If you want view property, then you should buy view property

“The reason I’m talking about this is I don’t want this to happen to anyone else,” said Tom Fijal.

Fijal, along with his wife, Desiree Kleeman, owned Maple Meadows B&B at the foot of Goodman Hill until they sold it this summer and moved to Santa Barbara.

The property extends up the hill to Whalen Drive and Fijal was referring to an incident where an uphill couple took it upon themselves and hired a company to cut down over 70 trees on the Fijil/Kleeman property without seeking approval  from the owner.

“The thing is, the Whalen Drive homeowners association had proposed changes to a long-standing view easement after an earlier incident where trees were cut down in an unsafe manner. The plan spelled out how the cutting should be done in order to ensure it was done in an environmentally conscious way. For some reason or not, the association hadn’t done anything for awhile and our uphill neighbor took things into their own hands,” he said.

It ended up being a very expensive mistake. Washington state law does not look lightly upon people cutting other people’s trees and shrubs without permission. RCW 64.12.030 states “whenever any person shall cut down, girdle, or otherwise injure or carry off any tree,” or shrub that any judgment shall be triple the amount of damages claimed or assessed.

The owners sued the uphill couple under that RCW and ended up settling out of court through mediation. Fijal declined to say how much money they received except to say that after deducting legal and other professional fees, what remained was “a very significant and substantial amount.”

Additionally, persons can be charged with malicious mischief in the 2nd degree whenever they damage property worth $750 or more, a Class C felony.