Neighbor has elected to damage over 20 trees

[Thomas]

I have comment but......

 

[turnkey4099]

If it was mine, I would probably just let it go. For me, it wouldn't be a fight worth picking. What good is an empty judgment?

Except the neighbor needs to learn that he cannot just do a project like that without the neighbors' input/permission.

 

[fried1765]

Except the neighbor needs to learn that he cannot just do a project like that without the neighbors' input/permission.

Trying to teach that neighbor a lesson, could actually be a very financially dangerous endeavor.

 

[D2Cat]

Since you have a surveyor scheduled to determine boundaries, when he's done he'll have 1/2" rebar with red tape attached indicating corners.

I'd suggest going to your local auto salvage yard and buy old axles. Knock the lugbolts off and drive the axles in where the survey pins are. Paint the flange orange and pound them so the top is flush with the ground. They won't get lost or pulled out, and you can always find them with a metal detector.

It's sad when this kind of situation occurs, but hiring a lawyer usually just digs a deeper more expensive hole. And raises the anger factor on both sides.

Negotiate before you litigate, but if that's not your temperament plan to pay dearly.

 

[Oldoak]

Shared roads, ROW, road easements, and road maintenance agreements are minefields full of trouble. There was a property recently on the market in my area-- a few acres of bare land for $500k. It was on a private road, and all the other neighbors hated this owner. When I looked at the parcel I was told (by a neighbor) I could not have any access using that road. No access= you can't get to it. btw that neighbor was an attorney.

So I moved on and looked elsewhere.

Just took the neighbor's word for it without looking deeper into it? Maybe that neighbor wanted the property for their self? I would have at least investigated to see whether or not an easement/R.O.W. was written into the property deed or not. If not, then definitely moved on. In some states property cannot be sold without an access route unless it was to a bordering landowner.

 

[MossRoad]

The neighbor started this project before we owned the property he has damaged. But since we took ownership on April 30th he has continued to clear the land. By legal rights the dirt and rock he took off should have been put on said owners property, not hauled off and put on his property.

The ROW is based from the center of the road. So 25 ft on each side of the road, measured from the center of existing road. The land he has cleared is on our ROW property not his.

With all the help here I think it has come down on how the ROW will be determined !

What do you mean by "The land he has cleared is on our ROW property not his."?

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

I don't think the OP truly understands how "Right of Way" actually works.

Methinks he is about to learn a very expensive lesson if he persists.

OP,

You have NO legal means to stop the neighbor from opening up the road, if it stays within the boundaries of the legal Right of Way. If it's on the Right of Way, those trees are NOT yours. They belong to the RoW.

About your only recourse is to investigate what "penalties" the collective group of land owners can assess (if ANY) for not "asking" the group first.

By all means, pay for a survey. Great. Might be a good idea to have regardless, for the future. And get a better lawyer. One that understands what a "Right of Way" is. Or you're going to get schooled.

 

[ultrarunner]

From what I understand, the answer is yes. The person who has the ROW can do what he wants inside the ROW to maintain it.

When I lived in CA, a friend had a ROW though a city Park to get to his land, that was 100% surrounded by the Park. The Park wanted his land and started harrassing him. Park Rangers where sent to give him tickets for driving on his ROW, then they installed gates and tried to lock him up, and then sate there and watched him cut their locks, and then wrote him tickets for destroying their locks. He took them to court and won every time because he has a ROW to get to his land.

I forget why, but he decided to widen the road and improve it getting to his land. We cut down all sorts of trees that belonged to the Park and they really freaked out. They sent helicopters with Park Rangers to arrest us, but they also had half a dozen Park Rangers, a Game Warden and several Sheriffs there in their vehicles. The owner of the land was the former city planner for Oakland and he truly enjoyed the game of messing with the Park. He knew his rights, he knew the law, he knew what his easement was, and best of all, they all knew that he knew this. They where bluffing, they tried to intimidate him, and he told them that he needed the road to be able to get a fire truck to his place!!!! That stopped them cold, and sure enough, he had that documentation too. They made us stop working for the day, but by the next weekend, his lawyer had been to the Judge and we where back to cutting down trees and branches with at least two Park Rangers parked up on the hill watching us the entire time.

Eventually the Park took his land through Eminent Domain, and that started another battle on what the land was worth.

I have no idea what the law is in Tennessee, but my guess is that the person with the ROW can do what he wants, and just like a neighbor in a city with a big tree on their side of the fence line, you can cut branches that might lead to the death of the tree, but you cannot cross over the fence to remove the tree. Sounds like he did something like that with the roots of your trees that are on his ROW.

My friend is a neighbor to yours and has the same problems... it has been a 25 year battle with the park district and my friends wife says it has taken a toll on her family... eventually my friend will die or succumb and the park will win...

Each time the park blocked the right of way my friend cleared it... often being filmed... each time a judge dismissed the charges...

Another friend is selling his 1900 cabin deep in the redwoods... the Park has been after the property for years... he is the last holdout... they had a permit to deepen the well a few years back and the Park Rangers put the fear of God into the driller who said he doesn't need this kind of aggravation and packed up on the first day and left.

 

[747driver]

As I have posted...everyone here asked me about the ROW. I didn't know about it until I researched the survey and I don't think the lawyer knows about it either.. Now that everyone has taught me I understand clearly what I am dealing with now....Thank You guys !

I do think my only recourse is the issue of the neighbor not notifying and asking for permission to widen the road.

 

[Jstpssng]

I don't think the OP truly understands how "Right of Way" actually works.

Methinks he is about to learn a very expensive lesson if he persists.

OP,

You have NO legal means to stop the neighbor from opening up the road, if it stays within the boundaries of the legal Right of Way. If it's on the Right of Way, those trees are NOT yours. They belong to the RoW.

About your only recourse is to investigate what "penalties" the collective group of land owners can assess (if ANY) for not "asking" the group first.

By all means, pay for a survey. Great. Might be a good idea to have regardless, for the future. And get a better lawyer. One that understands what a "Right of Way" is. Or you're going to get schooled.

I think that he needs to hire a new lawyer who will explain all of that to him.