‘My neighbor is threatening to sue me for $27,000 over his lack of enjoyment of his yard’

A Reddit user has shared a bizarre story of neighborhood disagreement over garden trees in California.
The user explained that when they moved into the house in 2021, they were informed about the need to trim their trees every three months up to their neighbor’s fence height.
Despite diligently performing this task and even agreeing to cut the trees a foot below the recommended level, the disgruntled neighbor was not satisfied and began filing multiple violations against them.
The user wrote: “The HOA seemed happy with how we were trimming them, so every time he filed a violation, they sided with us.”
After living there for two years, things escalated when they received a letter from the neighbor’s lawyer.
Allegedly, they were threatened with legal action. The neighbor accused both the resident and the Homeowner’s Association (HOA) of failing to keep the trees properly trimmed while suggesting that inconsistent enforcement had allowed previous residents to ignore the rules as well.
The HOA suggested mediation, where the unhappy neighbor then listed demanding conditions for landscaping, including cutting all trees down to half their height and completely removing one.
Seeing the demands as frivolous, the neighbor vowed to take the matter to court if they didn’t get their way.
“He states that if we do not comply, he will take us to court and request us to pay all legal fees (currently at $12K) + compensation for the lack of enjoyment of his yard ($15K).”
One response suggested they seek legal advice: “My first recommendation is that you seek legal advice. My opinion as someone who is not a lawyer is that his suit will not work out the way he thinks it will.”