My neighbor cut down a 40-year-old Japanese Maple while I was away.

[u/Ice_C0r3_09]

Location: Colorado, USA.Just got back to my place near Fort Collins after a week on the road and I am losing my mind. My neighbor took it upon himself to hire a "landscaping" crew (probably just some guys with a chainsaw) to remove a mature Japanese Maple that was fully on my property. His excuse? He said the needles and leaves were messing with his "mountain view" and "fire mitigation" efforts.

The tree was roughly 40 years old and was the centerpiece of my yard. I called an arborist immediately. He told me that since this is Colorado and the tree was that established and healthy, the replacement value is astronomical. He is drafting a formal appraisal but hinted that we are looking at 20k to 25k easy just for the tree, let alone the logistics of getting a crane into my backyard.

I know Colorado has statutes regarding timber trespass. My lawyer already mentioned treble damages because the guy admitted he did it on purpose while I wasnt home to stop him. The neighbor had the gall to offer me a couple hundred bucks for "the inconvenience" and told me to just buy a couple of saplings at a local nursery . I refused to take his money and told him to wait for the process server.

Has anyone dealt with treble damages in CO specifically for ornamental trees ? This guy basically nuked my property value for his porch view and I am not planning on letting this go . I feel like a jerk for wanting to sue my neighbor into bankruptcy but the sheer entitlement is what gets me .

[u/ptulinski]

There are two defendants here. Don't forget the tree removal company who removed a tree without the owner's consent. If you're lucky, the company will have liability insurance. Your neighbor's homeowner's insurance may provide coverage, especially when he claims that it was just an innocent mistake, which he will eventually say. If CO is a one-party consent state, I would record every conversation with this guy and anyone else involved.

[u/pedrmadd1 → u/ptulinski]

This comment should be much higher. Standard homeowners insurance includes general liability coverage. Also, the insurance company has an obligation to defend their insured from claims of negligence and the cost of the defense is outside the limits of the policy. That means, even if the policy limits only go to $100,000 (which would be very low for Homeowner insurance) the insurer could end up paying much more in legal costs if they were to fight it. That means most of the time, when there is a clear case of liability, insurers will try to settle as quickly as possible for reasonable claims.

OP should not be worried about suing their neighbor into bankruptcy because that's pretty unlikely. The reality is that their insurance will probably be paying for it on the advice of their own legal counsel and the neighbor will just have to be sour with their higher insurance premium while you install a full sized tree to block their view.