Okay.
The house my family is currently fixing/renovating and ready to rent out for people is almost done. My father plans to put it into my name (legal reasons) when they purchase another house (making me a landlord of this one).

The house we currently live in is under a property management agreement as it is a condo-townhouse. We own it - but they handle shit like snow plowing, grass cutting, window and door paints, etc. In our back yard, we have a tree outside of the backyard, and all the roots and shit are ending up underneath the fence, therefore into our property. All the leaves and whatnot that branch up all the way over the backyard, makes any items in our backyard sticky due to sap or whatever that sticky shit comes out of trees in the summer. Roots are about 1 foot away from our natural gas meter (which is not safe), a second tree next to the house, is damaging the foundation of the house.

We contacted the management company, and they basically said "okay, we'll see what we can do, and get an expert out here to check it out".

This morning, the "tree expert" came and discussed the situation with my father and I. Apparently, since the roots and shit is on our property, it's our problem. Tree expert told us "no grass is growing because the tree is blocking the sun", and my dad said "no shit, thats why you're here to tell us to trim the necessary branches and/or remove the tree." And the tree expert gave us a business card to some HOMOSEXUAL who would charge us $20 an hour to TELL and MONITOR us how to remove the roots/plant new grass sods and shit. My dad and his brothers did that shit for a living before they all got married. My dad basically told him to F*CK off. Now we're considering legal options and possibly see if they TRULY have responsibility over this. (The amount of damage/repair at the moment to put new interlocking, grass and shit is pretty high as we don't plan on doing that shit ourselves. - if that gas meter breaks a fire may occur. *burning down the house lawl*.)

Why am I posting this?
What kind of lawyers/legal aid/legal action should I take? Legal terminology can be used as I do have some knowledge on various legal systems. I just don't know who I should initially contact.


FYI: We pay money to these retards every month.

I know a lot about legal stuff (dated a lawyer for a year, helped folks study for BAR) but never got into real property :(

In most cases, the best thing to do is obtain a lawyer in your state who deals with property law. Duh, right? Hopefully someone here knows more than me :) Best of luck, that shit sucks.

H'ok so heres the earth...

IMO but I am not an expert at all...

Get ahold of a copy of the agreement you have with the management company and go through it with a fine tooth comb for anything pertaining to this situation.

get ahold of the city of ottawa for two reasons. 1) to alert them to the situation with your gas meter, since clearly, its going to end bad if nothings done. 2) to talk to the zoning department, or whatever the F*CK they call it to figure out/get a ruling on if this tree is in fact your problem or the management companies. Seeing as how the source is off your property it shoudl be the management companies.

If the city agrees that it is off property and is the management companies responsibility get it in writing and bring it to them. If they still refuse get a lawyer and have fun with the legal system

edit: by teh way its province dirk.... silly newb

god damned canadians, GET OFF MY LAWN

Here's what you would have to do if you lived in the US:

You would call a company to remove the trees. Then you would hand the bill over to the landlord. The landlord would refuse to pay. You would sue him. He would then pay up, but you would have to suck up the legal fees.

Moral of the story: Renting sucks.

I know you don't "rent" but since you're still dealing with a landlord, the rules apply. That's in the US though, since Canada is a lawless wilderness, who knows?

Ive always been a fan of the Americans way of suing everyone and everything for everything possible

My two favorites:

OMG, GOOGLE LED ME INTO A BUSY ROAD! I WAS ON GOOGLE MAPS ON MY PHONE, AND I WALKED INTO THE MIDDLE OF A STREET AND GOT HIT BY A CAR! idk the outcome of that one, but it gave me lulz

HOT, HOT!!! I had no warning that this hot coffee is hot! wins millions $$$$ and goes in the books. That's why you always get that annoying "careful, it's hot" message.



On Skull's problem: Since the tree is not on your property, it isn't your problem, but it's your job to fix. Is it in your neighbors yard, or community property? it would make a difference I think.

Move to the states. Just shoot the owner of the tree in the leg. After he is healed he will fix at his own cost.

That woman was like 83 years old, and had third degree burns. You don't know anything.

That's really how at least 50% of issues in America are solved.

I'm studying law but don't know enough to give you advice, sorry. If it's still there in 3 years I'll gladly help.

Around here, if the tree is growing on someone elses property it is their responsibility to deal with problems it causes. We had to deal with that a lot on my last job and once here at my house.

Just to back up Skull a bit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v. ... estaurants
http://www.vanosteen.com/mcdonalds-coffee-lawsuit.htm

Tree roots belong to the owner of the tree, and tree ownership is determined by where the tree trunk is. If the tree trunk is on your neighbor's property then the root damage is his responsibility. If the trunk is on the property line then you both own the tree and the root damage is your responsibility. If the tree trunk is on city property then who is responsible for root damage depends on the zoning laws of the municipality. Most cities require the homeowner to maintain any "street trees" located in a city median or sidewalk area adjacent to the property, so if that is the case you are probably responsible.

That's the way it is in most US states, pretty sure its the same in Canada. I had a major issue with a neighbor's tree that caused about $20K in foundation damage to my house which we did not discover until a buyer's inspection when we went to sell. One important thing to be aware of is that once you know of the damage you must fix it before it gets worse or it becomes your responsibility.

omg, she was an old moron, i guess i really dont know anything. she held the coffee between her legs while driving, of course it was her fault. stupid old hag.

but my favorite of those types of stories is the one where a guy tries to rob a house, falls through a glass thing in the roof (cant think of the word for it), and damages his leg bad, sues the home owners and wins. i fear for the fate of humanity.

EDIT: I guess I should explain myself abit.

I'm not saying that this is an entirely a clear cut issue in Liebeck's favor, as there are other places saying that they heat coffee to the same temperature. It's just that it's not "LOL I'M GONNA SUE MCDONALDS BECAUSE I NOTICED A LOOPHOLE". She received 3rd Degree burns and had to get skin grafted because of the coffee and was in the hospital for 8 days...how many of you think that could happen to you when you drink a cup of coffee?

wow that sucks skull I'm not sure on tree law and stuff but gl in canada :D

GL man things like that can be a pain in the ass, just hoping that you will have it fixed before the house explodes :)