Please help me deal with my neighbors

[MirandaS30]

I posted this post in another forum but I wanted to see if you all had any ideas too

Here is my dilemma ......

My neighbor that moved here in July has this palm tree (very tall palm 30-40 ft). Before they moved in this palm was diseased. I'm not positive exactly what is the problem with the palm something pretty serious though. This palm is VERY close to our property (about 4-5 ft). It is between both their and my electric wire (both electric lines are no more than 4-8 ft away. This palm tree has a curve about 3/4 the way up that has a curve like " ) " because of the disease, and the bend is in my direction, so it will fall my way when it falls. It also has chunks of the tree missing in this area and I cannot beleive its even still alive. The problem is that is not going to live much longer and I see it falling first before it actually dies. I have been mentioning things since the month they moved in and have become more frequent lately. I had to call FPL (electric company) myself, because they couldn't get "around to it" and they came and said that they (FPL) are not responsible for taking it down because it doesn't touch the lines, but that they have a free sevice call "disconnect - reconnect" that they will deconnect the wires so it can be taken down. I gave them all the info for this and we just had all our palms trimmed and our oak that was messed up fixed on monday. We have gave them these lawn care guys numbers and have also recommended other places. Both the them agree that he can tak it down "no problem" because he use to take down huge pine treetrees all the time when they lived in minnesota. Still with me? Well its almost hurricane season and when they "disconnect" my line I WILL be without power and it gets hotter by the day this time of year in S. Florida. I lost tons of sleep on Tuesday night, we had a mega storm here and it was really windy. We had our Hyundai and the Jaguar in the driveway and I almost went and moved them both to make myself feel better. Also she said to me about 4 months ago " if that was me I wouldn't be parking my car there", then giggled. IF the tree where to fall it would fall on my powerline so even if my children were not in the driveway but in the yard they would probably be at risk for electrocution.

I have a HUGE problem with the waiting for many reasons --

1) My children and friends children play in that driveway (where the tree WOULD fall) but I try to keep them in the grass.
2) My brand new Jaguar is parked in my driveway!
3) I will be without power for a undetermined amount of time
4) I dont know who else's car could be in the driveway (our friends or family's vehicles or our saleen (priceless specialty car there is 40 made of this type)

I called my homeowners insurance yesterday for advice on who would be responsible. They said that I need to get a lawyer and I need to call the city. They said if it was an act of god they problably wouldn't be responsible, but in this case it would be considered neglegence and I'd probably have to sue.

More backround on the neighbors... These are not elderly people I'm asking to chop down this tree they are in their early 30's. I'd consider my neighbors very agreeable people with everything except when it comes to this tree. Its not like they don't have time to do it. He works very little from home and she doesn't work at all (although they will be opening their own store within the next 3 weeks). They take little mini vacations site seeing ALL the time when their children are at school. They work on their lawn often and are outside all the time doing lots of different things.

What should I do to make myself serious about this?

Please help

[telos2000]

If it were me, I would offer to pay the tree's removal. I might be out a couple hundred dollars, but I would have peace of mind.

[MirandaS30]

Thanks telos for the response. I know I cannot complain too much because I DO refuse to pay for the tree removal. These people have Money there is no reason why they can't have it removed. The price for removal is $250. I now promised myself my children WILL not play anywhere near that tree, no execptions, so that's pretty much the front yard. We are getting our back fenced in next weekend (already had plans to do it). We cannot play out there now because I live on a canal w/ gators and all diffrent other types of critters. I have pictures just to give you all a visual to what is really going on.

[GR8GIRLS]

Do you have a Mayor's complaint center? Try calling there, or your borough/city/county offices. If you have documentation that you did try to resolve a problem or head off one, you might be in better shape if you do end up filing suit. Document every time you talk to the neighbors. If it comes down to your word against theirs, credibility will fall on your side if you document the problems & responses. Good luck

[hmsram]

Atleast here where I live the light company goes around cutting trees down which are in danger of falling on a line... Even without owner consent they have right to do it...It is to bad your area does not do this...Definately keep the photos so incase this tree does come down and damage something you have proof to back up you have tried to get this resolved...

Some neighbors just will not cooperate...and truthfully my mother in law is the same way lol we live in their old home and she says they can not cut her trees ...well I told her when the light company decides to there is nothing I can do to stop them...and I would not even try..

[MirandaS30]

Thanks everyone! Last night I sat down and tried to recall all the conversations or actions I've taken in regards of the tree. After my husband realized that I WILL call the city first thing Mon. if I got no further response he wrote the husband an email last night. Among other things the email said something about please have it taken care of by May 31, 2005. So we will know soon what their thoughts are soon about it. We also have written documentation that we asked them to take it down because it has problems. Hopefully he will write us back through email so we have proof of what he says back. I assume we will know by tomarrow on if he is going to take it down within this time frame or not. I think if they said anything about them might not getting around to it I will go ahead and call the city and I've heard through my research on the net that code enforcment in this general area does not allow diseased trees. So code enforcment will then hopefully take care of everything for me. I REALLY would HATE to go that route but I would REALLY hate for anything to happen to my children. I am a mother before anything else and that means my job is to protect my children. If something happens to them because of this I'd feel like a complete failure! My next job is to protect MY assets! Its a very fine line I'm walking with these people, but I gots to do what I gots to do.

[lookin4delz]

So...what's the verdict?