B.C. homeowner wins $2,000 from neighbour who planted bamboo

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A Vancouver Island home-owner annoyed by his neighbours’ bamboo vegetation popping up in his manicured garden has efficiently sued them, profitable $2,000 in damages.

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Charles Parker of Saanich sued his neighbours Paul and Cindy Hsieh after he spent an estimated $5,000 in elements, instruments and labour to put in a barrier that might stop the unfold of the roots and rhizomes of the operating bamboo vegetation the Hsiehs had planted a couple of decade in the past.

Parker stated he filed the motion with the provincial civil decision tribunal after he advised the Hsiehs in 2019 that the vegetation have been encroaching on his property. He stated he requested them to take away the bamboo and set up a barrier on their aspect of the fence line to cease the unfold and so they didn’t.

He stated he has to chop again the bamboo over time and he was nervous it will injury his buildings, the tribunal heard.

The Hsiehs stated on the time the bamboo wouldn’t injury his construction, however Parker’s personal laurel hedge roots would. They stated weren’t liable for putting in a barrier and instructed the most effective resolution was for Parker to take away the roots and rhizomes on his property.

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“The Hsiehs stated the bamboo isn’t any totally different from some other invading root or leaf all neighbours take care of,” based on the choice.

Tribunal member Shelley Lopez stated she needed to decide whether or not the bamboo posed a “authorized nuisance,” that’s “the substantial (non-trivial) and unreasonable interference with the use and pleasure of property.”

“I discover the bamboo was a nuisance, due to the actual issue in eradicating it from the laurel and due to the extent the bamboo sprouted over Mr. Parker’s yard,” she wrote.

“Primarily based on the images and the big quantity of bamboo stalks sprouting up all through Mr. Parker’s well-manicured yard, I settle for the interference was substantial and unreasonable,” wrote Lopez.

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She famous that the bamboo induced “no precise bodily injury” and the Hsiehs wouldn’t have identified a barrier was mandatory once they planted the bamboo as a result of it isn’t on the Saanich district’s invasive vegetation checklist. She additionally stated they wouldn’t have identified it was going to unfold from their property.

However she stated they have been advised it had in 2019 and did nothing.

She dominated in Parker’s favour, accepting that he would have had prices to put in the barrier. However as a result of he offered no receipts, invoices or quotes for the $5,000 he spent and the 100 hours of labour he included in that quantity appeared extreme, she got here up with $2,000 as an quantity for damages as an alternative.

“Parker did set up a barrier and images present the work was important,” stated Lopez.