The azalea mocks me no more

The BBQ Pit
1

In this thread I bemoaned the single straggly azalea that was growing in my yard. Well, I should’ve counted my blessings while I had them. Yesterday the lonely little azalea was brutally murdered, along with every other shrub, bush & flower I’ve planted in my front yard in the past four years.

My lawn mower wouldn’t start this spring, and it’s going to be a couple of weeks before it’s out of the repair shop. I mentioned this to my neighbor last week, noting that my yard was getting pretty overgrown. Once in the past I hired the people (a guy and his boys) that cut my neighbor’s lawn to cut mine. They did a good job. Later I hired the boys to do some work on my pool. This turned out very badly, and I wouldn’t choose to hire these people again.
Yesterday when I came home from work, I saw that the front yard was mowed and that the neighbor and the mowing guys were standing in his yard. I immediately had a bad feeling, and I got out of the car to check on the yard, where sure enough, my flowers had been mowed down. I screamed, “You cut down my fucking flowers,” and I told the neighbor to not have people mow my lawn without my permission. Then I stomped into the house.

Today I checked out the damage more thorougly. Gone are:
[ul]
[li]3 forsythia bushes (4 years old)[/li][li]2 gardenia bushes (came with the house)[/li][li]the lonely little azalea[/li][li]3 privet saplings, which appear to have been ripped up by the roots, leaving holes in the ground. [/li][li]the gladiolas that were just starting to come up[/li][li]the daffodil foliage, which should not be cut down because it feeds the bulbs for next year[/li][/ul]

The forsythia and gardenias were in a corner of the yard and were surrounded by soaker hose, which had to be moved in order to whack them down.

I know my neighbor’s intentions were good, and probably I should apologize for screaming at him, but I am horrified and sickened at the loss of four years of planting. I’ve come close to crying about it.
Also, I’m expected to pay the mower guys. Had I hired someone to do the lawn and had they not chopped down my plants, $100 would have been reasonable. Money’s kind of tight right now and it’s going to be difficult for me to come up with $100.

Should I apologize to the neighbor?
What, if anything, should I pay the mowers?
Why the fuck would anyone with a lawn business being so fucking stupid as to cut down someone’s flowering shrubs?

2

What, are ya smokin’ the chronic? NO FUCKING WAY. If you didn’t hire these guys to mow your lawn, you are in no way responsible for paying them, and I don’t give a flying FUCK how long your grass is.

The neighbor and the mower boys are liable for the damage they caused. I’d be on the phone demanding they re-plant each one of the dead plants.

How dare they? Your neighbor should cough up the cash, since he’s the one that gave them permission.

DO NOT BACK DOWN. They are 100% wrong.

3

Sorry…I didn’t mean to yell. Especially since you’re all choked up about the azaela.

4

Excuse me? You’re not seriously thinking about paying them for ruining your yard, are you?

I absolutely wouldn’t pay them. In fact, I’d call the owner of the lawn service, explained what happened, and ask them to replace the damaged plants.

5

Sad about the plants - but not for the privet. Privet is evil and should be destroyed no matter how old it is. Was your lawn so overgrown that they didn’t see the plants? I can’t understand why a lawn mowing business would do this?

6

As a Yooper, your words should generally be considered wild, reefer and alcohol fueled. :wink: But this Troll thinks you speak truth. If lainaf gets any grief about having the idiots replace the shrubbery, may I recommend small-claims court? This is the sort of situation it is made for…

7

Your neighbors intentions may have been good, but he or she had ABSOLUTELY NO RIGHT to authorize anyone to do work on your property. And shoddy work at that, cutting down plants. Hey, my front yard looks like crap right now, but I sure as hell can tell the grass from plants and shrubs.

If your neghbor had them mow, then your neighbor should pay them. Did you ask these people to do any work? Did you sign anything? No. Don’t pay. You shouldn’t be held liable for work that you did not authorize.

Not only that, but these azalea murderers owe you some landscaping work. And when the lawn hackers come to you looking for payment, do what your neighbor did: Send them next door.

8

This shit makes me crazy. The neighbor would be on my shit list for life for this one.

9

[quote3 privet saplings, which appear to have been ripped up by the roots, leaving holes in the ground.[/quote]
You should thank them for this one.

As for the rest, under no circumstances should you pay the assholes, and you should demand they replace and replant your flowers.

10

You should thank them for this one.

As for the rest, under no circumstances should you pay the assholes. In fact, you should demand that they replace and replant your flowers at their own expense…preferably while you lounge around nearby, sipping an umbrella drink and bitching about the smallest thing they get wrong.

Fucking clowns.

11

What are they going to do if you don’t pay them? Fuck up your lawn?!?!! Wouldn’t want THAT to happen!

12

Holy shit. Fuck that, and fuck your neighbor. My neighbor takes it upon himself to fuck my yard over, WITHOUT my permission and then expect ME to pay for it? Hell, I’d have the police over taking a report, and then I’d have my neighbor on his hands and knees replanting.

Don’t pay, don’t back down, don’t apologize. It is not your problem, nor is it your fault that this happened and a single “you cut my fucking flowers down” outburst seems pretty slight compared to having an asshole neighbor molesting your property and asking you to pay for it with a smile on his shit-eating face.

Man I hate neighbors!

Sam

13

More damage… In the back yard they mowed over the water hose, leaving a gaping hole in it. The spigot was not completely turned off. The reason I noticed this is because a large part of my back yard is now under water.

I’m really spineless. I know I have to say something to the neighbor, I’m just not sure how to go about it.

14

Did I miss something? $100 for mowing your lawn? I cut some serious lawns as a kid, but even in adjusted dollars we’re talking about MAYBE $20 for a half acre lawn…and I was thankful!

what Snooooopy said.

15

How’s about “Hi, thanks for all of your [doing quote mark in air with hands]HELP[/doing quote mark in air with hands] yesterday, but what the FUCK do you think you’re doing?”

Really. If you don’t want to say something to him write him a letter with your grievances. If you don’t want to write a letter and don’t really care much for the fuckwad of a neighbor, call the police and have them come and aid in the mediation of the situation. The destruction of personal property and willfull trespass of your neighbor is pretty sickening and I doubt they’d take it too lightly. Especially when you tell them you were submitted a fucking bill for the “work” they did.

Sam

16

Well, what you do is gather information. It would be nice, but not neccesary to inform your neighbor.
“Neighbor, the landscapers did a lot of damage to my property. I am still investigating right now, but I’ll talk to you later”.

The next step is to document the problem. Photographs are essential. Take at least twice as many as you think you need. I’d call the cops on the non-emergency line, but I live in a small town. You know your police best.
Then you need to know the damage in dollars. Call another landscaping company and get an estimate for repairing the damage to original condition. This means 4 year old plants, if available. Call a nursery if you need a recommendation. You will be typing up a bill for the guys who did the damage.

They screwed it up, they’ll need to pay the cost to fix it. It’s not your problem with the neighbor. He didn’t screw the property, those guys did. Maybe they should then ask him for the money because he told them something untrue, but to you, treat these guys as if they have no relation to the neighbor at all.

17

Aside from vitriol and yelling at the neighbor, from a legal standpoint, do as Apricot suggested(which is what I’d suggest to a client in a situation like this). LOTS of pictures.

Sam

18

A litle known provision in most Homeowner’s Insurance policies is, “Damage to Property of Others.” Normally a $500 benefit to pay for your neighbors stuff should you accidentally break it. It’s a bit of a peacekeeper coverage because it’s a pretty quick settle: quantify your lo$$ and pre$ent it to hi$ in$urance company.

Who the responsible party is could be up in the air–neighbor for hiring the labor or the lawn service itself. But someone’s responsible for the damage, and at the very least someone owes you some shrubbery. One that looks nice. And not too expensive.

If you’re interested.

19

I work for a landscaping company. True, we do mainly (like 99.9%) big, commercial jobs, but every so often we do residences as well. I can assure you my boss, Joe, would laugh until his lungs caved in if a neighbor “gave permission” for his guys to do someone else’s lawn. He can get sued by the city if he wants a lawsuit bad enough.

[sub]Also knowing my boss, he’d cuss the hell out of the neighbor for even suggesting it, but then, that’s probably just him…[/sub]

That was total stupidity on the part of not only your neighbor, but the landscapers as well. My company wouldn’t even drive up in your driveway without a signature and cash deposit up front.

Hell no, don’t pay them. Mr. Nice Neighbor should pay them since he’s the dimwit who thought he would help out. I wouldn’t pay them if they’d done a job worthy of a magazine cover, so I’d see them in court or Hell before I’d pay them for destroying my lawn.

On preview, I third what Apricot and GaWd suggested. Pictures, documentation and more pictures. It may not come down to anything that bad, but you’ll be CYA if it does.

20

It’s quite possible that after the last time you got your lawns mowed by the same guys, your neighbour misinterpreted the situation and thought you wanted it to be a standard double-mow kind of deal. Unless the neighbour is an asshole (and nothing you’ve said suggests he is) he’s probably acted in good faith - even if his decision was totally wrong.

On the other hand, there’s no excusing the lawn mowing guys. Tearing up plants,
running over hoses, butchering grown plants - you can’t do that by accident. I agree with the folks who have suggested cataloguing the loss and getting replacement quotes from a nursery (for established plants, not seedlings). Much as I cringe when I see the automatic ‘sue the bastards’ mentality that’s so rife in the US, I think this might be an appropriate time for a letter from a lawyer - to the lawnmowing company, NOT to the neighbour - unless you think he’s a vindictive clod who advised them to butcher your plants, of course.

To him, a simple ‘thanks for the thought, but even if they’d not butchered my yard I couldn’t afford to pay for $100 worth of lawn cutting this month, so please don’t arrange for them to do my yard - I’ll call them when I want them’ should work. Assuming your neighbour isn’t an asshole, odds are he feels pretty awful about what they’ve done and shouting at him will only sour relations between you in the long-term.

Lay the blame where it’s deserved - at the feet of the company that took it into their own hands to cut down established plants and flood your yard. At the very least, a letter to the company would let them know that their staff are inept and ruining their reputation - something they’re never going to find out without feedback.

As for $100…well, I agree - if your yard is a straight block that’s horribly overpriced. It cost me that to do my yard, but that’s got retaining walls (which also had grass growing on them - or more specifically, wheat) and the grass/wheat/whoknowswhat was about 6’ high out back of the house, so I figure since it had to be whipper-snippered rather than mowed the cost was reasonable. Yeah, you can tell I’m not into gardening or outdoor maintenance. :wink:

Not sure if it’s any help to you, but on a related tangent - if you’re looking for plants that you cannot kill by lack of water or lack of care- try pelargoniums. Some of them look like the standard geranium (bo-ring) but the regal pelargoniums have double-flowers in gorgeous colours, and they’re quite impervious to any bad management. Our front yard has about half-a-dozen and they look good, take up room that would otherwise go to what we euphemistically call ‘lawn’ and bloom for large parts of the year. They’ve survived in my yard for the last 4 years, too - and I’m famous for killing plants even when I’m trying to be good (and I haven’t tried with these at all).

Also, if you break bits off you can replant the bits for a new plant, and if some bozo were to run over it with a lawnmower, I’d predict the plant would grow up again from whatever was left in the ground. Very hardy plant. I’m a fan.