B.C. man wins dispute with neighbours over bamboo [Video]

A B.C. man whose neighbours lopped the tops off of four of his bamboo plants has been awarded $1,000 in damages by the province’s Civil Resolution Tribunal.

The dispute dates back to August of 2023 when William Leong’s next-door neighbours used a pole pruner to “reach over the fence and cut his bamboo plants,” according to a decision posted online Friday. Leong was asking for $3,000 in damages for trespass as compensation for “loss of enjoyment of his property and loss of privacy, and costs to replace the plants.”

The neighbours, Danika and Sophia Powell, did not dispute that one of them cut the tops off of several of the plants, and the other threw the stems into Leong’s yard. However, they argued that they should not be liable for damages because the branches were crossing the property line and “some of these branches were already dead,” the decision says.

Tribunal member Peter Mennie …