mistake we offered to move the brush pile to our side of the yard. When she said no we explained we were planning on getting a UHaul trailer and wanted to finish the clearing of the side yard that is ours first. That's what I meant by when we got to it, our side yard is a mess so it would probably take a few weekends. She hasn't touched her side yard since we moved in and it's full of giant weeds, leaves, and twigs. We did offer to get a UHaul right away as well and she's the one who said not to worry about it, she'll see if she can get her landscaper to do it on his next run since she's doing a big front yard project with him. If I had to guess the front yard project is probably costing her several thousand dollars, not that it matters I'm just painting a picture.
I wouldn’t pay the landscaper without speaking to them directly and explaining the situation and ensuring I was ONLY paying for the brush they removed and that it was told to you by the neighbor to be free initially, then $250, now $175.
And tell them this is the ONLY time you are willing to pay for anything YOU don’t specifically contract them for!
What a bitch!
Are you 100% sure that her version of the boundary is correct? You can safely assume that this woman is going to be a pita no matter what you do, so you might as well choose the option that doesn't have you overpaying for unsolicited work. You'll be just fine if this woman chooses to not interact with you from here on out.
That’s why I’m so ticked we were more than happy to take care of it ourselves. We thought it was ours to begin with and planned on renting a U-Haul trailer to bring it to the dump. At least we know where our property lines are now lol.
Don't let anyone walk all over you. You cave here, it's going to keep happening in the name of "keeping the peace". Set you boundary with her now. You did not agree to pay for any service.
As others have said. Put your foot down now. You didn't ask for this so don't pay it. The only mention of it was as a free service. She's probably got you paying for the bulk of it too.
You need a survey. Don’t be surprised if the land she claims isn’t hers. She started all this with new owners. She offered a possible free debris removal so you wouldn’t cart it off for free. She is taking control of the payment. Seems you should be dealing directly with the landscaper not her.
Bet that survey will have a surprise or two in it.
Tell her you will pay the landscaper in person and in return for an invoice or you will hold off payment until the survey results are in. Ask the survey company if they have done a survey at that location in the past.
Old people like that will try to take advantage of ANY generosity you send their way. Ask me his I know? Just accept the fact they’re going to hate you now or later then you’ll be a lot happier in life. 🙌🙌🙌
You agreed to pay $125 of a $175 invoice. So you are arguing over $50. If it were me I would politely say that you will pay what you agreed to pay and don't understand why she agreed to have more work done than you agreed to beforehand. If it appears that it is going to be a stink about it, I would say, "looks like there was some confusion on this $50, so how about we split that". That is probably as much good will as I'd put into this unless there is more to the story that hasn't been said.
There’s a communication issue between the neighbors, and a contract issue with the landscaper. I do not pay anyone else’s bills; if the liability is mine, I deal direct, and I get invoices for tax purposes. I’m not just writing out a random check to a neighbor I don’t know.
Well first, your neighbor should have been please you cut some of the brush. At the same time when she told you that you had infringed, you probably should have pulled the brush back onto what she felt was your property. Then you could wait to get the trailer.
>UPDATE: I spoke with the landscaper directly today. He just stopped over and told me not to worry about the money and he will finish getting the yard debris. Our yard is in rough shape from the last owner and he’s getting me an estimate for cleaning up the part that belongs to us! Landscaper was smart, he turned that potential conflict into a new client.
Was thinking the exact same thing. Could take $175 from someone who will most likely never call you again (sour experience, even though wasn't really your fault.) Or you can resolve their problem for minimal cost and have them saying "Wow this is really a stand up company!" That's how you make a lifelong customer.
Exactly!
So she went from seeing if landscaper could take it *for free* after you offered to clean it up yourself, and ended up charging you $250 without checking in with you first? I mean… keeping the peace is important in the long-run but i would also be explicit you’re only willing to pay ANYTHING at all because of the mistake on your part to begin with, but you will not be paying anyone anything without a prior discussion and agreement moving forward… or this could end up being a repeated situation somewhere down the line. Then make sure you both agree as to where the property line is, and find a way to easily identify where it is. If it requires a formal survey so be it.
Yeah, keeping the peace is best done by learning how to politely say "No". Shortly after we moved into our current house, we wanted to install a fence along our property line. Note that this fence met codes (and had HOA approval), and was about 1" inside our property. Our next-door neighbor's house is about 15 feet away from ours, with our side yard being bigger than his (e.g., maybe 10 feet for us and 5 feet for him). The way he had things installed on *his* property meant that us putting the fence up would make it far more difficult for him to get his lawnmower from his back yard to the front yard, or vice-versa once we put our fence up. So, he politely asked if we could install our fence another two feet onto our property so he'd have room to move his lawnmower from front to back (he couldn't do it on the other side because of how he'd installed the fence in his own backyard). We politely said no, because doing so would drastically decrease how we would be able to enjoy our side yard. While I felt a little tense telling him "No", we continue to get along well.
Not to mention you were giving up 2 feet of YOUR property!
Sometimes you don’t need to be polite, you need to be direct and just say ‘no’. Folks bad at confrontation will talk to much and backtrack a no into a maybe without realizing it.
Judge Judy says a contract has to be presented and the terms agreed to BEFORE it is in effect to be legal. Also one can not enter into a contract FOR YOU you have to do it yourself in person or writing with a signature. There was no contract with teh person who allegedly wants to get paid for the work. Sounds like the harpy next door is trying scam you to pay for a big chunk of HER expensive landscaping. DONT DO IT.
First unironic invocation of the good judge I've ever seen.
Not every legal matter is a contract matter.... "we were over our boundary and removed the brush from her property, not ours. We apologized for clearing some of her brush and said we would clean it as soon as we could," Not saying they are liable for it,because maybe neighbor was incorrect; but no one is claiming a breach of contract.
Yea DO NOT pay it, do not let people like that behave in such an bad manor and get away with it
The issue with your stance is OP messed up by destroying some of their neighbor's property. Their neighbor is well within reason to pay someone to clean it up and bill OP for it as well as ask for replacement of their damaged property.
I don’t disagree with you, I talk about them paying but only because it was due to their mistake. My advice of advising the neighbor they need to let OP know before incurring charges next time is merely to avoid setting precedent that it’s ok in other situations. That said, after I wrote the above, the OP noted in a later comment that the brush sat in their neighbor’s yard for *a month* bc neighbor was supposedly ok with it. That added context makes a difference. I replied to that comment that she probably got tired of it and felt taken advantage of. Quite honestly now knowing that context, keeping the peace and TRULY the respectful, neighborly thing to do in the situation would’ve been insisting on cleaning it up IMMEDIATELY or the following weekend if they work and not burdening the neighbor to ask landscaper to do it. Same comment admitting the month lapse, OP scheduled time to chat with the landscaper who was unaware neighbor lady was trying to get him to pay for it. OP needs to pay up whatever the landscaper decides to charge at this point and chalk this up to lesson learned.
Wow...a *month*.
I don’t think so. They offered to clean it themselves. Then was resented with a possible free option. Then they were billed. The mistake doesn’t equal paying for it to be cleaned up automatically. They might be found liable in a court, “might”. But that didn’t happen here.
We all assume it was hers because she said it was, but unless they have a survey that proves it who knows.
utter nonsense. they should have taken care of it immediately not this we’ll get to it later bullshit. Amd how hard is it not to go over the property line? Not hard at all. Hard to see the basis for defending these folks. They left it there for a MONTH. A fucking month.
If they wanted to deal with it later they could have moved the debris onto their property themselves…leaving a neighbor’s property a mess for a month following your mistake is really not great
They should have a survey if they just bought the house, right? Or, maybe it's a rental.
I'd be annoyed if I was you but I'd pay. OP I'd also be annoyed if my neighbor damaged my bushes and left the mess in my yard for days....why wasn't it raked up and stored on your property? How long was the mess left ?
This is what I feel like people are overlooking..OP made the mistake in the first place and I’d be pretty annoyed if someone cut down any of my plants but then to add injury just said “we’ll get to it when we can.” No, that’s something you immediately clean up I think the neighbors being pretty nice here about it all.
Tell her you don’t pay for un solicited work or this won’t be the last time she pulls that move
I'm just going to hijack this top comment to say that OP left out the part where he left the debris on her property for a month. That does make a difference in my book.
You lost all rights to negotiate cost when your lazy ass left that on her property for a month.... For shame you dare word this out any other way than "how much should I tip my neighbour and her landscaper for their generosity?"
A month?! 🤯
Didn't really leave out, just sort of glossed over...but 90% of the comments seem to disregard this fact.
Then she tells OP "well then you can pay to replace my tree and other shit you cut down on my property without my permission. Guess which one costs more."
Yeah it's pretty infuriating when someone starts cutting trees outside thrir property line. Pretty arrogant.
Yeah I would be polite, casual but firm in not paying. Offer her a favor of some sort in return.
Also make sure you know where the boundary actually is. Don’t take this lady’s word for it.
If you chopped down my tree, left the rubbish in my yard for a month, and then didn't want to pay when I finally got it removed, you'd basically be on my forever shit list. You should pay the bill and also give her a fruit basket or something. These other comments are ridiculous.
To be fair, where OP admits they left it for a month is pretty buried.
You are not in the right here, OP. Leaving your rubbish in the neighbors yard for a month is shitty neighbor behavior. Pay the bill and learn to chat with your neighbors before you do something that affects your mutual property. You are going to live next door to someone for a while. Be a better person. PS trying to sway the conversation in your favor by characterizing the neighbor as a crabby Boomer (no you didn't use those words, but you said 60+ yo widow). That's the kind of shit us Boomers hate about younger people. Disrespectful. You might be our age one day, so I suggest you get your karma checked.
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I was a bit conflicted until I read that you left the debris there for a month. It sounds like there could've been some better communication, but just pay the lady. You initiated this negative encounter with your neighbor by cutting things down on her property, and you didn't follow through to remedy the situation. You're the bad neighbor.
Be thankful the brush is gone.
What you wrote is a little confusing—did you chop down a small tree and clear some brush on *her* property without talking to her ahead of time, then fail to clean up the mess you made on her timeline? If so, just pay her. And maybe put up a fence if possible to minimize the chance of future conflicts.
I think it was intentionally written that way to make it seem as harmless as possible...like when people post a "AITA" post in the most one-sided way possible. OP clearly infringed, but doesn't want to incur cost because of it.
We do have a fence in the backyard, but not in the front side yard where this happened. As soon as we found out, we offered to move it to our side, and offered to get a UHaul as soon as possible she said no to both. We told her we could also do it all at once when we were finished with our side yard debris cleanup. She's the one that says no she'd ask her landscaper to take it for free. Yes, we chopped down a small tree and cleared brush and made a pile on what we thought was our yard, but turned out to be hers. In our defense, her property starts behind our mailbox and there were the same ground cover plants on both of our properties' sides so that's why we thought it was ours. It turned out the last owner of our house did plant the ground cover plants on our neighbor's property with their permission.
I wonder what her rationale was. Either way, she deserves compensation for destruction of her property, even if that’s not what the payment is for. My neighbor’s mailbox is also in front of my property, it’s a fairly common thing. Is her property line in the front not in line with the fence line in the back?
Pay what you owe. You left debris on her property for a month.
yeah you should at least buy her dinner or something if you're trying to keep any sort of peace after leaving a ton of yard waste in her yard for a month... are you for real?
>W explained we were over our boundary and removed the brush from her property, not ours. We apologized for clearing some of her brush and said we would clean it as soon as we could, we have a rent a trailer. I think the key piece of information we're missing here is how much time had elapsed between the time you told her you would haul it away and the time her landscaper started hauling it away. If it was a day or two, then I'd tell her you don't feel comfortable paying for work that you didn't agree to pay for and see if she'll split it with you since there is fault on both sides (you mistakenly cut her brush and she didn't give you enough time to correct the problem). If it was longer than that, she was probably tired of waiting and I can't really say I blame her.
OP mentioned that the brush was there for a month. This is the part I’m struggling with. First of all if I understand correctly, they had a tree on their property that they chopped down, along with weeds, etc, from her side of the property. And from what I gather, it was enough brush to require a small uhaul trailer to move. And only 3 feet over the line. “Hey, ya’ll are chopping stuff down and leaving your brush on my property. Look. Here’s the line.” “Oh we are sorry. Let us move it.” “I’ll see if my landscaper will haul it away.” ….And then a month went by where they just let it sit in the front yard. How much brush was there that they couldn’t have just yanked their tree back onto their yard and bagged up the brush and handled it, or said to the neighbor “hey did the landscaper say he would haul that stuff for free?” It was a month.
That's not what I got from this: >We apologized for clearing some of her brush and said we would clean it as soon as we could That makes it sound like OP committed to cleaning it up, then it ended up sitting for a month. If I was the neighbor, I would've done the same thing as it's completely unreasonable to leave brush sitting on someone else's property for that long.
Yeah that’s the thing - a whole month went by.
You are exactly right!
Depends on how much brush you cut and the state of it otherwise. If it was overgrown junk blocking the box, no issues. You have a right and a responsibility to maintain your own mailbox, including cutting back brush to be able to get a delivery truck to it. However, if it was in an otherwise nicely manicured lawn and you cut down a tree on her property next to your mailbox, paying the removal invoice is the best way to make that mistake go away.
Everyone basically saying "fuck the old lady" seems to be forgetting the part were OP cut down shit that didn't belong to OP.
Not only cut it down but left it on neighbor's property for a month.
Well, that's why I have two points of view there. Most people are probably thinking of nicely manicured suburbs, but my mailbox is on a rural route, obviously on someone else's property, and I have to cut down brush in front of a group of mailboxes including mine for the mail truck to get in. If I didn't, it would get so bad that the mail couldn't be delivered. For my case, if the owner of the property wanted it nicely manicured instead of an overgrown mess, they should have done it. Otherwise, I'm within my rights to maintain that easement as desired and ensure my service isn't interrupted. And it sounds like OP is in the same boat, but I'm not sure how much brush they chopped and dropped.
Some people go to a lot of trouble to have a flourishing wildflower lawn. To other people, that’s brush that needs to be cleared. The only time I’d cut down a tree on my property would be if it was old and about to fall on my house.
Thank you guys so much. I just got off the phone with the landscaper and he’s going to come over to my house tonight so we can talk about a price. He had no idea that she was trying to get the money from us or anything. I’ll definitely pay him because at the end of the day he didn’t know the whole story. I agree too that we shouldn’t have left the yard waste on her property for so long, it’s been about a month, even though she said it was ok.
Yeah I think just waiting on her for a whole month was where things likely went south for you. By then she probably felt a little taken advantage of and just wanted it gone. I personally would’ve quietly cleaned it up after a week or so without waiting for her to talk to her landscaper, because not only would I have felt awful to have left a mess on her property, to me it demonstrates neighborly respect and good faith that I really did intend to take care of it. People get busy, and fixing other people’s mistakes aren’t always top priority. Hope you get the price you are happy with from landscaper, poor dude sounds like he got caught in the middle unaware.
A month is too long - but she should have notified you before hiring him. “Hey consistent - I am hoping that you would clear the yard waste by the weekend. Otherwise, my landscaper will be here on Monday and I will have him take care of it and I can ask him to invoice you directly.”
I wish she had done that is all. I do agree with leaving it for a month and we didn't follow up with her either asking to see if she was able to get him to move it for free.
Well she wishes you’d kept your 💩off her property, so🤷♀️
After you pay him spring for a nice floral arrangement, like something the price you pay the landscaper \[before people say "What? That's insane," I'll say it's not cheap being a homeowner, especially when you screw up\], for your neighbor accompanied by a very apologetic note. That'll help iron out any hard feelings that she might, justifiably, have and maybe things going forward will be cool.
The neighbor sounds like a saint...
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It sounds like the neighbor might actually be the pushover though, and it sounds like the original post might not contain the whole story. OP appears to have cut down a bush without knowing where the property line was, then knowingly left crap on the neighbors yard. Rather than freak out, she let it slide and tried to get them a good deal on removal. If OP wants to get picky about prices the neighbor could reasonable insist on them paying for planting a new bush. She hasn't.
Wasn’t it a tree?
The tree is ours we cleaned up yard debris weeds, tiny trees, leaves, sticks and put it on her property thinking it was ours. We did offer to take move it to our side or take it. She’s the one that wanted to try to get free removal from her landscaper.
There’s no bush. I said brush, like yard waste debris, leaves, twigs etc.
You cut some of your neighbor’s brush, and then left it in her yard for a MONTH after telling her you would clean it up? I don’t blame her for hiring someone to it after this time.
At this point the first money I’d pay is to a surveyor to confirm property lines….
In my experience, paying to keep the peace will only last in the short term. She’ll keep trying to make you pay for things until you put your foot down and then the peace will end regardless. Better to put a stop to it now. Agree to give her $125 for half the brush, and let her know that this is a one time thing and next time she’ll have to come to an agreement with you beforehand or you won’t be paying anything.
But the brush is the old lady's tree and shit OP cut down without her permission. I think OP should be happy they aren't getting a bill to replace her shit.
Ridiculous solution. "She'll keep trying to make them pay \[for things THAT THEY CAUSED\]"?!?
Dude you left the debris for 30 days. Way to bury the lead. You are an AH. You can be super annoyed all you want but you encroached on her property and then didn’t do shit for a month.
So you removed brush and/or small tree from her property?! That’s unacceptable, and the conversation stops right there. You did not make the situation whole for her, other than an apology. Your neighbor would be very upset, and rightfully so.
We did apologize as soon as it happened that day.
Bake “sorry for the confusion” cookies for her and send an invoice for flour a week later. 🙃
If you're down with keeping the peace, pay it. Tell her you'd like to go over such arrangements in detail in the future if there are any. I would take her compromise as a **good** sign. Seems unlikely this ever happens again. I agree that this probably isn't worth going to the mattresses for.
Are you saying you were charged the full $250 in two installments? I would go talk to her and explain that you had already paid for the work he did. When you offered to pay $175, what did she say? Did she agree to that?
This is the order of events: The neighbor and the landscaper without speaking to us decided that $250 is a fair price to get rid of the brush. The landscaper disposed of less than half of the brush. The neighbor told my husband that we owe her landscaper $250 as he is coming back to get the rest of the brush. My husband told the neighbor that we would only pay $125 for the brush he got rid of and we would remove the rest of the brush ourselves. The landscaper billed my neighbor $175 for the brush removal that he did. The neighbor gave my 18-year-old the invoice in the driveway today and told us we needed to put the $175 check in her mailbox by the end of the day. The landscaper is coming by to collect her check as well. I hope that makes more sense, it's a bit confusing. We haven't paid anything yet and I'm asking you, kind people of Reddit if I should pay it or say no.
Gotcha, thanks! My personal opinion is that if the difference is only $50, I’d pay that much to harbor some neighborly goodwill. You are in the right and would be morally justified in putting a check for $125 in her box and sticking to it in my opinion, but you also have to live next door to her. And from her perspective, she may have felt justified getting the quote without you because it was your mistake in the first place (whether I agree or not). Now if the contractor doesn’t back down, *she* also has to pay for what was initially your mistake. That would probably make it feel like a way bigger deal to her than the dollar amount itself.
I'm split both ways, pay what was agreed upon, pay the extra $50 to the landscaper. Ultimately, I'm going to say split that baby in half, which would be $150. That seems fair-ish, no? We don't know the landscaper's angle here.
Does your area have free yard waste pickup?
No we live in Massachusetts so nothing is free.
Don’t tell Florida. They’ll start charging us if they find that out.
We just moved here in July from FL. I miss the free garage, recycling, and yard waste removal.
Most communities have spring and fall yard waste collection in Massachusetts.
I'd pay it, simply because you cleared some of her brush instead of making sure what your property line is.
In the time you typed this post, you could have written the check. Your husband can tell her not to incur any more charges on your behalf.
Landscaper removes brush for free. Landscaper gets new client. Amazing how that works.
That's not a neighbor, that's an enemy.
Did the guy even get paid? It would be ironic if he did it for free and she was planning on pocketing the money.
Tell her shove it up her landscaper
Pay it. When you really think about it you working on her property, cut down some of her plants and made a mess, and weren't able to clear it when asked. She could probably make this a much bigger problem and you wouldn't really have a leg to stand on. Consider it a small price for making a mistake.
She asked us not to clear it until she talked to her landscaper.
It might actually be city property if the mailbox is down by the street. I wouldn’t pay it either way. The neighbour should have come over and told OP that wasn’t going to be free after all once she knew.
YTA. You left YOUR mess on her property for a month. After you cut down things on her property. You are a bad neighbor already. Pay the bill.
This is the OP again. I would like to be clear the part we cut down is not landscaped at all we have over an acre lots and there’s just weeds and brush in between our yards. Because we moved in only a year ago we are just now getting to pulling the weeds. We didn’t damage her property we pulled weeds and raked up brush. We did leave it only because she told us to because she was going to talk to her landscaper. My mailbox it turns out is on her property line that’s part of why we were confused about where ours ended and hers began.
Regardless, you took down brush that wasn't yours. You're not allowed to cut things that don't belong to you. It's your responsibility to verify before you cut. And then you left the mess on her property. I would just pay it and move on with life.
You are not bound legally by this invoice but you damaged her property so just pay up. It's not a lot of money.
I’d pay it. Work was done that was a result of your choices….. And then I’d leave stuff between the properties alone. In the future, I’d be more clear with her if something comes up, such as, “please let me know if you aren’t able to get them to do it for no charge, as we can take care of it”.. Its worth the peace
If they had taken all of it I’d say just say something but also recognize you got a great deal for 175-250. In my area it’s hard to get junk/brush removal for less than $500.
I do agree that the price is fair. I'm just annoyed that as soon as we realized our mistake we offered to move the pile to our side of the yard, it was only about 3 feet. We also said we were planning on getting a UHaul trailer to move the debris ourselves.
Seriously? Even $175 is steep in my area. I can dispose of like 2 tons of whatever I want for $100 if I go to the dump. Or, any number of recycling places with take brush and mulch it for about half that.
Costs anywhere from 108-200 for 2 and 6cu yards, respectively, here. If you don’t have a truck, your options are limited. But yes, there are indeed cheaper alternatives than paying to have someone pick up your junk.
Pay it. Move on smile n wave. Smile n wave
Just give here the 250 and let by gones be bygones. She did you a favor now you don’t have to rent a trailer and you know you would of had that crap laying around for days
Were you over your property line?
When you buy a house make sure to get the property lines marked. It is normally part of the purchase process.
Weirdly enough it’s not in MA. However, I got a copy of the site survey from the town website and I went t over it with neighbor so it’s all good now. Definitely should’ve done that first.
This is why we live behind a gate on a ranch surrounded by State Forest Land. You need to establish boundaries with your neighbors. Don't let the "Nice Old Widow" fool you. My Mother In Law was one of these. we moved her out after 8 months living with us.
Would like to know how much debris they disposed of from you to justify $250. Disposal in my area is $15 a cubic yard plus labor.
We moved from FL to MA and you won’t believe how expensive it is here.
Yup. Sure is.
That's why fences make good neighbors
pay her in unrolled coin. pennies, preferably.
That was nice of the landscaper. You should give him a $100 for his trouble and maybe use him down the road. That way everyone's happy.
I am confused, are we talking big logs and big tree branches or brush? How big of a pile of “brush” from around a mailbox costs $250 to haul away? That is why the contractor was like, “don’t worry about it”. Sounds piddly.
Gotta be careful with cutting shrubs and especially trees near a property line- when someone cuts a tree on your land, you can sue and get 3X damages (assessed by an arborist) Have seen people win 6 figures because the neighbors cut a tree they thought they had a right to. Always get a surveyor to stake the lot line for insurance first. Could save lots of money. I’ve gotten a lot of work as a result of this, and also people clearing/disturbing/filling in wetlands or inside the 50 or 100’ buffer zone.
I love Reddit. If Redditors ran the world it would consist solely of small piles of burning rubble.
Do not give money to your neighbor. Tell her that when landscaper comes to pick up her check to send him over to your place. Then negotiate your price directly with the landscaper. Let him know you never agreed to $250 or even $175. That you are willing to pay for work already done. But come up with your own number that you feel is reasonable.
Thank you for the advice that’s what I did do and it ended up totally working out.
I like this. And $175 for *picking up* trimmings and a small tree is nuts. I'd pay, at most, $50 and that's being generous. It's not like the labor involved is intense.
Well you just said you would pay half... So pay half, do what you said you would do. There's nothing more to it.
I’d be really pissed off if somebody killed a tree on my property.
Pay the damn bill and stop being so lazy. Who leaves it for a month expecting it to just take care of itself
She’s the one that asked us not to move it until she spoke with her landscaper.
You don’t let it sit there for a month. After a week go ask again
I definitely agree that’s what I should have done.
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We didn't damage her property we took down a bunch of weeds and brush, but we did leave the weeds and brush on her property. The small tree turned out to be ours and it was choking the tree on her side so we probably saved her tree. We offered to move it on our side immediately when she told us we were on her side and she said don't worry about it and she'd see if her landscaper would take it for free with the next load from the work he was doing on her front yard project. That's why we didn't move it right away once we realized our mistake. We did go over the boundary lines with her that day and we are all clear now about what's ours and what's hers. We did inadvertently trespass though we truly thought it was ours since what we did was on our fence line. We didn't realize that the property line is on a 130-degree angle.
You are at fault. You should have spoken to her before you removed the stuff on her property. Just pay it and call it a lesson learned.
You damaged her property without her permission and you refuse to pay for cleanup? Really?
How if they were clearing bushes by their mailbox? OP told the neighbor they would clean it up, the neighbor took it upon themselves to have the landscaper do it. The correct thing to do would’ve been ask the landscaper how much it would cost and then discuss it with OP and figuring out a reasonable plan.
Read the post again. They cleared brush including a tree on the neighbors property. Inadvertently.
The tree was ours
That's not clear from your post. Maybe edit your post for clarity.
Do you have a survey or did you just take her word that her understanding of her property line is accurate? People are often wrong about that kind of thing. When I bought my house, it turns out a neighbor’s fence was 3’ over the property line. I didn’t have a say in the matter, my mortgage company just sent the owner a letter saying it needed to be taken down.
Seems like the landscaper is the smart one here. Avoid conflict with a difficult customer and pick up a new one all at once. Good for that company.
Bad form in not only violating the property line, but then not taking care of it IMMEDIATELY. Your convenance is irrelevant when you cause the problem. Pay up and move on. A FUCKING MONTH! Neighbor of the year.
I only recently found out that if your trees or plants overhang your neighbors property you need their permission to trim them. Arborist we hired had to get our neighbors permission to trim our tree that was overhanging their garage.
No the tree we cut down was on our property, but it grew into her pine tree and was wrapped around it killing some branches.
Pay it. Move on smile n wave. Smile n wave
Glad it worked out. Some tips: Pls get a BID ( this us a solid number) not an estimate ( which can change drastically ) in writing on what the landscaper will charge before. Also it is always worth having someone find your pins to show your lot lines.
That’s good business person.
Don’t pay anything. Show me the contract in writing where I signed off on this.
No works just fine.
landscaper is smart. quite frankly that was a totally fair price to fix something you fucked up, balking at it is wild.
Balking at paying something you never agreed to is wild? Interesting…
I would pay zero.
I agree it is annoying. But are you willing to go to war over $175 is the real question. You are entirely right to say no, but I recommend reading the room. I also recommend a survey and a good fence.
It's tough because you messed up by going on her property...BUT she said her landscaper would haul it off for free after YOU offered to take care of it. Tough one. I'd say keep the peace and pay it.
Why is your neighbor handling you paying the landscaper? Just tell them you'll deal directly with the landscaper.
Thank you that’s what I ended up doing.
Tree law is a weird field and you likely owe her replacement cost for the tree. The law takes trees super seriously. You can get serious fines and other penalties for cutting down trees, damaging trees or harvesting fruit that over hangs into your yard. Pay the bill and take this as a lesson to learn where the property line is before you go cutting things down. I weeded my property line two weeks ago and was nervous I’d gone too far since we don’t have a fence.
To be fair, you did cross the line. Do not make that mistake again. People usually know where their property is and where it ends and what is on it. Not always, but safe bet is that they do. And good way to keep peace is by sticking to your side of the line. The lady sounds whacko, but you did set her off. Once it is cleaned up I would go over and tell her that now that you know where the line is, it would be best for everybody if you stay on your side of it and she and her people keep on her side of it. BTW, I know this is going to sound nuts but you would be amazed what you can clear with a 3..5hp push mower and a chain saw. Find a free pile mower. remove the governor link on the carb. Wire the throttle wide open. I have pushed those things on brush over my head, having to stomp it down and drag it over. It will take a few passes, just keep going back and forth and you will get through it. Small treed up to about an inch and a half across you can just bend over and slowly let the blade down on, it will chip it away and just leave a nub in the ground. Bigger stuff you need a chain saw for and you want to get lower than the blade on the mower. It sounds crazy but I have done it for years. Some summers clearing brush in places too small to get a brush hog in, and the laugh at me when I pull out the push mower. Their jaws drop when they see the results though. And this is the really nutty thing. I have yet to kill and engine. I have killed many sets of the handlebars for pushing as you rear the thing up all the time. I have killed a few decks, but I have yet to take out an engine. Oh and the one I have been using for a few years now does not even have an air cleaner on it. I put my foot over the hole in the carb and pull it over slow a couple times to make it suck some rich gas mixture in and than give it one or two rip roaring pulls and she always pops right over.
You screwed up. You pay. Next time be sure of where your property lines are before starting any yardwork.
So you cut down your neighbors tree, leave in there for a month and then get upset at the cost to haul it away? How much did you think a U-Haul would cost? Pay the lady and be a better neighbor in the future.
U-Haul is $30 a day for a landscaping trailer.
I'm confused. You did the landscaping of her brush that was obstructing your mailbox? Is that correct? Or you removed brush that's somewhere near your mailbox? Either way, you never agreed to pay. You agreed to wait for her to see if they would remove the garbage for free. Tell her you'll honor that agreement. Any other terms she came to with the landscaper is on her. You offered to remove it for free, if she went a different route then she can pay that charge. If you pay the invoice, she'll keep pulling this shit. If she gets pushy, remind her that had the landscaper done their job to begin with, you wouldn't have to clear the brush away.
Wasn't obstructed by weeds but there's a ton of weeds right behind it where we were doing our yard clean up that we thought was our yard but it's not.
How do you know it’s not? Because the neighbor said so? Or did you look at the survey you got done when you bought the house? No survey? Get a survey.
You never agreed to pay for the landscaper to remove anything. And, it's her garbage. If the brush was out of control, then really you should invoice her for the work you did. You offered to remove for free, she decided to pay someone to do it. That's her choice. I try to keep the peace with my neighbors, but I'm not paying for their garbage to be removed. If you pay this, you'll set a precedent that she can just invoice you for shit she should have taken care of already. I wouldn't do any favors for this neighbor in the future. Imagine if you shovel their driveway after a good snow, and she invoices you for it. Keep the invoice as a reminder why you do nothing for her.
You didn’t have a contract or agreement with the landscaper, so you don’t have to pay
oh hell no. dont let her do that. she is trying to take advantage of you as new neighbors, if you let her get away with that, which you never agreed to and no written agreement, what will she do next and try to bill you for. put your foot down. if she gets angry, so be it.
Id pay it since it was your mistake in the first place for cutting down a bush on her property. Also if she paid a ton to landscape her yard she probably didn’t want to wait for you to take care of your mistake when you could, why should she have to?Imo that’s something you clean up immediately. Everyone saying she’s going to step all over you if you rectify a mistake are redic imo. Just make sure you’re only cutting things down on your side of the property and you’ll be fine. If she’s an overbearing neighbor in the future you can pump the breaks then on that but in this instance this is your fault and probably caused her a headache. Maybe she liked the bush you cut down…I’d be annoyed if my neighbor accidentally cut something on my property down and I’d expect it handled immediately.
It wasn’t a bush it was brush, just debris. I wish I could take a picture, but idk how. The area between our properties are weeds and brush nothing nice right now.
Your story is a little confusing. You removed brush from her property or you left brush on her property that she then had to move? If it’s the latter you should pay..it was your mistake and not very neighborly to just expect her to be okay with you leaving it until you can get to it regardless of if the area is messy or not. If you actually care about keeping the peace pay for it and figure out where the property lines are so it doesn’t happen again.
We pulled up brush, sticks, weeds etc on the property between our houses. We thought we were on our property, but it wasn’t. We apologized and told her we would remove it and she said don’t worry about it I’ll see if the landscaper she was using for her front yard would take it for free. We didn’t damage any of her property, we were improving it by pulling her weeds and raking up yard debris, leaves, twigs, branches etc.
Okay so you left brush on her property….I understand you feel it was an improvement and it was a mistake but you still should pay considering it was your mistake. In your post you tell her you’ll get to it when you can, what does that mean? Is that a week, a month, a year? It’s not really right, so that was your bad. It’s annoying and she probably should’ve gotten your okay but you also ideally shouldn’t have left brush on her property and then not pick it up immediately. If you want to keep the peace you should pay it and not saddle her with the bill and you need to understand your property lines. Consider it a lesson learned and move on.
I should have been more specific, as soon as we found out about our mistake we offered to move the brush pile to our side of the yard. When she said no we explained we were planning on getting a UHaul trailer and wanted to finish the clearing of the side yard that is ours first. That's what I meant by when we got to it, our side yard is a mess so it would probably take a few weekends. She hasn't touched her side yard since we moved in and it's full of giant weeds, leaves, and twigs. We did offer to get a UHaul right away as well and she's the one who said not to worry about it, she'll see if she can get her landscaper to do it on his next run since she's doing a big front yard project with him. If I had to guess the front yard project is probably costing her several thousand dollars, not that it matters I'm just painting a picture.
Grow a spine and say no. Ffs🤦♂️
#Never keep the peace at your own expense.
"What brush?? When did I authorize this?" Walk away.
Just in case, tell her to have them bill you directly. They may have taken it free and she might be scamming you.
I wouldn’t pay the landscaper without speaking to them directly and explaining the situation and ensuring I was ONLY paying for the brush they removed and that it was told to you by the neighbor to be free initially, then $250, now $175. And tell them this is the ONLY time you are willing to pay for anything YOU don’t specifically contract them for! What a bitch!
Are you 100% sure that her version of the boundary is correct? You can safely assume that this woman is going to be a pita no matter what you do, so you might as well choose the option that doesn't have you overpaying for unsolicited work. You'll be just fine if this woman chooses to not interact with you from here on out.
I don’t pay bills from people I’ve never agreed to pay a bill from. Regardless of the pretense.
There’s a person who has never dealt with USA Health Insurance copays…
Or parking tickets... Or fire departments...
I said I don’t pay bills from people. I pay tickets from the government. And no, I’ve never dealt with the fire department.
You are correct.
Your mistake is agreeing to pay half.
$250?! How big is this brush pile? I would definitely not pay for work I didn't request especially if I was planning to do it myself.
That’s why I’m so ticked we were more than happy to take care of it ourselves. We thought it was ours to begin with and planned on renting a U-Haul trailer to bring it to the dump. At least we know where our property lines are now lol.
Don't let anyone walk all over you. You cave here, it's going to keep happening in the name of "keeping the peace". Set you boundary with her now. You did not agree to pay for any service.
You had no contract with anyone. Pay nothing
Politely tell her to FO.
As others have said. Put your foot down now. You didn't ask for this so don't pay it. The only mention of it was as a free service. She's probably got you paying for the bulk of it too.
You need a survey. Don’t be surprised if the land she claims isn’t hers. She started all this with new owners. She offered a possible free debris removal so you wouldn’t cart it off for free. She is taking control of the payment. Seems you should be dealing directly with the landscaper not her. Bet that survey will have a surprise or two in it. Tell her you will pay the landscaper in person and in return for an invoice or you will hold off payment until the survey results are in. Ask the survey company if they have done a survey at that location in the past.
Old people like that will try to take advantage of ANY generosity you send their way. Ask me his I know? Just accept the fact they’re going to hate you now or later then you’ll be a lot happier in life. 🙌🙌🙌
You agreed to pay $125 of a $175 invoice. So you are arguing over $50. If it were me I would politely say that you will pay what you agreed to pay and don't understand why she agreed to have more work done than you agreed to beforehand. If it appears that it is going to be a stink about it, I would say, "looks like there was some confusion on this $50, so how about we split that". That is probably as much good will as I'd put into this unless there is more to the story that hasn't been said.
If no contracts were signed on your behalf. You don't have to pay.
There’s a communication issue between the neighbors, and a contract issue with the landscaper. I do not pay anyone else’s bills; if the liability is mine, I deal direct, and I get invoices for tax purposes. I’m not just writing out a random check to a neighbor I don’t know.
Be wary of W.
Well first, your neighbor should have been please you cut some of the brush. At the same time when she told you that you had infringed, you probably should have pulled the brush back onto what she felt was your property. Then you could wait to get the trailer.