I purchased a home that backs up to a beautiful wooded landscape beyond which is a small creek, a large commercial facility and then a busy roadway. My property only extends to the tree line and every other home on this side street has the same limited backyard. The entire strip of woods and creek belongs to the facility.
When I first moved in, my neighbor that owns and lives in multi family home next door informs me that they (facility) are cool and we can use the space as much as we want, they really don’t care. He has a fire pit and a small shed on their land. He has some hunting stands in the trees, no big deal, had it for 30 years. Eventually I built my own fire pit in the space and had no issues.
Unfortunately after a few years that neighbor decided to sell and we got a Karen for our new neighbor. Around this same time we noticed that many of the trees were diseased and posing a threat to my home so we reached out to the facility to discuss.
They were great, came same day to evaluate, sent in several arborists to assess for quotes, picked one, discussed with us for timing, use of our lawn to exit with trees, etc. We were actually thrilled because these trees prevented any sun in our backyard and forced us to have expensive gutter guards installed due to the sheer amount of pine needles. Now we would be getting sunlight, a huge reduction in pine needles and we didn’t have to pay. The trucks taking away the trees did a number to my lawn but it was worth it.
A couple of days later, my doorbell rings and a woman introduces herself as the owner of multi family home next door. She does not live there, each unit is rented out. She immediately begins her “Grade A Karen” style rant with how I owe her money because when I had my trees removed they damaged her lawn. I simply listened, shaking my head as though I were empathizing with her. Eventually she stopped and I got to kindly inform her that I did not have any trees removed. The facility removed the trees from their property and the damaged lawn was actually my property. Felt good, said with a smirk. She left in a huff.
This all happened in September.
In May, after 6 months of snow has melted we notice that the facility guy is in the backyard again. He informs us that he is there to inspect the “damage” to the neighbor’s fire pit, which was supposedly caused by the tree removals the previous fall. It certainly couldn’t have been caused by the 9’ of snow and ice built up on it for months, right?
The fire pit, and the shed that she believes is hers are not on her property and were placed there by the previous owner so technically when she purchased the house these items could not have been included. Her lack of understanding of the property lines is her first problem. Demanding compensation for something that isn’t yours is silly but she really seemed determined to get something out of this tree removal, first trying with me to be compensated for the damage to my lawn and then 7 months later for a broken fire pit stone (approx $3 to replace). Well she got something.
KARMA
The facility guy took the facts back to the office manager that had sent him over to investigate, based on the demand from Karen. The office manager thoroughly enjoyed crafting the response letter, stating that not only were they not responsible for any damages since they never entered her property lines; the facility also demanded that the fire pit and shed be removed from their property.
I enjoy a large beautiful backyard that I do not own. I garden in it, play yard games, enjoy our fire pit and the beauty it provides and I’m grateful, not greedy. Be nice people.
Lovely wooded backyard with massive pine trees
My fire pit
Trees being removed
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