Sprinkler system damage

BoesTreeService · Nov 2, 2005

While on the topic of legal and ethical issues, I have a question for some of you more experienced business owners.

I recently was limbing out a giant of a dead cottonwood. At 55' I was cutting a 4' section of limb that was 22' in diameter. It split on me and one small section fell sideways onto a sprinkler that was hidden under tall grass. It broke the pipeing for the spinkler. It was a dry system and I didnt notice it right away as it was also under a pile of smaller brush. The homeowner of course noticed it and was upset. I told her I would be glad to fix it, its was a simple plumbing job and I installed an inground pool by myself I was confident i could fix it in under an hour. She insisted on having a contractor come look at it. The next day I came back to finish the job and a 50' dead pine had fallen in her yard, she left a note to please cut it up and haul it off which I did. I did not want to invoice her until she told me what the cost of the sprinkler repair was going to be. Well a month later I called her and she said she hadnt called him yet. I told her she needed to as I would not mind being paid for the job. Two weeks later I called and still she hadnt contacted this contractor. I went to Menards and got the plumbing supplies and fixed the sprinkler in 20 minutes, it worked fine. I sent her an invoice in the mail and even was nice enough to NC her for the second tree as apology for the sprinker issue. She sent me nasty letter saying the contractor estimate for her sprinkler was coincidentally exactly the same as my invoice - which was exactly what i bid the job. I later talked to her and she said the cost was because the system was NOT UP TO CODE, and needed alot of work to bring it up to code. I am sorry but I dont think that is my responsibility? Anyone have experience with this kind of thing? I am pretty sure I wont ever see my fee for that job, but she is not talking of asking me to pay if the contractor charges more than my price. what is wrong with people, for crying out loud I bid the job fairly low I was busy and didnt take the time i should have, and I did the second tree for nothing although I would have usually charged her $100 ( it had no limbs, was about hour job)

okietreedude1 · Nov 2, 2005

Boes, all you should be responsible for is the repair on your damage. Its not your fault the system is not up to code. Which brings up my question: There is a city code on how a sprinkler system is put together? Sounds like a load of crap. Call the local code office and ask for a copy. Id bet there isnt one.

kf_tree · Nov 2, 2005

terry

you should call the contrator directly.....the story sounds fishy. ask for a paid reciept. a nieghbor said i ripped her pool cover. i know i did not drop anything on her pool, maybe something broke off when it was roped down? the neighbors tree had some fresh cuts, maybe it happened then. well she told my boss she wanted 200.00 for the cover and the cost of shocking the pool. so he said i'll give you 100.00 for the cover and thats it. you should shock the pool in the spring anyway.

so he went there to give her the 100.00 and asked for his cover. he said if i'm paying 100.00 for it then yes i'm going to take it. she said no so he put the 100.00 back in his pocket and left.

so think of a way to put a spin on it. or return her tree.

Tom Dunlap · Nov 2, 2005

Boes,

If you don't get paid, file a lien on the house and file it away. When the house gets sold you'll get paid. It might be a while though.

I had a similar thing happen. A tree was coming down for my client. A piece of wood made a wild bounce and hit the neighbor's electric line. It bent the mast going into his meter box. A buddy of mine is an electrician so I had him fix it which was fine w/neighbor. The catch was that the neighbor had built a deck so the mast needed to be raised three feet to bring it into code. The !@#$% told me that it was my responsiblity to fix it because it worked before I hit his wires. He called my bluff about going to court. I fixed it...it was a challenge not to wish bad things to that guy. What a chisler. He knew that he was wrong and "had" me.

fpyontek · Nov 3, 2005

BoesTreeService said:
While on the topic of legal and ethical issues, I have a question for some of you more experienced business owners.

... I am pretty sure I wont ever see my fee for that job, but she is not talking of asking me to pay if the contractor charges more than my price. ...

You are not responsible to upgrade your customer's sprinkler system. You are only responsible to leave the sprinkler system in the same working condition as it was before you started the job.
You should have a small claims court in your state. In NJ it's a $50.00 filing fee. It would be worth filing, as you may get paid shortly after your customer receives notification of a court appearance.
I had a somewhat similar experence. A t tree fell during a storm on a first time (and last time) customer's garage. We had to use a crane to remove the tree. Before starting I had asked, and received, permission from the neighbor to tie the fallen tree off to the base of a tree on his property. As a thank you to the neighbor I chipped a pile of branches he had on his property. Three months later I still hadn't received payment from the customer. When I called her she said she was upset because "I chipped those branches on her time." I tried to reason with her that this was not a T&M job, I quoted her a price which she accepted. She was unreasonable, she must have had a problem with the neighbor. I filed the paperwork in small claims court and got paid several days after she received the paperwork from court. There was also a note along with the check stating I didn't handle this (not getting paid) properly. Go figure!

Fred