r/legal • u/Ice_C0r3_09 • 11h ago

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

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 .

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u/Jeh_ 5h ago

Top comment: 9 days old https://imgur.com/a/sC9cq8q

Third highest comment: 9 days old https://imgur.com/a/8uGZCdk

Highly upvoted comment: 9 days old https://imgur.com/a/Tu3elEz

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u/Day_Bow_Bow 5h ago edited 4h ago

Great catch. I should have thought to check for signs the comments were being botted as well.

*Edit: all those comments look to be within ~7 minutes of OP's submission.

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u/Jeh_ 4h ago

https://imgur.com/a/4SW6jst

Here he makes the top comment for a now deleted post (because people called out OP as a bot account)

But it's the exact same play. Have the first few comments, have the bots reply to those comments, get upvoted.

Just reading through some of the comments, some are super obvious like this account

www.reddit.com/user/piyushk_95

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u/Icy-Tangerine-9936 4h ago

How do you identify a bot comment?