Homeowner sparks drama after allegedly ‘destroying’ their neighbour’s garden

A homeowner cut the roots of his neighbour’s tree. Now the neighbour wants him to pay up.

The man consulted Reddit’s “Am I the A******” forum for advice. Some of his neighbour’s tree’s roots grew into his yard. His daughter tripped over the roots and broke her wrist. So he decided to cut all of the roots that were in his yard. When the neighbour found out they said the Reddit poster killed the tree.

“My family and I moved into a new home this spring,” he wrote. “We had previously lived in apartments and we now have our first garden for our kids to play in. One of my neighbour’s gardens is separated from ours by a chain-link fence. There is a large tree just on their side of the fence. Some roots from the tree spread into my garden. About a month ago, my kids were running around and playing and my daughter tripped on one of the roots, fell, and ended up breaking her wrist trying to catch herself. This was very upsetting to my wife and I. She pretty much told me to do something about the roots. So, I bought some tools and started tearing the roots up as best I could. I got them out to a point that nothing is sticking above the ground anymore and filled the top in with fresh soil and grass seed.”

The neighbour asked him what he had done to the tree and the two had it out.

“My neighbour noticed the work I did,” the Reddit poster said. “I told him I had to remove some roots since my daughter tripped on one. He got pissed off and told me I probably killed his tree. I told him that removing a few roots isn’t going to hurt a tree that big and they were creating a tripping hazard. He told me there are other ways to deal with roots like that instead of cutting them out and he would have gladly helped if I had asked. He said that the tree is probably going to die which means it is probably going to have to be removed and said that a tree that large is going to cost thousands of dollars to take out. He said if the tree dies and he has to have it cut down, he’s going to ask me to pay for some of it because of what I did to the roots. I told him good luck with that and that I’m not paying anything for his tree.”

Reddit users thought he was totally in the wrong for cutting the tree without permission.

“He does not have the right to destroy somebody else’s property,” a person wrote.

“Why wouldn’t you talk to your neighbour first?” another said.

“You are liable for the tree if it dies,” a user commented.