Legal Advice

[SapphireSphinx9]

Ok, for all you lawyers and law school students out there, I'm asking for your advice.

Our house has a brick wall lining the property line in the backyard (as all of the homes in our area do) but the wall has been starting to lean and get fissures in it, due to a humongous sycamore tree that is not on our property. The neighbor whose property it's on has repeatedly ignored requests from Vector Control (rodent control) and Edison (electric company) to maintain the monstrosity, since it leans against a power pole.

We spoke to the mayor of our city, and he said there is nothing he can do about it, because it hasn’t interfered with the top power line, yet. It is now up to us to contact that property owner and ask him to trim his tree and to get his roots (that have grown more than half way into our backyard) under control.

As my grandparents are the legal owners of this house and are both having extreme health problems currently, I am wondering how we should go about this. Should we ask him face to face (which hasn’t worked for the other three neighbors that surround his property – about other tree issues) or should we send a certified receipt requested letter to him?

And then the question raised is, what happens if he does nothing? The cost of the brick wall alone will be more than the small claims maximum in California, which is $5,000. Also, being that my grandparents are not well enough to physically go to court, should it become necessary, could we go in their stead? Or would an attorney be able to represent them?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

~Beth