No one wants to have a neighbor from hell, but a Georgia family wasn’t lucky enough to avoid that. He isn’t just a bad neighbor; he’s accused of being a liar, too. He deceived the family about his plans for his property, and the results left them devastated. The wife shared on TikTok what exactly happened. Their neighbor told them that he wanted to extend his backyard and fill out a retention pond area there. He explained that this plan would include him cutting down some trees on his property and might also include cutting trees on their property. Since the family had many trees, they made it clear they wanted to keep their privacy, but that’s a bit harder to do considering how many trees he ended up taking down.
The Georgia family’s deceptive neighbor then told them he would inform them which trees they needed to cut down before doing anything. This sounded good enough, so the family agreed. Their agreement only happened because he claimed that it would just be a “couple of trees.” After a year had passed, the neighbor asked whether he had their approval to proceed with the retention pond plan. Again, the family agreed because he said that it would follow the plan both parties agreed on. The next part was shocking. The woman showed a picture of their trees, which were absolutely breathtaking. She then showed a picture of what their neighbor did without their permission. He cut down over 100 of their trees. Just like she described it, it was a “complete and total destruction.”
The wife immediately emailed their neighbor, stating that he had no right to do what he did. She also hung up a sign saying not to touch the remaining trees. Instead of apologizing, the neighbor claimed they didn’t want to lose all the trees either, but that the city told them they had to cut them down to do this. So? They aren’t his trees to “lose.” The woman then asked for the contact information of everyone involved in this project. She also called a land surveyor to come and stake out the actual boundary line. In addition, she told the neighbors they weren’t allowed to set foot on her property until they staked out the boundary line. They also have to write a written agreement stating that they will fix what they ruined.
In an update, the Georgia woman said that she started contacting lawyers for the next step. She also gathered timelines and receipts to be prepared. The neighbor was definitely in the wrong. This was proven true once the HOA contacted the family. HOA informed them that the permit the neighbor obtained from the city didn’t include any work on their property. So he was basically lying. One thing is true about all HOAs: don’t ever try to go against them; it never ends well.
People Reacting to the Georgia Family Losing Their Trees
People were just livid after they saw what happened to the Georgia family’s beautiful trees. Thousands of comments told the wife that they had to sue and that it was an easy win. “He ruined your property value in one fell swoop. I’d sue for everything he’s got,” one comment read. One person also listed some of the things they could sue the neighbor for as they said, “Why stop there? Damage to land, loss of trees, loss of properly value, and emotional damages. He just created generational debt.” A contractor also shared their opinion and wrote, “As a contractor, I can see exactly what he did. He’s trying to shift the retention pond to be exclusively on your land. He cut down your trees so he could dig down. That’s why the grade looks lower. The grade also needs to be fixed.”
More people encouraged the Georgia family to sue by mentioning what they could gain. “Also…. Do you like his house? Because you gonna own it,” one woman wrote. Someone also said, “You’re in fulton County too… we have excellent tree protection. I bet he violated canopy restrictions too. I would start a civil suit as well as report him to every agency to make sure he pays fines. It can be up to $10k for EACH heritage tree. (At least that’s what it is in Sandy Springs) That’s likely why they pulled stumps away so quickly.” The neighbor is definitely not innocent. No one had any sympathy for him, especially since he shouldn’t have messed with his neighbor’s yard.
