Woman’s neighbor cuts 20 trees down on her property without consent to build a “friendly fence.” She’s taking them to court instead

Cutting a tree down is rarely ever beneficial, and Lillie (@Skootergorl) on TikTok was a proud owner of 20 trees. The decades-old foliage marked her property until she came back from a trip. Her neighbor set up a wooden fence, and rows of trees on her land were chopped down without her consent.

“I’m suing my neighbors because they cut down 20 trees and bushes from my property,” Lillie said in her first video. “Then, they said they were going to build a friendly fence.”

Lillie showed the viewers what the fence looked like. It was basic but also messy in its planning. The fence had slabs of marine plywood unevenly placed, there were gaps in between boards, and the posts differed in height. It’s a messy fence, but is it “friendly,” as the neighbors described? It was both unsightly and lazy in execution—some of the trees were chopped down to stumps and left to die beneath the fence.

Needless to say, 20 tree deaths for a poorly made fence is an atrocity. Some of the trees Lillie had on her land were at least 33 years old. The bigger stumps are probably much older than the neighbor who chopped them down.

Lillie didn’t lose only her plants and trees but also the wildlife in her yard. She used to have bunnies that lived in the brush of her yard. The bunnies have disappeared since the neighbors cleared the trees.

Worst neighbors on TikTok

“I’m pretty sure they made it ugly on purpose,” Lillie accused her neighbors. She argued that the neighbors did more work just to make the property look worse. Lillie also showed a picture of her yard before her neighbors tore the trees down.

“See all of the plant life and vegetation that we had over there? That’s why we bought this yard, because it had beautiful, gorgeous, foresty plant life, and they tore it all down,” she mourned. But then, Lillie revealed that she didn’t even plan to sue her neighbors in the first place. She asked them to pay her so she could plant new trees.

“But they decided to continue cutting into the trees for no good reason and told us to just go ahead and call our lawyers. So, that’s exactly what we did,” Lillie said. They seem to have no fear or regard for the law, as in one of the videos, the neighbor was caught standing in Lillie’s yard.

Tree law is going to hit them hard

It’s important to recognize that tree law varies per state. But in most states, trees that fall on one property are the responsibility of the person who owns the land. If a tree falls in the middle of two properties, then it becomes a shared responsibility.

In Lillie’s case, multiple trees seem to be shared with her neighbor. If the neighbor wanted to cut those trees down, Lillie must consent to it first—if she didn’t, the trees shouldn’t be cut down. Another thing to note is that the neighbors had no right to cross Lillie’s property either. Tree law also prohibits neighbors from crossing properties to maintain trees, otherwise known as “timber trespass.”

The neighbors who orchestrated the destruction of the trees will be required to pay by the law. Damages will have to be estimated by arborists, a lawyer, and a surveyor, and all this costs money. Lillie hasn’t sued yet—she’s still raising the funds to hire experts to survey the damage done to her yard. But even so, she has a big fighting chance that could knock the wind out of her neighbor’s awful fence—and TikTok is rooting for her.

(featured images: Elizabeth Olson, Skootergirl)

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