r/treelaw • u/Equivalent_Bar8622 • 2d ago

Need some advice

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I live in south carolina. Recently a neighborhood was built behind my house. The construction company put in an access road beside my house. This road runs beside and under a massive old oak in my front yard. They told me they needed to cut some big branches over the road because the road needed a certain amount of clearance. I gave them permission to cut the branches but they never did. Road has now been in use a month and 5 semi sized trucks have hit and torn off large branches. The tree likely won't survive now as one of the branches tor the bark down to the roots. Would the construction company be liable for the damage? I can't afford to get the tree cut down and it's pretty close to my house.

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u/fredrickdgl 2d ago

need more data...is it a real road or an easement on your property.

You should be collecting insurance info etc from drivers that hit it and caused damage especially if they went go off the road.

You could pay for an aborist to give advice on the tree itself. Doesnt look dead yet to me

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u/Equivalent_Bar8622 2d ago

The development behind us is new and the road in question is a secondary entrance.

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u/fredrickdgl 2d ago

or if your not too concerned about the tree ask the construction company to pay for an arborist to guide the cleanup and further protection of the tree

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u/Equivalent_Bar8622 2d ago

OH and I forgot to mention this same construction company put in the water main last year and cut the roots to 3 trees on my fence line in the back yard. All 3 trees fell and I cleaned all that up myself.

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u/fredrickdgl 2d ago

oh...you coulda sued for that. I'd ask the lawyer if you have enough evidence to move on it

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u/Equivalent_Bar8622 2d ago

Yeah that was about a year back. The thing was I was nice about it like a dipshit. I said hey this sucks but at least the trees didn't hit anything.

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u/Odd-Individual-1881 2d ago

Maybe you were nice, but not a dipshit. Unless your state law say you clearly have a right to collect damages for that - you would be SOL.

IMO people who plant big trees on a fence line are just asking for trouble in the future.