It's funny how people's standards vary. My Mum wouldn't dream of doing some stuff without consulting my sister and I - she recently agreed to sell a small portion of her garden to the chap living at the back, who wanted a bigger garden himself. She was most careful to ask us both for our opinions - neither of us live there any more, but I suppose she felt it's our inheritance, although I don't look on it at all, I was really pleased she could get a few quid and lose a bit of garden that wasn't doing much and just made work for her.
She also recently had a fir tree in the garden taken down, because it was getting too big. It was one I'd grown from one of those stocking filler "Grow your own Christmas Tree" kits, about 25 years ago. But she asked me if it was OK to take it down first. Once again, I was quite happy, it's her garden!
I can't imagine her doing something like in the OP, and neither can I imagine doing it to her.