AITA....or rather, W(ould)IBTA kweshun

Oct 27, 2025, 11:53 AM

I rarely have to apologize for length, but here we are.
TLDR to the top: Neighbor asked me to have a tree cut down and offered to contribute an un-small amount towards it. Now that it's done, he seems to be backtracking on paying. But he paid the tree guy, and the ball's in my court to pay neighbor back. What do?

ok so, last week my neighbor reached out, saying he was having a tree guy come to give him a quote on taking down 2 overly tall leyland cypresses between our backyards (don't be groce). There USED to be 5, but 3 fell during Helene. These last 2 are closer to the houses.

No prob there.

He asked me, though, if I'd entertain having the guy take down a bigazz oak in my front yard, too. He's mentioned it before, and it DID need to come down, realistically. The size and location of it & neighboring bushes had thwarted all grass (bermuda) growth under it's canopy, and as a result, there were noticeable effects from run-off (both our yards slope significantly front-to-back), probably somewhat contributing to the those cypresses falling....and roots were exposed/growing at the surface. He was also worried about them roots f'ing up his plumbing in his front yard (which I don't think was close to being an issue)

I agree the tree needed to come down, no saving it or the yard if it remained. I WASN'T prepared to do anything about it on short notice without a plan in place for fixing up the yard afterwards.

Unsolicited, he offered to pay for half the cost of cutting down my tree, AND the stump/root grinding, since he was the one initiating this (and he felt it would impact his plumbing)

noooow we're talking.

Going into it, I expected/assumed the tree would be around $2500, based purely on what other people in the 'hood have paid and then bragged about on the facebook page.

Turns out, he 'had a guy'...and he first told me my tree would be (only) $900...of which he'd already offered to pay half of. (technically, he was like "so that'd only be $500 for you"....and he's a finance dude lol. whatever, don't care about $50, just the lolz of the maths)

THEN later that night, he texted and was like "I got him to come down, so it'll only be $600 for you"

I assumed maybe he meant 'for yours', aka $300 each. I didn't bring it up then, but $600 for me isn't 'down'.

Tree(s) came down, he paid the dude for all 3.

THEN he got a quote for the stumps. $700 for mine. He just outright said "I'm not paying that", and got 2 more quotes...the last being a more favorable $450, he texted, but no mention of paying.

I'd gotten him added as a zelle recipient (our agreed upon payment method) earlier, but hadn't paid him yet, as I wanted to couthly (it's a word, don't look it up) bring up the $$ discrepancies and obligations.

Then it was the weekend, and I wasn't thinking about any of that fun stuff...Until he sent a Zelle request for $600 last night. I'm sure his expectation, right now, is that I'm paying the stump dude directly.

sooo, do I

A) Get clarification and his cost and hold him to his offer of contributing, being that I likely wouldve waited til spring to do something, and only agreed to it because the wallet-y stars were aligning?

or

B) Still call him out on his BS (this is going to happen, regardless) but realize that $1050 for both tree/stump is sigNIFuckuntly less than my intitial expecation of well over $2500, and just pay it....but again, let him know he's an a$$.

regardless, there'll be more required work - grading, sod...probably a retaining wall of some sort

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