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When you move into a house, you are responsible for keeping everything up and making it look as nice as you can.

What would you do if you were in the process of improving the landscaping when your neighbor came over and chopped down several established plants that were in your yard?

That is what happened to the homeowner in this story, and when she confronted the neighbor, she said she had permission from the previous homeowner. Now she is upset that this happened, but doesn’t know what she can do.

To me, it seems like this was nothing more than a misunderstanding, though I do understand why she is upset. Read the full story below and see what you think.

My Neighbor Destroyed 10+ Years of Mature Plants. What Would You Do?

We keep to ourselves and don’t bother anyone. September 15 will be our one-year anniversary in this home.

Restoring a home takes a lot of time and effort.

In less than a year, we’ve put a lot of work into cleaning up the property and improving the exterior and landscaping.

Our home is approximately 100 years old, and preserving its original character is very important to me. I work in exterior remodeling, and although we help homeowners create their dream homes, I personally believe renovations should complement the style of the house and the surrounding neighborhood.

This seems like a great renovation strategy.

I could completely modernize the house, remove the old siding, and tear out every mature plant, but that is not what I wanted.

My goal has always been to preserve as much of the home’s existing character and landscaping as possible, while slowly updating and improving it.

Everything takes time.

I work long hours and stay very busy, so I’ve been improving everything little by little. I started in the front by building a small retaining wall and adding a decorative stone pad.

From there, I’ve slowly continued the landscaping toward the backyard. It hasn’t been the quickest or cleanest process, but I have been actively working on it.

Plants on or near the property line require a little extra consideration.

According to our property survey, our property line is only 1.9 feet away from our neighbor’s house. Therefore, the area they supposedly “cleaned up” was almost entirely on our property and was not intruding onto theirs.

At the beginning of the season, I trimmed anything from my yard that appeared to be growing onto their property or against their house. I did that simply to be neighborly. That did not give anyone permission to enter our property or cut down and damage our plants.

Why would they do this?

They destroyed what appears to have been a mature hydrangea. We don’t know its exact variety or age, but it was approximately 12 feet wide by 10 feet tall and was clearly very mature.

It was at least six years old and could have possibly been more than 10 years old. They also cut two of our three white Rose of Sharon bushes completely to the ground and severely damaged the third one.

It is easy to see that she is very frustrated.

These were not meaningless weeds or random plants to me. They were mature, established plants that had likely been part of the property for many years.

I wanted to care for them and incorporate them into the improvements I was making. Having someone enter our property and destroy them without permission took that choice away from us.

Ok, maybe it was just a misunderstanding.

I would also like to make it clear that I don’t believe the elderly man who lives there had anything to do with this. My concern is with his daughter, who is supposed to help take care of the property.

I confronted her through her ring doorbell and told her that she did not have the right to enter our property and cut down our plants. She claimed that the previous homeowner had given her mother, who has since passed away, permission to plant in that area.

Getting new permission may have never crossed their minds.

I understand that there may have been some type of verbal agreement with the previous homeowner. However, we are now the owners, and no one ever informed us about that agreement.

Nothing was provided to us in writing, and we never gave anyone permission to enter the property, maintain that area, or remove any plants. I have also spoken with another one of the daughters before, and she never mentioned that they claimed ownership of or had planted anything in that area.

None of this is wrong, but that doesn’t mean the neighbor did anything to intentionally upset them.

The daughter said the area was not clean. I don’t deny that it needed some cleanup, but approximately 90% of the area was on our property.

The plants and weeds were not intruding onto their property or preventing access to their home. Regardless of how she felt it looked, that did not give her permission to come onto our property and destroy mature plants.

It is very unlikely that the neighbor’s daughter did anything out of spite.

I’m extremely upset and heartbroken that these plants were destroyed. I’ve been nothing but kind and respectful toward the elderly man who lives next door.

When branches from his trees fall into my yard, I clean them up. When I cut my grass, I make sure to blow the clippings away from his property.

The frustration is understandable.

I’ve even cut his grass when it became badly overgrown because I knew he was elderly and his daughters were supposed to be helping care for the property.

I was simply trying to be a good neighbor. At no point did we give anyone permission to enter our property or cut down, damage, or remove our plants.

While it is completely understandable that she is upset about this, she should not let it ruin the relationship with her neighbors. Simply ask them not to do that in the future, and it seems likely that they would be happy to comply.

Read through the comments below to see what other people have to say about what happened.

This might be overreacting.

Hydrangeas do grow fast.

Putting up a fence is always a good idea.

Here is someone who says she should call the police.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a homeowner who doesn’t think their painters should use their water spigot on the job.

This is a very important lesson to learn, though.

Never assume malicious intent when simple ignorance or a mistake can explain it. Sure, maybe the neighbor’s daughter is a bad person, but that should not be the default answer.

Talk to her. Set boundaries. And give her a chance to be a good neighbor.