The trees that fell in my yard…

On October 12, we experienced the first snowfall of the season while most of the leaves were still hanging on to the trees. 

Leaves and snow never go well together and, as a result, they were a huge number of broken trees and limbs all over town. Our yard didn’t escape the incident as two aspen trees were laying there as I woke up that morning…

I alerted my neighbor and sent a picture to my son as he’s is a “specialist” on fallen trees (he had two massive trees torn off his property during a hurricane-like windstorm in September 2020 in Salt Lake City. 

Knowing the “rules” so to speak, he reminded me that if my neighbor’s tree fell on my property, it was my responsibility to handle the tree removal service, not the neighbor’s. 

Conversely, if my tree had fallen on my neighbor’s property, it would become their responsibility to take care of its removal. Poor tree maintenance or other careless manners of handling a tree would of course not qualify. 

Sounds counter-intuitive, but it’s the law, at least in Utah, but also in my native France! Because of that, it’s not uncommon for neighbors to disagree with each other over the tree falling on their property due to a storm. 

In my case, my neighbor was great, he said “Don’t worry, me and my son will take care of that!” I offer to help, but after I return from my morning stroll with my wife, the trees were no longer there! 

A good bottle of wine and some chocolate compensated him for his good deed!