Tree Limbs On A Shared Road, Opinions?

[troutsqueezer]

Thanks guys. All good advice. I also am at the end of this two mile long road. I do all the grading and maintenance for the entire thing at no charge to the fifteen neighbors who use it.

I don't see a problem with stacking the brush piles on the property it came from. It wouldn't be feasible for me to haul it up to my property and burning it can only be done a few months out of the year. Besides, it's good for wildlife.

I do plan on getting off on the right foot with the new owners. Chances are they will want to strike up a healthy relationship with a neighbor who has a tractor. When it comes down to it, I would ask for some kind of compensation if they raised a stink about about a few brush piles from trees that came from their property but I do doubt seriously if that would happen and like has been suggested, I'll probably make no mention of existing piles and only discuss how things should be going forward. No doubt they'll be grateful they don't have to pitch in to help keep the other two miles in drivable condition, except for the occasional road base delivery.

 

[TomSeller]

I own property where the easement is across my land to a number of well to do homes. Every year they have the gall to ask me to contribute to the maintenance of the road to their houses. You can use your imagination as to what I tell them. They act like they are doing me a favor by maintaining the road. I could not care less if they have potholes to navigate.

 

[Coyote machine]

Wait for the new owners to contact you, if ever. Then maybe tell them you've been maintaining the road and trees along same. Ask them if they'd like to contribute the road base material, and you'd be glad to spread it for the good of all who use the road. If you ask for/take $ for any work on the road you open up potential liability issues and insurance on you/your tractor by receiving compensation. Forget mention of brush already on their land. It could hurt you, but won't likely be of benefit to you by mentioning it to them. JMHO

 

[zing]

Since it is undeveloped land you can't really bring them pie and welcome them to the neighbourhood, but if you do run into them you can ask them where they are from and if they have any questions about the area like honest local contractors, etc. The subject of the road will come up eventually, although it doesn't have to be the first thing you say. When the subject does come up you can mention how it has been maintained in the past and see how they want to go from there.

 

[Parkanzky]

The home we own has an easement through it for a drive/road for the two parcels behind us. They put in the road (asphalt), pay for snow removal, and deal with any maintenance issues. The easement that they have for our property allows them to use my land to access their homes. It does not require me to provide them the road to get there.

Their drive runs parallel to ours (then ours turns to go to our house and theirs keeps going to their two homes). There is a strip of landscaping, mostly grass but also a couple of trees/shrubs). that one of those neighbors maintains. One of the trees has limbs that are hanging over our drive. We met one of the neighbors shortly after we moved in and I mentioned that I would be trimming a couple of the low limbs from that tree, or possibly cutting it down and replacing it with a series of fruit trees centered between the drives. His response was, "It's all your land, you can do anything you want with it." I offered to take over mowing between the drives, since it really should be my responsibility, but he is happy to continue taking care of it. There's a bit of a washout near the road and he talked about getting some fill to put in. I told him that shouldn't be his problem and that I'd pay for that.

So in short, whatever you have to do to maintain your own drive is your responsibility (and the responsibility of anybody else that uses that easement to access their homes. But if you're the only one regularly using that drive, then you should be the one keeping the trees trimmed to maintain access. Personally, I'd be upset of the neighbors trimmed along their drive and left brush piles on my property. If it's practical for you to clean those up then you should. If it's not, then I think that you should talk to them about a solution for that. Maybe they're happy to have them sitting there rotting, maybe they're not. If I understand your situation, there's a lot of open land there. Maybe they own a clearing close-by that they'd let you use to burn the brush. But remember that they're doing you a favor here, not the other way around. If my neighbors casually asked me for money to help them to maintain their driveway, I'd have to struggle for a polite way to tell them to pound sand.

 

[timster2]

If the neighbors have a problem with brush piles you could always ask them to chip in for a new chipper for your tractor

 

[jaotguy]

seems to be the trees are on the other person's land ... "his" trees fell on the right of way , you just cleaned them up for him ... the branches belong to him and you would be stealing if you took them home , so you just piled them for him to do as he sees fit ... the "firewood" was your payment for cleaning up his mess ...

the township around here , cuts up downed trees covering the roads , and put the pieces back on the property owner's land for the owner to deal with ....

you maintain your ROW itself and don't ask for any help doing it ... ( as it should be )

 

[troutsqueezer]

seems to be the trees are on the other person's land ... "his" trees fell on the right of way , you just cleaned them up for him ... the branches belong to him and you would be stealing if you took them home , so you just piled them for him to do as he sees fit ... the "firewood" was your payment for cleaning up his mess ...

the township around here , cuts up downed trees covering the roads , and put the pieces back on the property owner's land for the owner to deal with ....

you maintain your ROW itself and don't ask for any help doing it ... ( as it should be )

That's pretty much the way I see it.

The land is steeply sloped and full of poison oak so burning it anywhere except in the middle of the road would not work. If the new owner ever wanted to improve the looks of this section he would be in for a whole lotta work given the chaparral and downed trees that are already there. The tree limbs I put there only blend in.