The company cut the wrong tree, while I'm not at home. They came one day before the agreed schedule, and called me at work.
I specifically instructed them to not start the work until I came home. They started the work and made the mistake anyway.
What should I do? Go after their company's insurance? What should I claim, because I don't think anyone would plant a mature 90ft oak tree?
by Piglet_Zestyclose
5 Comments
Mistakes happen. Yes they should have insurance but they might not pay up – the insurance company lawyers will want to see evidence that the company was clearly told which tree to remove.
Once the mistake was the street address. We cut down a tree in the home next door. Insurance paid for that one, then sued our real customer to recover the loss. Nothing we could do about it, we don’t control our insurance company. The customer gave us the wrong address.
Sorry but if we show up with four people and hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment we’re going to start working immediately.
A customer told us to wait once and the boss told them we’ll “reschedule” the job and we left. We didn’t reschedule – our cost overheads per day are high and delays are extremely expensive. If the customer had a good reason, we’d have been fine with it but this person’s reason was shit.
If you need to be there, then be there when they arrive. Or even better provide clear descriptions and photos of the job so you don’t need to be there.
There is an actual formula to calculate the finnancial damages for damaging or killing old big trees. And it’s pretty high ammounts. You can get quotes from actual tree guys. Can’t remember what they are called but ask AI.
Ask the r/TreeLaw Subreddit too.
Find an arborist that specializes in tree appraisal. Some BCMA Arborists may do that, but you may need to be look for an Arborist that is a member of ASCA (American Society of Consulting Arborists).
There are formulas specifically for these cases that can be used to assign a value to the loss, which the tree company IS ultimately responsible for. Due to their negligence, you suffered the loss of an asset. This could easily be $10,000+ in damages depending on conditions. I’m in a state with treble damages law, so they would be responsible for 3x the loss value.
ASCA search:
https://www.asca-consultants.org/search/custom.asp?id=3818
Do you have documenation of all this? I’m not disputing you, just saying that you’ll want to make sure you have everything in writing/text/email