Update on my neighbor cutting down my oleanders

[Disney-Kim]

I was asked to give an update:
here is the original post:
ok..I completely understand your anger...I have a little story too...

not a MIL but a Neighbor.

We went out of town for 1 night (one !!) on Friday. Came home Sat night and went in the back yard to let out the dog and I noticed that our Oleanders (big giant green bushes 12 ft tall that grow here) all along our 100 foot wall on the West side of our property have been trimmed...ok no TRIMMED but cut back a good 4 feet and BUTCHERED !!!!!!!!
I about threw up from anger.
Not only did neighbor have OUR oleanders on OUR property cut back without our permission while we were out of town but she allowed the workers to trespass on OUR property. They had to climb 6 ft tall LOCKED gate/walls to do this.
Luckily she wasn't home that night or I would have ripped her head off. sorry I was sooooo angry mostly because she allowed workers on our property without our permission (no we never did before either) but she did something that she KNEW we would hate. This has come up before and we always said no we don't want them cut back.
Now we see her ugly chain link fence and the UGLIEST BRONWEST DESTROYED oleanders you have ever seen. Yes they will grow back in about 6 months but not the 4 feet back she cut.
Now our dog can see her dogs and they run up down the fence and bark (her dogs) AND its dirt they run in since the oldeanders used to grow there...so now we had to plant more grass.
Well....as you can tell this still angers me today
ok...I vented...feel better.
sorry my story was sooo long and didn't mean to hi-jack.

I left a note on her door that night telling her how mad we were. We have been neighbors for 9 yrs and we are friendly. The next morning we saw her in her yard, asked her to come into our backyard and look at what she did.
We both proceeded to REAM her for while about how they trespassed on our property and what if someone was hurt and sued us....etc...etc. So she is almost tears by now...so I sent my DH into house...he couldn't let it go. I stayed and talked to her and she realized her mistake in letting people on our property but she still argued with me that it was best for the oleanders and they would grow back.
basically I told her it wasn't her decision to cut anything in our yard and I told her that she knew we would hate it and she did it anyway. I felt that was wrong.
well now since then she admitted that the oleanders do look really terrible and she is sorry for doing that. too little too late. it is really ugly. they will be green again by next summer, but it is still a thorn in our sides.
I think she hides from us now.

 

[DisneyfeverTN]

Wow. Your neighbor has some nerve to have workers go on your property. I would have been furious too. I can't believe she though that would be ok. Some people have no common sense!

 

[hentob]

I I stayed and talked to her and she realized her mistake in letting people on our property but she still argued with me that it was best for the oleanders and they would grow back.........

Which means she still believes she was correct in what she did

I would be furious.

 

[KathyTX]

Did she say why she did it? Were the oleanders hanging over onto her property? (Was the 4' that was trimmed over her property line?)

I just can't imagine what would possess someone to knowingly do something like that with property that's not theirs.

You might be able to take her to small claims court, if you could prove any financial damages...

 

[Magickndm]

Can you send her here? Freaky looking caterpillars have ruined most of our oleanders, I'm tired of fighting them.

Seriously though, since she now knows how upset you are, let it go. The oleanders will be nice and big again, no reason to make an enemy of this lady. Unless she does it again.

 

[Sandy V.]

OP, you're nicer than I am. I would have called law enforcement out there to file a criminal trespass complaint. Even if I asked the prosecutors to drop it later, your neighbor needed to have the %@*$%# scared out of her. I agree with the previous poster that the galling part is that she STILL thinks she's right. Which means that she's giving you lip service about being remorseful. Of course she's remorseful; she got CAUGHT!

 

[Hillbeans]

We had a similar situation once with neighbors.

We had just moved into our first house, and one saturday a few weeks after living there, we look out the window and see our neighbor ripping out every shrub and tree on the left side of the property. My husband ran out and ripped into him and he told my husband that he had been planning to put up a nice fence between the property and blah, blah, blah.....WHAT NERVE of someone to work on "shared" property without at least asking first!

Of course the fence was eventually put up but the principal of being friendly neighbors went out the window. We barely ever spoke to them again and moved 2 years later. We have spoken with our current neighbors about doing some tree maintenance and we're working together to come up with something we both like. It works much better that way!

Sorry to hear what you're going through - I do feel your pain! Hopefully she'll never EVER do anything like this again. What nerve of people!

 

[grlpwrd]

OP, you're nicer than I am. I would have called law enforcement out there to file a criminal trespass complaint. Even if I asked the prosecutors to drop it later, your neighbor needed to have the %@*$%# scared out of her. I agree with the previous poster that the galling part is that she STILL thinks she's right. Which means that she's giving you lip service about being remorseful. Of course she's remorseful; she got CAUGHT!

I agree with you about calling law enforcement. I was outside this past summer killing weeds in my lawn when my neighbor came up to me to yell at me. I guess she thought I was killing her grass and said some other really nasty things to me. She and her husband have done outrageous things like this before - they even walked into our house and barged in to call my dh after a tree on our side fell on their property during a hurricane. They are known as the mean people in our neighborhood because that is how they are. They even yell at the service people.

I've called the cops on her and won't hesitate to do so again. They haven't bothered me since... Sometimes you have to call in the law with some people.

 

[sajetto]

OP, you're nicer than I am. I would have called law enforcement out there to file a criminal trespass complaint. Even if I asked the prosecutors to drop it later, your neighbor needed to have the %@*$%# scared out of her. I agree with the previous poster that the galling part is that she STILL thinks she's right. Which means that she's giving you lip service about being remorseful. Of course she's remorseful; she got CAUGHT!

I am TOTALLY with you on this! My blood is boiling just reading this story! There is no way I would have handled that nicely. That is a serious thing she did and deserves to learn a very hard lesson from it.

 

[Disney-Kim]

I thought I would clarify a couple things:

yes the oleanders were growing on OUR side of the fence. a full 3-4 feet of bush into OUR yard on OUR property line. there is a chain link fence on her property line and the roots are on hers too.
these are 55 yr old oleanders...the root base is prob 5-6 feet across and they used to be over 40 ft tall, until she cut them to 10 ft. (while we were away on our HONEYMOON, but thats another story )
So she feels that they are HER oleanders to keep up. She has been on this weird kick for months about powerwashing the insides so they grown better... yes I know LOONEY. We never let her on our side to anything except TRIM them a couple times a year. She asks before the trims and we help pay. We like them trimmed, not butchered.
So this time she knew for 2 weeks that they were going to trim, never told us, and waited until the day we were out of town to do it. We both know she did this so we couldn't argue...you know how you just know.
She keeps telling us they will grow better now that she sliced 4 feet off.

HERE IS THE KICKER:
she DIDN't do it to her side of the oleander or the opposite neighbor to her. they circle her back yard. NOOOOO her's look beautiful and GREEN. Only the side in our yard is BROWN and UGLY.
She knows never to step foot in OUR yard. Remember...we have LOCKED gates and fenced yard. NO ACCESS unless you have key due to our pool.

well anyway...I have let it go. I want to still be friendly neighbors and hopefully she will not do anything like this again. I did want to call the police...my BIL is a cop and I wanted to press charges for trespassing..but that was all in anger that night.

 

[Disney-Kim]

ps...she's not mean. I really have to say that. She is looney and has an anal attachment to the oleanders...but not mean.
I still want to spit nails when I tell this story.

 

[VioltePrincess]

one suggestion. put it in writing. now. today. send ehr a certified letter and tell her she is NOT to enter your property and she is NOT to touch your oleanders.

maybe even call professional landscaper, get a price quote for fixing what she did as best you can, and tell her you will hold her liable for that amount if she ever damages your property again.

 

[KathyTX]

Now I'm a little confused. From your last post, it sounds like the oleanders are hers, with the trunks and roots on her property and surrounding her yard.

Which property are the oleanders actually growing on?

 

[Magickndm]

I thought I would clarify a couple things:

yes the oleanders were growing on OUR side of the fence. a full 3-4 feet of bush into OUR yard on OUR property line. there is a chain link fence on her property line and the roots are on hers too.

Now that could complicate who actually owns them, but trespassing onto your property is wrong, no matter how you look at it.

 

[Disney Doll]

Sounds like the oleanders are right on the property line, with the root system in both sides of the fence.

In that case, she can cut her side but not your side. And she certainly should not have gone into your yard, through a locked gate, to do anything.

Since this is not the first time she has done this, I do think I'd send her a certified letter stating that she is not to step foot on your property without an invitation ever again, and she is not to do any kind of landscaping on your property ever again, if she has any concerns about your landscaping growing into her yard or affecting her property in any way, then she is to come and speak to you. I also think I'd include that trespassing is a criome, and what the landscapers she hired did was trespassing.

Then you have a record that you have informed her of what is expected with regard to your property.

 

[aprilgail2]

If it wasn't hanging over onto their property they should not have touched it! I have cut back neighbors shrubs that have went over the property line but only up to the property line, and they have cut back ours that were over their property line. Next year I have to hire a tree company to cut my neighbors tree off my property, I want them to cut it all up straight back to the fence line, the tree will be flat and ugly but I don't want any of it hanging onto my side sine its over my pool. I have talked to them and gotten their ok for the tree guys to go onto their property to do some of the work, I would never just have someone go on their property without permission!

 

[ilovejack02]

Now that could complicate who actually owns them, but trespassing onto your property is wrong, no matter how you look at it.

I wouldnt see why that would complicate things, My neighbor has a HUGE oak tree on his property but the roots come over to my side. Its his tree plain and simple.

 

[grlpwrd]

When you say roots, do you mean suckers?

Well, I would not be surprised if she did it again.

 

[Conkozan]

When we had work done on our property, we had to show the guy where our property line was because he said if he did anything on the neighbors land they could come back and sue HIM.

If this lady has the same company do it all the time I would also send a registered letter to them advising that this was done without your consent.

 

[BarometerMan]

I just wanted to point something out. It may not be relevant to the conversation, but I didn't have a clue what an oleander was so I looked it up. I think I read you had dogs running around these plants.

52. Oleander

Nerium oleander

Apocynaceae (Dogbane family)

TOXICITY RATING: High. Ingestion of even small amounts can kill.

ANIMALS AFFECTED: All animals can be affected.

DANGEROUS PARTS OF PLANT: The entire plant is toxic. Most animals are poisoned by consuming leaves, fresh or dried.

CLASS OF SIGNS: Gastrointestinal irritation, cardiac abnormalities, death (may be sudden).

PLANT DESCRIPTION: This plant grows outdoors in warmer regions, and in Indiana is grown as a houseplant. Oleander grows as a shrub or sometimes to the size of a small tree. The leaves are lance-shaped, thick and leathery, and grow opposite each other. Sometimes, leaves may grow in whorls. The leaves are 8 to 10 inches long, although smaller specimens will have shorter leaves. Flowers are showy, approximately 1 to 3 inches in diameter, and grow in large clusters at the ends of the branches, and can be white or any shade of pink or red.

SIGNS: Oleander contains the toxins oleandrin and nerioside, which very similar to the toxins in foxglove (Digitalis). This is a tropical plant, but is grown as an ornamental and as a houseplant in Indiana. Apparently the plant is not palatable, but will be eaten by hungry animals. It is reported that dried or wilted leaves may be slightly more palatable than fresh leaves, and the leaves are still toxic when wilted or dried. In one report with horses, it was indicated that approximately 1/4 pound of leaves (about 30 or 40 leaves) could deliver a lethal dose to an adult horse.

Clinical signs may develop rapidly, and the animal may be found dead with no prior warning. In other cases, depression coupled with gastrointestinal distress is evident: vomiting (in those species that can vomit), diarrhea (which may be bloody), and abdominal pain. Irregularities in the heart rate and rhythm will occur: the heart may speed up or slow down, and beat erratically. As the toxicosis progresses, the extremities may become cold and the mucous membranes pale. Trembling and collapse can occur, followed by coma and death within a few hours.

FIRST AID: If animals are observed eating oleander, contact a veterinarian immediately. The toxin acts quickly, and is lethal in small amounts. Emergency measures may be used to empty the gastrointestinal tract of remaining plant matter, and medications may be administered to control the effects that the toxin has on the heart. Despite emergency care, the animal may still die, but the sooner treatment is begun, the better the prognosis for survival.

SAFETY IN PREPARED FEEDS: Oleander is extremely toxic, even in small quantities, and the toxin is not eliminated by drying. Therefore, feeds containing oleander are never safe for consumption.

PREVENTION: Be able to identify oleander and exercise extreme caution when pets (and humans) are in the vicinity of these plants. The plants should never be placed where animals can have contact with them. Extra care needs to be taken in cases where leaves can fall into a pasture or in the vicinity of a confined, bored or hungry animal.