"miamicuse" wrote in message
...
I just bought a house that was vacant for months, after hurrican Wilma came
through three large black olive trees in front of the house were damaged.

I called the tree company out and they said two of them need heavy
pruning,
and because it was never properly pruned there are some rot and termite
infestation as well. But they cannot trim it because it's the County's
trees. The third one is completely unbalanced and is a hazard waiting to
happen, it's leaning and the root is coming up a bit on the other side,
bulging the concrete sidewalk.

All three trees are on the side of the County's street and outside of my
property line. I was told I am responsible to maintain these trees even
though they are not mine technically.

The County told me to trim and prune trees I need a file a permit. Over
$100 per tree. Now the tree guy will prune it for $300 a tree, and an
additional $600 to haul away the branches. If the unbalanced tree need
removal, I have to pay much more...for removal, for stump grinding and for
hauling away, and County require a 100% canopy replacement and higher
permit
fee. This will result in thousands!!!

This is not even on my property! I thought I pay property taxes for
things
like this!

MC



In my city and I think most, the city is responsible for city trees (on or
abutting your property) and trims them once a year or so but you say there
is still a lot of hurricane damage around indicating they may still be
overwhelmed by other priorities. If you live in the county (unincorporated
land), the services provided may be quite a bit less than those available in
the city.

Also in my city a permit is not needed if less than X% of the canopy is
pruned. You may get off cheaper by pruning two years in a row rather than
all at once. As for the removal, they may waive the fee if you can show the
tree is irrevocably damaged by the hurricane and that it is a city tree.

My horribly politically incorrect advice is to tie it to your bumper in the
middle of the night and pull it down to the middle of the street then go to
bed and wait for chainsaws to wake you in the morning.