You may not particularly like aspects of your neighbor's house — the color of the paint, the size, how they keep their yard. But that doesn't mean you have the right to make changes. Which should be obvious.
But it's apparently not obvious to everyone.
A homeowner recently posted a video to TikTok of her reacting, in real time, to workers who were cutting down her trees. The kicker? A neighbor hired the tree cutters to cut the trees down.
@merleighw what would you do?? #neighbors #wronghouse #trees #whatwouldyoudo #ohio #backyard ♬ original sound - Meranda🌈
"[The tree cutting crew] jumped the fence and got onto our property," she says.
Needless to say, that's not exactly legal.
Generally speaking, you have the right to trim a neighbor's tree if it hangs over your property line, but crossing property boundaries to cut down a tree on someone else's land? Absolutely not.
The homeowner valued the trees for the privacy they provided, and she was planning to attract birds to the trees to liven up the area. The real shame was that trees are crucial for drawing down carbon in the atmosphere and providing shade in our neighborhoods.
There's a lesson here. Communicating with neighbors is crucial. We're all sharing our neighborhoods, after all. Building bridges and connections with the people who live near you can make for not only a more meaningful living situation but can also help to establish a sense of community and understanding of shared spaces.
Talking with neighbors about the importance of trees for a healthy environment might have helped. Or even discussing a compromise about trimming the trees as opposed to cutting them down.
Needless to say, commenters were flabbergasted.
Should HOAs be able to force homeowners to change their yards?
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"Make them pay you. Trees have value," one said.
"They can trim what's on their side but can't go on your property to do it," another user wrote.
"Tree law is no joke," someone else said.
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