Neighbor Using My Tree

[dogger1]

There is a tree in my backyard (straddles the property line, but clearly on my side), and my neighbor has attached a zip line from one of his trees to my tree. The neighborhood kids all ride the zip line (for the past couple weeks), and I spoke with my neighbor yesterday about A) the fact that the tree might be getting damaged due to kids crashing into it, and B) the liability I may have if the tree dies and I need to take it down, and C) the liability I may have it one of these kids gets hurt. I told him to shut down the operation.

He then came over a short while later in the afternoon and says how the kids are all upset, etc…. and wanted to talk to his lawyer about drawing up a document that would waive liability for me if the tree dies/needs to come down and also waive liability for me if any of the kids get hurt.

Questions – Is this legal to do? I would think this would have to be an amendment to my deed, and thus I’d have to admonish some rights to my land, which I don’t want to do. Can a piece of paper be drawn up to waive me of liability from MY land? Also, I might put up a fence someday and I don’t want anything to interfere with that.

I don’t want to be the neighbor who all the kids hate, but he was irresponsible in putting this thing up in the first place, especially without talking to me about it.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[aaron]

If you are at all inclined to try to resolve this through a liability waiver, you should have any such waiver reviewed by your own lawyer. You should also request an indemnification agreement, whereby if you become liable for any sum for any reason associated with the zip line your neighbor must reimburse you. You can also discuss the situation with your homeowner's insurance carrier.

Personally, I would suggest that he consider installing a pole or some other device on his own property as a destination for the zip line.

[dogger1]

Thanks for your reply. Yeah, it's a pretty dicey situation. The guy should've asked me first and now that I see kids slamming into my tree, they're A) damaging the tree, and B) someone is going to get hurt, and then I'm caught in the middle of the whole thing cuz I've done nothing to stop it.

Yeah, I think I'm just gonna tell him to put a pole in the ground or something. It's completely ridiculous. And I'm going to make sure he's clear that he's the one at fault here; not me. Really ticks me off that I'm "the bad guy" when it's him who has erred in his judgement.