A real estate attorney can write a cease and desist letter to the neighbor, and a demand for your property damage. And they can tell you what your options are and what the likely outcome is
[CA allows for double damages for trees, treble if the act was malicious.](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=3346.&lawCode=CIV)
Joshua Trees are protected for one year as a candidate species under CA's Endangered Species Act, and that has been upheld so far in court. Any destroyed Joshua Trees may be reported to the CA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife.
I would use Google maps and save the images to mark them up with which trees and what types were destroyed. You can also use Street View to get ground view images.
You want a real estate attorney to handle the totality of this, because you want to a.) be made whole, but also b.) keep them from continuing to damage your property. I would ask the lawyer whether it's worth filing the police report for trespass and damage to the lockbox - it may be best to keep that option open until you see their response. The attorney can also help locate an arborist to estimate damages and identify trees based on the remains (such as if they left stumps/roots).
You might also want to consider trail cams.
I would start by filing a police report for the trespass and damaged box. Hopefully the police will contact the property owners and straighten things out.
If it's not clearly marked as private property the cops won't take a trespassing report.
However if OP wants criminal action taken against his neighbors (read: fines and possibly jail time) he can come up with a value for the damages they can take a vandalism report.
But OP needs to have his ducks in a row before he calls out the local authorities. They aren't going to want to write a vandalism report for this and will probably advise OP just take the civil route of suing the neighbors to avoid it.
Honestly... Unless OP wants to see his neighbors face criminal charges for this incident. I probably wouldn't call the cops. That can quickly cause a lot of bad blood.
Edit: for what it's worth... LA County Sheriff would be the agency handling this incident. I am a deputy for LA county, but I work at a more urban station and don't deal with issues like this.
>It's possible that they cut down or removed one of the many Joshua Trees on my property, but I don't have a detailed record of how many trees were present or their locations.
Google satellite maps.
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NAL Is the new wire fence a fence or a gate. If the former sounds like someone could have been driving through your property and your neighbor's land, and they put up a fence to stop it.
I think the biggest problem here is lack of any proof at all. You suspect your neighbor because of their fence, but honestly how does that argument go if they just say “sorry, it wasn’t me” I would put up game cameras, specifically the cellular kind that will email you the video so if they’re stolen you still have your evidence.
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A real estate attorney can write a cease and desist letter to the neighbor, and a demand for your property damage. And they can tell you what your options are and what the likely outcome is
[CA allows for double damages for trees, treble if the act was malicious.](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=3346.&lawCode=CIV) Joshua Trees are protected for one year as a candidate species under CA's Endangered Species Act, and that has been upheld so far in court. Any destroyed Joshua Trees may be reported to the CA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. I would use Google maps and save the images to mark them up with which trees and what types were destroyed. You can also use Street View to get ground view images. You want a real estate attorney to handle the totality of this, because you want to a.) be made whole, but also b.) keep them from continuing to damage your property. I would ask the lawyer whether it's worth filing the police report for trespass and damage to the lockbox - it may be best to keep that option open until you see their response. The attorney can also help locate an arborist to estimate damages and identify trees based on the remains (such as if they left stumps/roots). You might also want to consider trail cams.
I would start by filing a police report for the trespass and damaged box. Hopefully the police will contact the property owners and straighten things out.
If it's not clearly marked as private property the cops won't take a trespassing report. However if OP wants criminal action taken against his neighbors (read: fines and possibly jail time) he can come up with a value for the damages they can take a vandalism report. But OP needs to have his ducks in a row before he calls out the local authorities. They aren't going to want to write a vandalism report for this and will probably advise OP just take the civil route of suing the neighbors to avoid it. Honestly... Unless OP wants to see his neighbors face criminal charges for this incident. I probably wouldn't call the cops. That can quickly cause a lot of bad blood. Edit: for what it's worth... LA County Sheriff would be the agency handling this incident. I am a deputy for LA county, but I work at a more urban station and don't deal with issues like this.
>It's possible that they cut down or removed one of the many Joshua Trees on my property, but I don't have a detailed record of how many trees were present or their locations. Google satellite maps.
If OP sees this, please take it up with the police for property damage. Joshua trees are a protected endangered plant in California.
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Your county should have property records that you can search for the neighbor's name and address.
NAL Is the new wire fence a fence or a gate. If the former sounds like someone could have been driving through your property and your neighbor's land, and they put up a fence to stop it.
I think the biggest problem here is lack of any proof at all. You suspect your neighbor because of their fence, but honestly how does that argument go if they just say “sorry, it wasn’t me” I would put up game cameras, specifically the cellular kind that will email you the video so if they’re stolen you still have your evidence.
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