I have a problem I need advice with

[Z71]

Yesterday, my neighbor who do not know very well came over and told me he had hired a local tree company to remove a large elm tree from his property. He asked if the tree company could drive up my driveway to gain access to his property. Our homes are very close together and it was easier for them to access his back yard via my driveway, and then they wouldn't tear up his grass. I said yes they could drive their truck up my driveway to access his back yard and now wished I wouldn't have. I came home tonight and found my driveway had a lot of dirt on it, enough to make it muddy if it rained. There was debris all over and it was obvious they had removed the entire tree by coming back on to my land and down my drive way. They left quite a mess. Then I notice the edge of my pavement is cracked, and there are other cracks that weren't there before. There are scrape marks in my tar from some type of heavy equipment. I was not here, so I asked the neighbor how big the truck was that came up my driveway. He said it was a "pretty big truck", had a bucket and a boom on it, and they used a bobcat and "something big with a big grappler hook on it". My question is, what can I do from here? Who would you do if you were me?

 

[mattfr12]

Yesterday, my neighbor who do not know very well came over and told me he had hired a local tree company to remove a large elm tree from his property. He asked if the tree company could drive up my driveway to gain access to his property. Our homes are very close together and it was easier for them to access his back yard via my driveway, and then they wouldn't tear up his grass. I said yes they could drive their truck up my driveway to access his back yard and now wished I wouldn't have. I came home tonight and found my driveway had a lot of dirt on it, enough to make it muddy if it rained. There was debris all over and it was obvious they had removed the entire tree by coming back on to my land and down my drive way. They left quite a mess. Then I notice the edge of my pavement is cracked, and there are other cracks that weren't there before. There are scrape marks in my tar from some type of heavy equipment. I was not here, so I asked the neighbor how big the truck was that came up my driveway. He said it was a "pretty big truck", had a bucket and a boom on it, and they used a bobcat and "something big with a big grappler hook on it". My question is, what can I do from here? Who would you do if you were me?

Call the company first and see if they will just own up and clean up your driveway and make the necessary repairs. They should have cleaned it up anyways. Professional companies will not do things like you described, they would have laid down a protective layer of plywood. After that if they refuse and you can prove they did damage law enforcement will take care of it. Sorry for your bad experience like I said real tree companies don't do such things guys like you describe make us look bad and are an embarrassment to the rest of us.

 

[SPYDERHITCH]

I agree with the above comment. The crew I run would of left your driveway looking better than it did b4 we got there. :msp_smile:

 

[Rickytree]

Law enforcement won't do anything.. it's a civil matter now and you will have to sue.

 

[KenJax Tree]

Call and see if they will clean it up and let it be a lesson learned not much you can do if you gave them permission.

 

[no tree to big]

Call and see if they will clean it up and let it be a lesson learned not much you can do if you gave them permission.

permission to use the drive, not permission to break it and leave it a mess.

If a customer gives you permission to use there drive do you trash it? same conduct goes for the neighbors property

 

[KenJax Tree]

permission to use the drive, not permission to break it and leave it a mess.

If a customer gives you permission to use there drive do you trash it? same conduct goes for the neighbors property

Right they could've cleaned it but they didn't intend on cracking it and they had premission meaning you were aware of potential damage. I have HO sign a waiver stating it could be damaged from the trucks.

 

[Kottonwood]

Damn... it would have to be a pretty crazy situation for me to use a neighbor's driveway for anything other than dragging brush through. I very rarely park the bucket on a customers driveway and I always use alturnamats and/or plywood..... we have a lot of concrete driveways here though... easy to break, expensive to fix.

That is just unbelievable to me that they would do that to a neighbor's drive, you should definitely get in touch with the company and get their insurance info if they don't want to do anything about it.

 

[mattfr12]

Damn... it would have to be a pretty crazy situation for me to use a neighbor's driveway for anything other than dragging brush through. I very rarely park the bucket on a customers driveway and I always use alturnamats and/or plywood..... we have a lot of concrete driveways here though... easy to break, expensive to fix.

That is just unbelievable to me that they would do that to a neighbor's drive, you should definitely get in touch with the company and get their insurance info if they don't want to do anything about it.

They will clean it up I'f you call them I bet, say your going to contact law enforcement sometimes it scars them into doing it. If they are dumb enough to work like that they would probably believe anything.

 

[sgreanbeans]

I would bet that they wont come back, deny they did it and ask for burden of proof. You will have too battle to get anything out of them. Get the name and post a review online with pics. Report it to the BBB. Like Matt said, pros wouldn't do this, so chances are they don't have insurance. We always lay wood and normally leave the place cleaner than when we got there. We also take before pics, just in case, as this road goes both ways. If I don't like the drive, but have permission, I will get the neighbor to sign the contract giving us written permission to use the property. I was in a drive yesterday. It already had a lot of cracks and I doubt I would have done any further damage to it, but I still dropped plywood and took pics. Last week we had a local crackhead hacker drop 4 big trees into another guys yard, tearing all kinds of crap up, thousands in damage. Then basically told the guy to drop dead and bailed. Which is common practice with these types.

 

[Rickytree]

You might be SOL on the repairs. All the best of Luck. Tough to see everything but I always try to spot bent eve's or other damage before ever doing a job. Hard time to prove the damage wasn't there before and that what it boils down to.

 

[treeclimber101]

I think it's pretty lame they couldn't at least blow off the drive , just call them over and over til they call back , and if they don't call them at weird hours of the day ,cause a call at 2 am means money to a tree guy , and when he sees it's you , he will at the very least be almost as annoyed as you right. Now :hmm3grin2orange:

 

[ATH]

I think I would take a different approach:

Talk to the neighbor. Tell them you know it isn't their fault. If they haven't paid yet, ask them to withhold payment until it is taken care of...you might even offer to pay their bank fee to block the check - but you would need to do that NOW before it clears. Nothing get's sombody's attention like money.

 

[teamtree]

Yesterday, my neighbor who do not know very well came over and told me he had hired a local tree company to remove a large elm tree from his property. He asked if the tree company could drive up my driveway to gain access to his property. Our homes are very close together and it was easier for them to access his back yard via my driveway, and then they wouldn't tear up his grass. I said yes they could drive their truck up my driveway to access his back yard and now wished I wouldn't have. I came home tonight and found my driveway had a lot of dirt on it, enough to make it muddy if it rained. There was debris all over and it was obvious they had removed the entire tree by coming back on to my land and down my drive way. They left quite a mess. Then I notice the edge of my pavement is cracked, and there are other cracks that weren't there before. There are scrape marks in my tar from some type of heavy equipment. I was not here, so I asked the neighbor how big the truck was that came up my driveway. He said it was a "pretty big truck", had a bucket and a boom on it, and they used a bobcat and "something big with a big grappler hook on it". My question is, what can I do from here? Who would you do if you were me?

Several questions......

Did you bid on the job? If so, why did you lose the work? I would say this raises a red flag right there. You, as a tree guy, should have insisted on getting on the certificate of insurance before you let them on your property Did you photograph the before and after?

I would say since you gave them permissison via your neightbor, you are screwed.

 

[treeclimber101]

Several questions......

Did you bid on the job? If so, why did you lose the work? I would say this raises a red flag right there. You, as a tree guy, should have insisted on getting on the certificate of insurance before you let them on your property Did you photograph the before and after?

I would say since you gave them permissison via your neightbor, you are screwed.

It would appear that he's a boat salesman , and a wood burner , and if I was a tree guy neighbored up with a guy cutting trees if I was close enough with him to allow his contractor to use my yard then I would close enough with him to be cutting the trees myself :msp_smile:

 

[Z71]

A thank you to all who responded. I did call the tree company the next morning, and got call back at 5pm. The foreman agreed to meet me at my home last night. He brought a broom. The broom did nothing, so I fired up my 215hp leaf blower and blew the dirt off the driveway. This exposed a few 4' to 8' long scrapes in the tar, and many places where the rocks in the tar had been dislodged leaving little pock marks all over from the bobcats spinning around. We pretty much argued for over 1/2 hour, I was adamant he did damage to the driveway he claimed no way he did it. It never got ugly. I told him I had never taken anyone to court in my life, but I would in this case. I told him I'd win too. He admitted to being the owner of the company and didn't really want to go to court. I told him I thought he did a thousand dollars damage to my drive. He offered $300. We settled for $400. I agreed to it. It's done and over and we can all move on with life. Thanks again for your thoughts and ideas, I enjoy posting here for this reason!

 

[Tree Services]

Sorry, wrong thread

 

[mattfr12]

A thank you to all who responded. I did call the tree company the next morning, and got call back at 5pm. The foreman agreed to meet me at my home last night. He brought a broom. The broom did nothing, so I fired up my 215hp leaf blower and blew the dirt off the driveway. This exposed a few 4' to 8' long scrapes in the tar, and many places where the rocks in the tar had been dislodged leaving little pock marks all over from the bobcats spinning around. We pretty much argued for over 1/2 hour, I was adamant he did damage to the driveway he claimed no way he did it. It never got ugly. I told him I had never taken anyone to court in my life, but I would in this case. I told him I'd win too. He admitted to being the owner of the company and didn't really want to go to court. I told him I thought he did a thousand dollars damage to my drive. He offered $300. We settled for $400. I agreed to it. It's done and over and we can all move on with life. Thanks again for your thoughts and ideas, I enjoy posting here for this reason!

I figured they would own up to it, a lot of guys are black ops and want to stay out of the spotlight of law enforcement and other officials. The company you described sound like that criteria.

 

[Rickytree]

Good to hear and that's some leaf blower.

 

[treeclimber101]

Good to hear and that's some leaf blower.

It's a tier 3 turbo ! Lol