If someone moved into the house next to you and didn’t like the trees in your yard, would you remove your trees to please them, or would you look at them like they’re crazy for even asking?

The man in today’s story is dealing with neighbors who hate his birch trees, but he doesn’t want to remove them.

Should he remove them anyway?

Let’s read the whole story to decide.

Denied new neighbor’s request to cut down trees

A few years ago, new neighbors moved into the lot next to mine (35m). They built a new house and redesigned their backyard.

In my yard, I have three massive, fifty-year-old birch trees. While they shed seeds and can create a mess, that’s part of the charm of living in the countryside.

These trees are near the boundary of our properties (separated by a wall/fence, so I can’t see into their yard).

When the trees shed, the mess ends up not only in my yard but also in theirs.

The neighbors don’t like the trees.

The neighbor’s wife approached me, saying their son is allergic to birch trees, and asked me to cut them down.

While that could be true, I strongly suspect the real issue is that they decided to build their swimming pool almost directly beneath the trees.

I refused their request.

The neighbors keep trying to convince OP to remove the trees.

Since then, the wife has continued to harass me, shouting profanities and curses while cleaning her yard.

The husband has tried negotiating several times, even threatening to “call the inspection” on me.

I explained that I don’t want to ruin my yard.

I also asked if he would be willing to cover the costs of renovating my yard after the trees are removed (since he offered to pay for their extraction), but he refused.

He doesn’t think he has any reason to remove the trees.

My position is that I don’t owe anything to people who just moved into the neighborhood and are making demands that would diminish the beauty of my property.

Am I the jerk?

For context, I’m from an Eastern European country, so the laws here likely differ from those in the U.S.

They’re his trees on his property. It’s not his fault neighbors who don’t like the trees decided to buy the house next door and build their pool under the trees.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This is exactly what I was thinking!

Here’s another similar comment.

This person shares a similar situation.

It’s not a good idea to remove the trees.

It might even be illegal to remove the trees.

If the neighbors don’t like the trees, they shouldn’t have bought the house next door!

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.