Our neighbour hired someone to remove our tree without us knowing until the appointment was booked. Should we pay for everything, half, none, or work something else out?

My husband and I had no idea, but apparently one of our cedar trees is very overgrown and encroaching on our backyard neighbour's property.

She hired a tree removal service to trim the tree, but they found that the tree was actually split (something you can only see from her side) so would need to be entirely removed (EDIT: she was quoted for the removal prior along with the trimming. It was something she knew in advance.)

My husband and I were only made aware of this when the service knocked on our door and asked if they could come into our yard to remove the tree. I said sure, but I didn't hire you. They said our neighbour did. We said ok, do your thing. We thought that because our neighbour hired them our neighbour was paying for them.

Our neighbour had no problem paying for the trimming on her side, but wants us to pay for the removal which is $500. (EDIT: Our neighbour was quoted for the removal along with the trimming a week before it happened. She knew this was happening and did not tell us.)

So here's where I'm conflicted: yes, it is our tree on our property. However, we didn't hire the service. It was never suggested that we needed to pay for anything, and our neighbour didn't let us know what was happening. The tree people also didn't say anything about us paying at the time they came to our door. Had our neighbour approached us and explained the costs and things, we would have said no and gotten some quotes to have the tree removed.

This is a huge cost and apparently we have seven days to pay. I told my husband that I think we should split the cost 50/50 (so $250) with the neighbour. He says we shouldn't pay a dime because they hired them and they never told us about what was happening. Our neighbour thinks we should pay for the tree removal ourselves.

What should we do?

Jaja: but she did hire them for the removal too. It was part of the quote and invoice she sent me (I've since updated my post to make that clear). She knew the removal was on there and still did not let us know beforehand. We could have declined them access to our property, but as I said, the company said that she hired them.