Roofer took over my side yard

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This is a very interesting thread.... respect for other people property and actually communication ( face to face communication that is)is almost non existent anymore and it is so sad. And this thread shows it. There are a few that still have respect, but they are far and in between.
 
Redpappy said:
This is a very interesting thread.... respect for other people property and actually communication ( face to face communication that is)is almost non existent anymore and it is so sad. And this thread shows it. There are a few that still have respect, but they are far and in between.
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I actually was just able to do this with the owner. Again she is very sorry that this happened and will pay for all replacements that need to made. My main reason for the original post was to vent while having a cup of coffee, yes it is only a plant, but these plants were now in the ground for 5 years and starting to thrive. A lot of work was done on my part and my kids to get them where they are today. In 1 hour someone comes and pulls out, flattens with plywood or cut them down with slates to where they were when we started. Yes, they will grow back, you're right, but that does not make it right.
 
gotbeer74 said:
I actually was just able to do this with the owner. Again she is very sorry that this happened and will pay for all replacements that need to made. My main reason for the original post was to vent while having a cup of coffee, yes it is only a plant, but these plants were now in the ground for 5 years and starting to thrive. A lot of work was done on my part and my kids to get them where they are today. In 1 hour someone comes and pulls out, flattens with plywood or cut them down with slates to where they were when we started. Yes, they will grow back, you're right, but that does not make it right.
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Perfect....it's unfortunate that it happened and keeping things good with the neighbor and contractor has been my point from the start....jumping to conclusions and labeling people or companies as "bad".....none of which you did...but others on this thread have is wrong...things happen and things get resolved. It sucks that your plants that the kids helped with got damaged but the neighbor was sorry and I'm positive the contractor would rather it didnt happen either
 
JONNYROTTEN said:
Perfect....it's unfortunate that it happened and keeping things good with the neighbor and contractor has been my point from the start....jumping to conclusions and labeling people or companies as "bad".....none of which you did...but others on this thread have is wrong...things happen and things get resolved. It sucks that your plants that the kids helped with got damaged but the neighbor was sorry and I'm positive the contractor would rather it didnt happen either
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Not sure about the contractor found 3 soda cans and Gatorade bottles in my yard no where near the roof.
 
gotbeer74 said:
Not sure about the contractor found 3 soda cans and Gatorade bottles in my yard no where near the roof.
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LOL...Do you really think they whipped soda cans onto your yard over the fence just to be a d!ck...anything is possible but highly unlikely
 
JONNYROTTEN said:
LOL...Do you really think they whipped soda cans on to your yard over the fence just to be a d!ck...anything is possible but highly unlikely
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No other way to get in my yard 6 ft privacy fence on both sides and a 40 foot garage in the back
 
Geez ROTTEN, you don’t have to take this personally, and if your defense of a neighbor and contractor reflects your attitude I’d never hire you. The situation might be hard to keep debris from escaping the worksite. However, the person with the damaged plant and old broken slate all over has every legal right to complain and be made whole.
 
Hoppy2bmerry said:
Geez ROTTEN, you don’t have to take this personally, and if your defense of a neighbor and contractor reflects your attitude I’d never hire you. The situation might be hard to keep debris from escaping the worksite. However, the person with the damaged plant and old broken slate all over has every legal right to complain and be made whole.
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Your local...I'll send you my info if you want and you can research my company...we dont have a single strike against us ever...My entire position from the start was don't call the police, or file charges against someone without even talking to the homeowner or contractor to try to resolve the issue.....The OP just stated he just talked to the homeowner and worked it out....so every post before that was throwing someone under the bus before even trying to resolve the issue....and thats wrong

If thats a reflection of who I am Im OK with that...I give people a chance to make things right before taking legal action....which I've never had to do in my life

We'll be doing a roof local to where I think you are this week. Your more than welcome to stop by and say hello and see how things work...I think you would be pleasantly surprised with the professionalism
 
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The second post talking about filing a report wasn’t the OP, and it would have been necessary if the contractor didn’t clean up or did more damage. Of course, people should speak to each other and work it out. Your “position” came across as condescending. Take that as feedback, because sometimes people don’t realize how they come across or their intent might be different. Luckily, I don’t need a new roof at the moment.
 
gotbeer74 said:
I actually was just able to do this with the owner. Again she is very sorry that this happened and will pay for all replacements that need to made. My main reason for the original post was to vent while having a cup of coffee, yes it is only a plant, but these plants were now in the ground for 5 years and starting to thrive. A lot of work was done on my part and my kids to get them where they are today. In 1 hour someone comes and pulls out, flattens with plywood or cut them down with slates to where they were when we started. Yes, they will grow back, you're right, but that does not make it right.
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Good to hear that everything is getting resolved. As best as it can be. I beleive venting is a good thing, before addressing an issue.
 
I feel like this went from zero to 11-finity fast, and then resolved.

And I missed the whole dang thing!

Wow.
 
Sometimes they do not want to communicate with you, but always do when I can.

Hiring out work has its perils, as does being the one who is hired.

If you ever had to put a fence on a line and the abutter did not want it there, you'd know what I'm sayin. ( I try not to take jobs like that, but stumble into them now and again.)

Anyway,..had a good brew day, now enjoying a nice lager from March, cheers...
 
If you want to win, be calm. Seek first to understand, THEN to be understood (thanks S. Covey). I can assure you that the most unreasonable people, once they calm down, will accept a compromise.

Accept compromise, even if you consider it a loss. It's not a loss if it's reached that point.

I've been running my own company for many years, I know people. Even the unreasonable ones respond best to a calm person who will listen.
 
Talk to your neighbor in a neighborly way and ask if there is any way to resolve the issue.
She hired the contractor, so her insurance should cover damages. Fixing damaged siding could be more expensive than the damaged plants.
Having a crappy relationship with neighbor really sucks and you'll have to decide how far you want to push your rights.
 
I got halfway through the first page and had to ignore JOHNNYROTTEN... the onlyest person I've ever ignored on any web-forum ever...

Private property is sacred. If you are doing something that infringes on someone else's property, you ask permission first. Period.

"Ehrmagerd! It's too hard to keep my work off of other people's property!"

Yeah, sorry man, you are wrong.
 
I'm glad you were able to work it out with your neighbor even though it is ultimatly not her responsibility, that falls with the contractor. I would still follow up with your insurance agent, The siding is not self mending and repairs to siding need to have some kind of guarantee that it won't leak 5 years down the road etc and if you don't have some kind of documentation it will come down to a he said she said kind of thing. When the repair is completed you will also want to follow up with new pictures sent to your agent or a new inspection by your insurance company. Rotten needs to take a chill pill, this was not a personal attack on you or your business. This was sound advice so this homeowner can protect himself and his property against future damage and cover himself for current damage. Just because you contact your insurance agent does not mean you have to file a claim. They work for you and can be your advocate if things don't go as discussed/planned.
 
JONNYROTTEN said:
"teaching all contractors a lesson"......ev
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You are mis quoting and misinterpreting what I said. I said "a lesson all contractor need to learn" as in ask permission and be respectful of the neighbors of the people you are doing work for and if you make a mistake own up befor the customer has a chance to notice. And all of this goes for everyone doing anything.
I still say "yes sir" and "thank you ma'am" to everyone try it, it is contagious and can calm down a hostile situation.
 
"jumping to conclusions and labeling people or companies as "bad".....none of which you did...but others on this thread have is wrong..."

Wow, nobody started calling anyone names until you popped in to defend subpar, uncaring contractors..."over a plant , a plant " and what you assume is only $200.
You seem to like the word *****ebags. I also think you have anger issues.

Just FYI- In my younger days I worked many years as a landscaper and then obtained an Associates in Applied Science degree in Landscape design(M)/Turfgrass management (m) on a full scholarship. I was an assistant greenskeeper at a country club for 6 yrs. I obtained a few specialty licensing to do my job.
Established (5 yr old) landscape plants and other landscape material isn't cheap. Figure in labor and fuel as well. What you think is a petty $200 can turn into $1000 or more in repairs.

OP said there was damage to his 1 yr old siding as well.
I have also been a contractor and have installed siding on many homes during my 24 year carpentry career after I left the landscape industry. I have a good idea what material costs, the time it takes to go get it at the supply house, IF its not a special order color or style. The wait and cost because you cant just special order one or two pieces, you have to buy an entire box. Then a crew has to be scheduled to go make the repairs. In the meantime, the elements and insects can enter the damaged site, causing further damage, possibly structural. Worst case scenario, I know.

Years ago my neighbor had a tree cut down and had the stump chipped. The contractor was a shady character in the first place ,but he backed his equipment trailer onto my paver driveway without asking, ( I was at work, the neighbor across the street had taken pictures and told me once I got home. ) which caused 2 giant ruts 25 ft long which had to be taken up and re-laid at a later date. His stump grinder leaked hydraulic fluid on my lawn which in turn killed some grass and seeped into the soil while it was there.
I spoke to the neighbor and he did nothing. I spoke to the contractor and he wasn't going to do anything either. He got in my face about it too. Damaged my property then wanted to get mad at me about it...So, I called the police and had a report filed. Police knew this guy (not his first time)so they talked to him at another site and he came back over a week later with some dried up sod pieces and said he fixed it. Looked like a brown jigsaw puzzle. I ended up excavating and refilling 6 inches of soil and getting new sod on my own. Insurance agent was a good guy , I submitted the report, pics and receipts. I was reimbursed for my time and the material .
Last I heard the tree guy was in jail for repeated destruction of property ,operating a business without license(city ordinance), bond nor insurance ,fraud (talked old folks into paying ahead, then skipped out on the work)and a few other charges unrelated.

I wasn't saying at all the OP should call the police right away . BUT, as the thread progressed as everyone has said to talk to the homeowner first then if it wasn't resolved then to get a damage report just in case . If Insurance has to be involved ,if a report has been filed it helps move the claim along.

Sounds like the OP spoke to his neighbor and they resolved .

someone please close this thread.
 
Soulshine2 said:
"jumping to conclusions and labeling people or companies as "bad".....none of which you did...but others on this thread have is wrong..."

Wow, nobody started calling anyone names until you popped in to defend subpar, uncaring contractors..."over a plant , a plant " and what you assume is only $200.
You seem to like the word *****ebags. I also think you have anger issues.


OP said there was damage to his 1 yr old siding as well.
I have also been a contractor and have installed siding on many homes during my 24 year carpentry career after I left the landscape industry. I have a good idea what material costs, the time it takes to go get it at the supply house, IF its not a special order color or style. The wait and cost because you cant just special order one or two pieces, you have to buy an entire box. Then a crew has to be scheduled to go make the repairs. In the meantime, the elements and insects can enter the damaged site, causing further damage, possibly structural. Worst case scenario, I know.

.
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I dont have anger issue at all.This is what I do for a living so I take it personally when people start contractor bashing. I dont know the contractor obviously...and neither do you but yet you feel the need to call them "subpar" judging an entire company on one picture....thats wrong.

My take on the thread is this,
The neighbor is getting his roof done directly on the property line.
Thing are landing on his yard, OP talks to contractor and they do there best to protect the property
Op is upset about debris on property and damage to plants
This is all within a 24 hour period
Homeowner has not even had the chance to talk to the neighbor or contractor within the 24 hour period when posting the first post.

Instantly the response from some here was
Call the police
call the insurance company
file a report
Get him for trespassing
teach him lesson
Crappy subpar contractor

I said dont do any of those things and keep the peace with the neighbor and give the contractor a chance to make it right...but I'm the one with an anger issue?

Again this is all within a 24 hour period before the OP even had a chance to speak with anyone to resolve the issue
All those things listed is the absolute wrong way to handle the situation

If this was my company I would have spoken to the neighbor and explained the house is on the property line and there will be some debris coming down on his yard and its unavoidable. I would have protected the yard before starting and cleaned the debris off the neighbors yard the second the roof was finished being removed the same day. We would never leave it a mess overnight....so thats on the contractor for leaving it there overnight. I still wouldnt lablel an entire company as subpar or call the police looking at one piture all within a 24 hour period without even giving the contractor a chance to make it right.

I also said in an earlier post the neighbor may just hand over the money and say sorry which is exactly what happened

Lots of people turning molehills into mountains around here...keep things simple before jumping to conclusions
usually works out best which is what I've been saying from the beginning

Your siding comments are extreme. I've done endless siding. Good chance the siding is vinyl. If its standard double 4 many times you can buy a single panel for $10. If not a 2 sq box (200 sq ft for those who dont know) is on average $150 and most supply houses WILL take back open boxes for return. A single panel takes about 10 minutes to change with a zip tool. It could be more involved depending on the siding. The vast majority of all houses are not special order due to cost and wide variety of standard siding to choose from..THe odds are in the OP's favor the siding is available and returnable. The OP hasnt posted a pic so there is no way to tell

Bug infestation and water infiltration over a hole in the siding is fear mongering and so over the top.Good chance there is rigid insulation behind the siding and there is definity waterproof breathable house wrap behind the insulation. Without seeing a picture odds are the hole in the siding could stay there till the end of time without causing any damage whatsoever. Perfect example of turning molehills into mountains and shouldnt even be mentioned without even seeing a picture of the damage...cheers
 
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if-theres-a-5a1399.jpg


:D
 
passedpawn said:
If you want to win, be calm. Seek first to understand, THEN to be understood (thanks S. Covey). I can assure you that the most unreasonable people, once they calm down, will accept a compromise.

Accept compromise, even if you consider it a loss. It's not a loss if it's reached that point.

I've been running my own company for many years, I know people. Even the unreasonable ones respond best to a calm person who will listen.
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What I thought was done took a turn for the worse. I asked her yesterday to have the slate and plywood up off the plants that night. I told her I did not mind them using my property to put up their ladders and to bring material into her back yard for storage. The contractor heard me telling her and said he would have it done by Monday night at the earliest and he would tell me what can and cant be done. I said that is fine and I'll go speak with the code enforcer on Monday. I've given you a day and a half to just move the debris out of my yard. Then showing him how heard property had nothing on it and was swept up. So this morning I walked up to the code enforcer's office and spoke with him. I told him I wasnt looking for trouble and just wanted to know the code for roofing. He said the use of chutes and other material needed to keep a majority of the material off of neighboring yards is required and all work must be done from the property owners site. When I got back home the crew was packing up all the equipment and left the jobsite in like 10 minutes. Im guessing they weren't licensed to work in the area. If he wasnt ignorant to me this would have never occurred. I am sorry it turned out this way but being taken advantage of is just not right.
 
Sad i'm late to the party here.

There are ways to fix problems between neighbors without escalating the situation. If you think it may come to legal, just take pictures as a precaution.

The bigger issue is that a roofing company owner that feels entitled to utilize a neighbors property, and damage it with an attitude of "it'll grow back next year" is not OK. The entitlement here stinks.
 
NOW is the time to call them horrible contractors and take action...thats unacceptable. Get his licence number and take every legal step possible.
 
schematix said:
The bigger issue is that a roofing company owner that feels entitled to utilize a neighbors property, and damage it with an attitude of "it'll grow back next year" is not OK. The entitlement here stinks.
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Its not entitlement. Someone mentioned call the police and file a property damage claim before even talking to the neighbor. I said take the high road and avoid issues with your neighbor over a plant that will grow back . Of course they're are always those people that call the police and file reports on their neighbor. I'm not one of those people that would do that

As far "entitled" to use the neighbors property, like the fence guy said sometimes its unavoidable. All good neighbors are understanding of that. The thing is to be respectful of the neighbors property which in this case didnt happen. And that doent mean just walk on someones property. It means get permission fist and work through it
 
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There are contractors out there who only 'respect' the person who is paying them. Back in February I watched a landscaper removing a tree from a neighbor's house. Instead of taking the tree down in parts, he had a truck pulling on the tree so it would fall into the street and I knew that wasn't going to end well. Sure enough, as the tree came down it ripped up the owners roof, as well as his neighbors. Here it is 3 months later and the neighbor's roof is still broken!

I put respect in quotes because as soon as they have the cash, that 'respect' evaporates too!

I don't know where OP lives, but contractors here are required to have a $15,000 bond with the licensing board. However, it is probably better to file a claim with your insurance and let your insurance go after the contractor.
 
My neighbor decided to have a tree removed from his yard and so while I was at work, the tree service came in my driveway, parked on my hops, ran over some poles and proceeded to drop the tree in my yard. Very professional.
 
Bilsch said:
My neighbor decided to have a tree removed from his yard and so while I was at work, the tree service came in my driveway, parked on my hops, ran over some poles and proceeded to drop the tree in my yard. Very professional.
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You weren't paying him - why should he care what you think?
 
Our sub got hit by a hail storm and everyone got a new roof, siding on 1-2 sides of the houses, many windows and other miscellaneous work. The people who did the next door neighbor's roof left a mess in my yard when they were "done" with the roof and my then 78 year old mother in law ended up picking it up (no I didn't know that until after the fact.) Couple days later they were back to do siding and I walk out and find they have a whole work area set up IN my back yard, literally behind the corner of the garage, no way they didn't understand. I walked out and said something to the effect that I didn't really mind that they did so as long as they picked up after themselves but that it would have been courteous to knock on the door and ask and the crew leader was a total dick about it. So I left them a bad review and the company owner showed up at my door and essentially offered to pay me to remove it which told me the rest of what I needed to know about them. This was one of those "insurance restoration" companies and they were some of the more professional ones. I'm shocked no one fell off a roof that summer because there were some obvious untrained people working here.
 
Hoppy2bmerry said:
Why did you keep it going this morning?
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What am I going with?
Its literally a contractor bashing thread..thats perfectly fine but is that "general chit chat" forum material...no

For every bad contractor job there are 1000's of good ones.

As a contractor I dont bad mouth other contractors..its considered bad form

So..Start a bad contractor experience thread in the debate forum and tell your experiences....they should be heard...just not on an open forum on a beer site... Its not the right place.
 
JONNYROTTEN said:
What am I going with?
Its literally a contractor bashing thread..thats perfectly fine but is that "general chit chat" forum material...no
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Mr ROTTEN, just unfollow the thread and let it go... stop defending poor behavior from contractors you don’t know. It will die... in fact I’m going to stop watching after this post. Enough of this dead horse.
 
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