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+--- Thread: neighbors and trees (/showthread.php?tid=2841)
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neighbors and trees - howwex - 11-27-2005
My house sits on a clear site, but three absent neighbors have very large Albezia trees that block sunlight, drop debris and are otherwise a nussiance. I have tried for a year to contact the absent property owners, to ask permission to cut, as the tree company is not coverd by insurance unless permission is granted...the home owners association is not helping, so what to do? The cost to cut a 100 ft high tree is considerable...
any ideas?
thanks,
hw
RE: neighbors and trees - leilaniguy - 11-28-2005
Aloha howwex, This is a very common problem here that I and many friends & neighbors have had to deal with. It may not be totally kosher, but everyone I know that's dealt with it,(including me) has handled it themselves. You could go over and cut the Albezia, but what most of us do is girdle the tree- cut the bark 3-4 feet above the ground and peel off a 1-2 foot section all around. The tree starts dying within a few days.
RE: neighbors and trees - Seeb - 11-28-2005
I dont mean to step on anybody's toes, but killing a tree and leaveing it stand there is like setting a giant person sized mouse trap
RE: neighbors and trees - leilaniguy - 11-28-2005
True Seeb, If the tree(s) are in range of yours or anybody elses house or yard, it would be nuts. I was thinking in terms of acre + lots or smaller trees. Definately not the ideal way to deal with the problem, but often the only way.
RE: neighbors and trees - howwex - 11-28-2005
I know of those methods, but at over 100 feet high and cloose to power lines I dont think killing and slowly dying is the way to handel the trees on the border of my lot...
howard
RE: neighbors and trees - leilaniguy - 06-05-2006
I was wondering if howwex or anyone else out there has found a way to resolve this problem? I spent most of yesterday helping a friend remove a foot thick, 100'long albezia limb from his house and carport in Nanawale. It fell from 2 lots away, just brushed the roof of his house, but his carport didn't fare as well. It's still standing, luckily,(his truck was parked in it), but now it leans to the north, the back posts are knocked off the piers. Also a large avocado tree was beheaded. There are a half dozen more limbs just like it aimed at his house, and just as many pointed towards a house in the other direction. The main trunk is maybe 18-20' in circumference. The lot owner is in Juneau, AK.
RE: neighbors and trees - allensylves - 06-05-2006
Do you have small claims court in Hawaii where you can sue for actual damages (no pain and suffering, etc.). If you know a mailing address for the owner, this might get some attention where there has actually been damage and avoid further damage. Unfortunately this will not work where there is only potential damage, unless there is also some legal provision for abating an obvious hazard.
Allen
Baton Rouge, LA & HPP
RE: neighbors and trees - John S. Rabi - 06-05-2006
Just remember, if that tree is dropping anything on your lot it means it's an encroachment, the neighbor has to remove it and that's how you should present it to the neighbor.
Aloha,
John S. Rabi, ABR,CM,CRB,FHS,PB,RB
http://www.JohnRabi.com
Typically Tropical Properties
75-5870 Walua Road, Suite 101
Kailua-Kona, HI 96740
(808)327-3185
RE: neighbors and trees - toucano - 06-05-2006
I doubt that many 'newbie' buyers ever consider just how big a problem those nearby Albezia trees can become when they are looking at lots.
My experience is that fast going trees tend to be weak (Silver Maples and Lombardy Poplars are good examples) and I see many Albezia trees that have multiple trunks/branches with very acute angles - a disaster waiting to happen. Not if - but when.
Some neighbors a few houses away girdled one 100 feet +/- tall. Ought to prove very interesting when it finally falls since there seem to be only one direction that will not cause some damage. I can't imagine what they were thinking (or drinking) when they did that.
Another neighbor a few streets away tried to get the absentee owner of the lot next tohers to take out some obviously dangerous and massive Albezia trees. Apparently the absentee owner wasn't interested. Out of sight and out of mind. She had them cut anyway and I suppose that she will eat the cost. Could not have been cheap as I saw a crew there with a crane doing it.
If I had a similar problem, I don't know exactly what I would do other than take good pictures of the tree from all angles, note the girth and height, and send the information along in a demand letter to the owner VIA Certified Mail advising them that they now have actual notice of the potential hazard that THEIR tree(s) present.
Unless they are the exception, that letter will probably go in the 'round file'. Someone that paid $2K for a lot in Puna in 1980 is usually not real anxious to spend $3K to have a tree taken out that he has hasn't seen in 25 years. Of course if the shoe was on the other foot...
RE: neighbors and trees - leilaniguy - 06-05-2006
He took an entire one-use camera of pictures of the tree/damage, and I found the lot owner for him through the county website. He does plan to send the owner a certified letter with photos, and contact the Nanawale longhouse about it, but like you say, it probably will mean diddly squat, although these lots have gone up from $2K to $25K in assessments.