what a ?????!

[treeman82]

I was working for a customer today at his rental property and at his house across the street. I had just cut the last dead limb out of the black oak in the back corner of his property when his neighbor comes out PISSED off. I had bombed half the limb into her yard, but there was NO damage whatsoever, and I cleaned up EVERYTHING. She comes out screaming and threatening to sue me, and blah blah blah. "you better not top my pine" which was damage free, and "you better not top my trees" I thought she had left the area after I was down on the ground and I did the whole motion to my employee for crazy people... She apparently saw that and comes over yelling "you think this is funny?" I left there, went across the street to my customer's house and told him what happened... he told me that its a long time dispute over when she cut a bunch of trees years ago which she said she was only going to DWP which made most of the privacy for the 2 houses disappear. The guy offered me a bonus if I could make her mad enough where she has to go to a mental hospital... Tempting offer...

Anyways, besides that whack job, who I was cursing out to no end... the day went well.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

It is still unlawful tresspass. I had to walk off a willow removal onec because the neighbor (for whom the lady deided to have the tree removed ) comes out screaming that I cannot enter his yard or drop so much as a twig there.

Was box pruning a big buckthorn hedge where I had to put the ladder in the neighbors property to do the back top. He comes out screaming at me to get out of his yard....

Have had a number of similar instances, they say you cannot come in that is their right. Had a buddy who had a similar incident, nieghbor told him he could not finnish because he was dropping stuff in thier back yard. He made a deal with the custome to have another company come back out to finnish. They managed to do it before the nighbor lady came home. She saw them finnishing the cleanup and went balistic. No one told them they could not enter, the client hired them, because the other company refused to finnish the job

 

[Kevin]

You could have said to the nice lady , give me your phone number and I`ll have someone call you.
Then post it here and we could all call her and ask her if she's crazy.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

What was that one about the national posting for free firewood?

 

[spreaderman]

what I do

If someone comes out screaming I crank my saw and cut the closest limb I can find on the ground an leave the saw running where they have to talk over it , I have never had anyone get mad or yell at me while I am holding a running chainsaw

 

[Yellowdog]

it's amazing

It's amazing how mean people can be. I knocked a tree into a guy's yard one time taking out his satellite dish. It was my fault, though I had permission to use his yard as a drop zone. I screwed up on my estimate of where the tree would fall by just a few feet and messed up by using a machine instead of a climber. Even though it was all my fault and the guy didn't have a dish, he was pleasant. It all worked out good and he still liked me.

On the other hand, I have had nosy neighbors complain about burn piles (that hadn't and wouldn't be lit by me). One such nosy neighbor called me long distance (from my sign on the property) and proceeded to tell me that the pile was too big, was too close to her house (it was a good 5-10 acres away!), and that I had to notify the fire department, wait for a rainy day, blah, blah, blah. Then, she said, "Mr. if one ash falls on my property..."

I told her politely it was absolutely legal to burn, it was absolutely none of her business, it was illegal to trespass and spy on a hidden burn pile, and that I wasn't even the owner or the one going to burn."

It was funny but looking back I get a lot of people who won't mind their business. It would be one thing to be polite and curious, but some people are just real mean!!!

 

[Yellowdog]

saw idea

I like the running saw idea...

 

[treeguy347]

2 summers ago doing marine work, I had the gearbox go out on my barge motor while servicing a boat lift. I politely asked the customer if I could beach it on the edge of his property while the motor got fixed. He had no problems with it, so off I went with my bum motor. 2 days later, I got a call from the customer's neighbor claiming it had drifted onto his property. After investigating, I found it hadn't moved. He proceeded to complain and claim "It's no an issue who's property it's on... blah... blah... blah..." while he's sighting along property stakes as I am attempting to move it and explain that I am as anxious to get it back as he is to have it gone. He annoyed me enough with his yelling that I moved it directly in front of his house 100 feet offshore, turned it sideways and jacked it up about 2 feet above the water's surface on it's spuds. He proceeded to call me some choice names and threatened to "go out and move it himself." I informed him that it is perfectly legal for me to leave it there and that if he set foot on it, the police would be called. He could have been nice about it in the first place, but instead had to look at a big ugly rust and blue colored barge for the next week. Got a second call from the homeowner that night thanking me for standing up and putting the neighborhood PITA in his place

 

[treeman82]

Yellowdog, is burning still legal by you? Why don't they make you guys grind everything up in a big tub grinder?

 

[Yellowdog]

This is Texas and burning seems to be a birthright. Except inside the city limits of most towns, burning is very legal. In fact, anytime there isn't a drought, you can see burns going on. This area has been devastated by oak wilt and there is a problem with ashe juniper. Burning is the only way for some people. We like to chip but on big jobs it isn't feasible because of the number of trees and the locations (lack of roads).

 

[treeguy347]

In our county you can burn anywhere you are not within city limits. You have to get a permit that only takes a quick phone call. The problem is you are restricted to burning 4" dia and under, no stumps and no construction debris. Some places you can get away with bending these rules, but if you get called in, they're real strict.

 

[Yellowdog]

You would probably be amazed at what goes on here.
We are less than 30 minutes from San Antonio urban area and people in these hills burn tires, brush, stumps, trees so big only a dozer can move them, demolition debris, etc. I have see everything on fire including old car parts, couches, and dead animals.

San Antonio failed a number of ozone action days and the burning here which is year 'round unless there is a drought, must affect the surrounding metro areas.

I have had my share of burns but as more and more people move out to the rural areas, I am more apt to want to use my chipper.

Personally, other than melaleuca trees in S. Florida, I can't think of a more dangerous tree to burn than an ashe juniper, yet some of the pile sizes here would boggle the mind of anyone who isn't familiar with the Texas Hill Country!

 

[lync]

get it in writing

Dealing with customer's neighbors is a pain in the a--!
A customer of mine obtained his neighbors permisson for me to drop crotch two oaks for improved vista and sunlight exposure to a pool. These trees were in the neighbors yard right on the property line. The house that the neighbor owns is a rental property and its actually owned by two brothers, my customer only obtained permission from one of the brothers. About two thirds of the way through the job , another neighbor dressed in a nice floral housecoat sporting a 300 pound frame runs out of her house and starts screaming at me how i'm reducing the privacy of her home. She proceeds to call the neighbor who owns the trees i'm working on. Guess who shows up, the brother that wasn't asked permission by the customer. After getting this guy to cool off long enough to listen , he calls his brother, and was advised that permission was infact give to do the work. Of course the customer was not home, so he couldn't go to bat for me. Lesson learned, get it all in writing before there is a problem.

Cool heads prevail. If brother #2 had said he never gave permission, I would have had a problem.

Corey

 

[Climbing mike]

Ive found when dealing with neighbors it is always best to talk to the yourself before doing any of the work. You get to meet them and the get to know you. You can get a sence of how picky they are, and this may save you headaches later. Dont rely on the customer to talk to them, they may already be fighting thay may tell you they talked to them but actually not have said a word. This puts you in the middle. If you talk to them before any work is done and they are a PAIN they you know it is best to move on.

 

[Greg]

I use the running saw trick also. Works like a charm. Had a customer recently that was so bad about asking dumb questions we left saws running until we were ready to jump in the truck. When the saws stopped he came out to talk, crank the saw and he almost ran back into the house like he was scared of the loud noise. I even had the saw running while I was sitting in the truck preparing the invoice. Sure enough we killed the saws and he came out, just in time to pay the bill.
Greg

 

[Grateful11]

I was doing a cleanup for a woman about 2 years ago and she comes out of the house with a big friggin' parrot on her shoulder wanting me to hold it. I said "I don't think so". So she disappears for an hour or two and comes out of the house running and yelling "D&mn, D&mn, D&mn"! I looked at my help and said we either did something really wrong or this ol' bat is crazy. We got finished in hurry before she got any worse and I gave her a bill, she paid it but man I'm glad she never called again.
Grateful

 

[Crispin Hoar]

good fences make good nieghbors

I do alot of back yard work. I found that getting the customer to talk to the neighbors was not always the best. I go around to any neighbor I can catch home and introduce myself and explain what I will be doing in the next yard in a couple of days. Any nieghbor I didn't catch home ussually find out what is going on before I arrive. I get alot of extra work that way and I avoid being stopped halfway through a job by an irrate neighbor. There are some subdivisions I all the tree work. Good neighbors make great customers and give great referals.

 

[Ryan Willock]

What i really hate is having some drunk off the street come up and hassle you, had that happen yesterday. The guy wanted to use my cell phone so i told him i didn't have one and just hung around just off the property line for the next 30 min. Cleaning up some storm damage back in december and was going to retreive a pine limb that had landed in a small cherry tree in what i thought was the customers yard, well the neighbor started yelling that i had better not bill him for that!!! i tried to explain that i thought that it was the customers yard and he just through a fit.

 

[heartland]

I couldn't agree more with the "don't trust the customer to do the talking for you".

I was recently in a situation where I had to cut back some large pin oak limbs for a customer. The tree was on the neighbor side of the property line and the limbs hung out over the customer side. The customer assured me that they had worked it out with the neighbor.....you know the rest of the story

I think the advice given above by Crispin Hoar is worth its weight in gold: I'll definitely be introducing myself to more neighbors before the next job! Great tip

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Come to think of it i had a walnut removal where the client assured us he had permission for the mill guy to come and retrieve the log through the neighbors driveway. The mill guy got his butt chewed by the neighbor.