Neighbor removes resident's trees because they ‘block the mountain view’, resident plants 20 new trees on the property instead: ‘I planted Green Giant arborvitaes’

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Sep 10, 2026 7:15 AM EDT

How far are you willing to go to make your neighbor happy?

If your answer is 'not far at all', then congratulations! You are a normal human being. Sure, a happy neighbor might mean a quieter, easier life for you, but why would you want to go the extra mile for a total stranger who just happens to live next to you?

The thing is, some neighbors think that you have an obligation to make them happy. They live their lives thinking that everyone around them should accommodate their wants and needs, without them doing the same in return. And the main problem with people like that is they have no problem taking what they want without even asking.

The neighbor below, for example, wanted to improve his view of the mountains. The way he decided to do it was by cutting down some trees that were obstructing the view. However, these trees were not even on his property; they belonged to the property next door, and the resident who lived there was not happy when they learned that someone decided to cut them down for his personal, selfish reasons.

Even though the removal of the trees led to the resident losing his privacy on the property, they still let it slide. They didn't want to start any disputes with the people next door. But when the neighbor started demanding to cut more trees that were still 'blocking the mountain view', the situation completely changed. There was no way the resident would allow the neighbor to keep making these demands as if he was the only one who deserved to get what he wanted.

This led the resident to plant 20 new trees on their property that just so happened to be blocking the neighbor's view. The neighbor's reaction to these landscape changes might surprise you…

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  • Neighbor standing between trees.
    via Faruk Tokluoğlu

    Neighbor standing between trees.

    Stock photo unrelated.

  • My neighbors asked me to remove trees on MY property so they could have a better Mountain View

    I live on the side of a mountain, where I've learned gravity is apparently our most reliable utility service. When I moved in, a neighbor
    via juniorforthewin
  • removed several trees near our property line. I think some may have been mine, but I can't prove it because most of the stumps disappeared before I knew exactly where everything was.
    via juniorforthewin
  • A few months ago, MORE trees came down. Not de d trees. Not dangerous trees. Big, mature, very much LIVE trees.
    via juniorforthewin
  • Why? The mountain view. Fair enough. If they're their trees, they can remove them. The problem was those trees also provided most of the privacy between our houses.
    via juniorforthewin
  • Once they were gone, they could basically look directly toward our house. They also added a big above-ground pool. I don't blame kids for yelling and playing,
    via juniorforthewin
  • obviously, but without the trees there's no real buffer anymore. My two tiny dachshunds occasionally interpret pool
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  • time as DEFCON 1. Then came the part that genuinely surprised me. The neighbor's wife asked me to remove MORE live trees so they could improve their
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  • mountain view even further. Except this time, the trees. were ON MY PROPERTY. I declined.
    via juniorforthewin
  • I'd also like to enjoy the property I pay for, and apparently my preferred view is "trees and privacy" rather than "surprise eye contact with the neighbors."
    via juniorforthewin
  • I didn't make a big deal about it. I just said no. But losing all that vegetation made me realize how much privacy those trees had
    via juniorforthewin
  • actually provided. So I decided to put some back. I planted Green Giant arborvitaes. Twenty of them.
    via juniorforthewin
  • Yes. Twenty. If you're unfamiliar with Green Giants, whoever named them was not exaggerating.
    via juniorforthewin
  • Man standing in a garden surrounded by trees.
    via Ahmed

    Man standing in a garden surrounded by trees.

    Representative only.

  • They're adorable little trees. right now. Eventually they can become enormous walls of green. Did I plant them specifically to destroy anyone's mountain view?
    via juniorforthewin
  • No. I genuinely wanted the privacy and vegetation back. Did I know exactly what twenty Green Giants lined up together will eventually become?
    via juniorforthewin
  • Absolutely. And after being asked to remove trees from my property for someone else's view, I can't say I'm particularly devastated that
    via juniorforthewin
  • their mountain panorama may eventually contain a substantial amount of arborvitae.
    via juniorforthewin
  • Meanwhile, the mountain itself apparently decided I didn't have enough landscaping problems. Water pours downhill through my yard, pools
    via juniorforthewin
  • under my deck, and occasionally attempts to become a permanent resident of my basement. So I dug a trench across the
    via juniorforthewin
  • upper part of my property to intercept some of it. But my property ALSO has a natural spring. It used to flow across my driveway.
    via juniorforthewin
  • Pennsylvania winter + constantly wet driveway = complimentary private ice rink. I've fallen on my a shoveling enough times to know I have no future in
    via juniorforthewin
  • figure skating, so I rerouted the spring alongside the driveway toward the road. Then I looked at all the OTHER water coming down the mountain and thought:
    via juniorforthewin
  • "If this mountain insists on delivering water to me, I'm getting something out of it." So now I'm building a koi pond.
    via juniorforthewin
  • My homeownership journey has somehow become: Neighbors remove trees. Privacy disappears. Get asked to remove my trees too.
    via juniorforthewin
  • Decline. Mountain sends water. Yard becomes Wet 'n Wild. Basement joins the fun. Dig trench. Reroute spring. Build koi pond.
    via juniorforthewin
  • Plant 20 Green Giants. Wait patiently for photosynthesis. At this rate, in ten years they'll have less mountain view and I'll have a forest,
    via juniorforthewin
  • drainage system, koi pond, two emotionally exhausted dachshunds, and possibly be legally recognized as a small watershed.
    via juniorforthewin
  • And despite how ridiculous all of this sounds, I actually don't have beef with my neighbors.
    via juniorforthewin
  • The neighbor who removed the trees saw the arborvitaes afterward and told me what I did was cool.
    via juniorforthewin
  • So apparently we've reached a peaceful diplomatic solution: They like mountain views. I like trees. And the mountain itself remains my greatest enemy.
    via juniorforthewin

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neighbors trees plants house garden landscape mountains property home property line
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