Eric, at age 80, owns a large property of about 100 forested acres, half of which is covered with walnut and butternut trees he had planted as a boy. Eric is approached by a realestate agent who tells him he has a client who is looking for land with trees where a new house can be built. Eric severs the treed half of his property and sells it, and the new owner builds a family home. In talking with his new neighbour, Eric discovers to his horror that the buyer is the owner of a custom sawmill, and intends to cut down all of the hardwood trees for furniture and veneer. Does Eric have any recourse?
Yes Eric does have a few recourses
Eric could look at local Zoning laws and figure out if the land that was sold to the new owner has the necessary permit to carry out commercial activities or its it's assigned zone is a residential property or a protected forest land. If it's not assigned as a commercial zone he can file an appeal with the local land rezoning comity and request them to have them put a stop to the new owner's commercial activity. Because every piece of land in the country falls under a specific assigned zone and commercial activities cannot be carried on a land which is not rezoned.
(if this land is based out of the United Stated) , Eric could check if his land to see I ti falls under the protected areas of the United States under either, local, county, State Federal laws. If it does the new owner will not be able to chop down a single tree for any purpose.
He can hold the new Owner liable for the actions of the real Estate Agent's misinformation about the intent of sale. Although he was working for the new owner as an agent or a contractor, the new owner can be held liable for Vicarious liability. Repercussion of employee / contractor actions or Vicarious liability : is a scenario where one or more persons / group or an organisation is held responsible for the actions of another person / group or an organisation. From an organisational standpoint, the firm or the company could be held liable for the actions of its employees provided the action in question took place during the tenure of the employee's career in the organisation. Since he intent of sale was misrepresented he can hold the new owner liable
Eric can have an attorney research the Sawmill owner's business and all the other properties that they own and see if he tricked any other land owners into selling their property under a false intent of sale. He could then get in touch with the other land owner and firm a class action law suit to reinforce his case. Class Action Suit: Is a law suit where a group of individuals (in this case the police union), file a case against the City Council for Unfairly firing the Officer for political interests. While there is no minimum number of members in a class action suit, if the grievance a proportional number of other non representative members cannot be proven or is ambiguous, the courts may not allow that to qualify as a class action law suit. However if there are a proportional number of representatives in the class action law suit, it could carry sufficient weightage in order to be presented in the court.
Eric, at age 80, owns a large property of about 100 forested acres, half of which...