Some of you guys are harsh neighbors! Of course they have the right to trim anything on their property, but I can't imagine rolling up to a new house and just cutting a bush that's clearly cared for because "my property line". And if I asked to trim the dead parts and then my landscapers hacked the thing in half, I would go over to the neighbors and say sorry for the misunderstanding, just to be neighborly and keep the peace rather than starting things off on an antagonistic foot.
We have new downstairs neighbors who were blasting music this weekend from 10-11 pm. Yet when the doorman called to ask them to turn it down at 10:30, instead of saying something reasonable like "we're in the middle of a very important karaoke battle, but we'll turn it off by 11" they said that if the neighbors didn't like it we could call the police. So now instead of thinking eh, it was a weekend, 11 is a decent hour, that was fair of them, I hate them with the fire of a thousand suns. Delivery matters!
Agree with all of this. Also - if you're the homeowner you do get the "blame" for whatever your hired workers do.
But if they have no idea the parking is an issue, because OP didn't speak to the neighbors directly, what do you expect them to do, exactly? Being neighborly goes both ways. It's a 5 minute conversation to approach the actual neighbors/homeowners and ask them to let the workers know that they can't park their truck there. Going to the landscapers 5x over is an exercise in futility, as the OP learned. Same with the shrub. It isn't like it was just discovered that it was significantly over the property line. New neighbors move in, again, it's a five minute conversation to have and kind of give them the lay of the land - hey, I see you're getting new landscaping, we know this shrub straddles the property line, we usually trim and shape it in the spring. Is that cool with you and your new landscaping plan?
You can trim vegitation over the property line but generally are *not* permited to do so if it will kill the tree (or bush in this case). If the bush dies, you can go after them to replace of a simialr size. But it would probably ruin your relationship with the neighbor if that matters to you at this point.
DD and I were out of town from 9/9-this morning. DH called last Sunday and said "well, they're done and everything is gone but... the big shrub was pretty mch cut in half". Apparently they asked DH if they could trim dead parts off of it and he said yes. It is an evergreen shrub and it was about 6 1/2 feet tall and just as wide (DH had trimmed it egg shape this spring before they moved in) and apparently it spilled on to their property line. They did not "trim dead parts", they literally cut it in half right down the property line. We've lived here 12 years and they're the 4th people to move in and no one before ever had an issue. The first neighbors even helped us trim it before we bought a trimmer. We trim it every spring.
I haven't met them; it's two women in their late 20's/early 30's and I know one is a public defender. I hate confrontation, and there's nothing we can do now anyway, but if we have to just tear it out to make it look better that cost is on us and that's ridiculous. But this is worth being annoyed about, right? The owners never asked us - their landscapers simply asked if they could trim dead parts.
So who asked your H if they could trim the bush? Was it the landscapers or the home owners? That makes a difference to me in how annoyed I'd be at the neighbors. If it was the landscapers who asked, I'm honestly not surprised they hacked up the bush since they sound like assholes. I'd be unhappy, but try not to be mad at the neighbors since it is probably not their fault.
Have you even talked to the neighbors yet? You share a property line with these people, sitting and resenting them before you've even met them is not going to be great for your relationship. Maybe you will feel better if you talk to them. I'm guessing they have no idea how much their landscapers have been frustrating you and their reaction will be telling. If they are apologetic and understanding, hopefully you can get past it. If they aren't, well then you'll know for the future.
When we first moved into our new house we had a similar issue with a neighbor. Our builder had poured a small piece of our driveway over the property line. We had *no* idea. Our first interaction with our neighbor was him upset about it and telling us we needed to fix it. We were blindsided, felt terrible, but we had our builder fix it because it was a mistake. H and I were pretty wary of the neighbor after that first interaction, but got to know him later and became friends. It was just a misunderstanding which was unfortunately the first way we met him.
I would have probably approached the neighbors about the parking thing rather than the contractor since they're the ones paying them and your initial attempts didn't work.
Re: the bush, the way you're describing it sounds like the bush will die? I think the neighborly thing, especially as the new people, would have been to offer at least the opportunity to relocate it before hacking it in half. That may be on the landscapers, but I would think they would have at least introduced themselves and talked about it once they saw what happened. Maybe they're within their rights but still crappy behavior in my opinion and not trying to start out on the right foot.
Agree with all of this. Also - if you're the homeowner you do get the "blame" for whatever your hired workers do.
But if they have no idea the parking is an issue, because OP didn't speak to the neighbors directly, what do you expect them to do, exactly? Being neighborly goes both ways. It's a 5 minute conversation to approach the actual neighbors/homeowners and ask them to let the workers know that they can't park their truck there. Going to the landscapers 5x over is an exercise in futility, as the OP learned. Same with the shrub. It isn't like it was just discovered that it was significantly over the property line. New neighbors move in, again, it's a five minute conversation to have and kind of give them the lay of the land - hey, I see you're getting new landscaping, we know this shrub straddles the property line, we usually trim and shape it in the spring. Is that cool with you and your new landscaping plan?
When they were first moving in, they did park in front of our mailbox and I did speak to the father about it and they did move the car. That was their personal car. They did know starting then that that was the way the post office operated. It’s impossible to put every single detail into an OP. The neighbors know the parking rule. This was before landscaping started.
Some of you guys are harsh neighbors! Of course they have the right to trim anything on their property, but I can't imagine rolling up to a new house and just cutting a bush that's clearly cared for because "my property line". And if I asked to trim the dead parts and then my landscapers hacked the thing in half, I would go over to the neighbors and say sorry for the misunderstanding, just to be neighborly and keep the peace rather than starting things off on an antagonistic foot.
We have new downstairs neighbors who were blasting music this weekend from 10-11 pm. Yet when the doorman called to ask them to turn it down at 10:30, instead of saying something reasonable like "we're in the middle of a very important karaoke battle, but we'll turn it off by 11" they said that if the neighbors didn't like it we could call the police. So now instead of thinking eh, it was a weekend, 11 is a decent hour, that was fair of them, I hate them with the fire of a thousand suns. Delivery matters!
For sure delivery matters but it sounds like they haven’t talked to the neighbors yet - only interacted with the landscapers. The landscapers are for sure asses. The neighbors might be too - or they might just not be aware of that their hired landscaping company is doing.
I can’t figure out how to add photos from my phone and Tapatalk doesn’t recognize my username/password but when I get home from work I’ll update with photos.
They moved it those four times temporarily and then at the end of the weekend (when we weren’t there to see them) they moved it back.
Oh ok so they did move it. You said they didn't. But they just kept moving it right back? That’s some dedicated assholery, all right. But again, this is the landscapers and not the neighbors, right? I’m sure you know this by now, but it’s *well* past time to talk to your neighbors. Attempting to deal with the landscapers who clearly don’t give a shit is not going to accomplish anything. Neither is sitting and stewing about it.
Go meet your neighbors, tell them you haven’t gotten mail since May (how *have* you been getting your mail btw?), ask them to have the landscapers and any other future workers park elsewhere, and ask them when this work will be done. Then while you’re there… “man you really hacked this bush in half, didn’t you? Your landscaper said you just wanted him to trim dead branches. If you wanted it smaller, you could have just asked us. We’d have trimmed it back in a healthier way.”
Post by fluffycookie on Sept 20, 2022 12:01:52 GMT -5
ksun, I vote asshole landscapers. We've been having issues with the landscapers our neighbors use blocking us in our driveway and despite asking them not too they did everyday the week they were there and the times they have come back for follow-up.
Some of you guys are harsh neighbors! Of course they have the right to trim anything on their property, but I can't imagine rolling up to a new house and just cutting a bush that's clearly cared for because "my property line". And if I asked to trim the dead parts and then my landscapers hacked the thing in half, I would go over to the neighbors and say sorry for the misunderstanding, just to be neighborly and keep the peace rather than starting things off on an antagonistic foot.
We have new downstairs neighbors who were blasting music this weekend from 10-11 pm. Yet when the doorman called to ask them to turn it down at 10:30, instead of saying something reasonable like "we're in the middle of a very important karaoke battle, but we'll turn it off by 11" they said that if the neighbors didn't like it we could call the police. So now instead of thinking eh, it was a weekend, 11 is a decent hour, that was fair of them, I hate them with the fire of a thousand suns. Delivery matters!
For sure delivery matters but it sounds like they haven’t talked to the neighbors yet - only interacted with the landscapers. The landscapers are for sure asses. The neighbors might be too - or they might just not be aware of that their hired landscaping company is doing.
I understood that the neighbors asked to slightly trim the shrub and then have made no mention of the fact that they actually cut it in half. So in this case the issue is the non-delivery, but you know what I mean, just that it's about HOW you do things and not just what actually gets done.
dexteroni - DH works from home. Most days he can hear the mail truck approaching and can go meet the mail carrier in the street. The mail carrier told DH that it's been almost 3 months since he delivered them any mail.
I was kind of meh until I saw your picture. I'd be super annoyed because that looks terrible! Did they have the right to trim - probably but that isn't what I call a trim they destroyed that bush and I would for sure talk to the neighbor about it. They can't think that looks ok - especially the landscape company since that is what they are supposed to be good at!
Post by pizzaandtulips on Sept 20, 2022 12:28:08 GMT -5
OP, I can see why you’d be angry that the bush was hacked, but from the picture, it looks like the bush was very close to and possibly interfering with a path to a gate?
Your bush is sad. I would meet the new neighbors and be super friendly, and "oh by the way" ask them if I can have the contact info for their landscape company because the landscapers asked to trim the bush and "seems like there might have been a misunderstanding" because they way overdid it and now that bush needs to be removed. I would ask the landscape company to properly dig up/remove the whole bush at their own cost because they've mangled it. Unless you plan on attempting to rehab that poor thing.
OP, I can see why you’d be angry that the bush was hacked, but from the picture, it looks like the bush was very close to and possibly interfering with a path to a gate?
Their gate is on the other side of their house. No gate on that side for either of us. Also the beware of dog sign has been there since before we moved in 12 years ago and they don’t have a dog. bittybomb
Oh wow, yeah, you should have led with the picture. That's awful and yes, I'd be annoyed and mad. I'm shocked the neighbors haven't said anything to you about it! That's terrible, I'm sorry.
I understand why they wanted it trimmed, but they should have talked to you first before they destroyed the bush.
Post by bittybomb on Sept 20, 2022 12:33:32 GMT -5
Its hard to tell from the photo, but it looks like the bush was blocking what I assume to be their gate?
We had bushes that looked exactly the same as this in the front of our house, and based on conversations with our own landscaper, I don't know if there would be a way to effectively trim a bush like that back so that it doesn't look bald? I was desperate to pull ours out because they had just grown too large and overwhelmed the front of our house. After asking our landscaper how to make them smaller, and being told they would look bald like that if we trimmed them back more than just trimming the branches, we decided to rip them out and re-landscape the front.
OP, I can see why you’d be angry that the bush was hacked, but from the picture, it looks like the bush was very close to and possibly interfering with a path to a gate?
Their gate is on the other side of their house. No gate on that side for either of us. Also the beware of dog sign has been there since before we moved in 12 years ago and they don’t have a dog. bittybomb
Is that their fence though? Maybe they want to put a gate in on that side?
Post by MixedBerryJam on Sept 20, 2022 12:37:50 GMT -5
I’d say this is pretty much (like 90%) the landscapers being asses. You home is on the right in that pic, correct? What they did to that bush is appalling. Honestly if I were your neighbor I’d be pretty pissed at the landscaper for that trim job, period. I’d say you do have a right to be pissed at the landscaper for the parking AND the trim job, but also I don’t understand why you didn’t say something to the neighbors, who have more standing with the landscapers to get them to park elsewhere.
But also, that was a lot of bush over their property line. It looks like it might have been interfering with their side gate.
It’s probably too late to say anything at this point. But if I lived in either of those houses I’d put posted at whoever cut that bush. ETA I see now that it’s not a gate and not likely to become one. That bush is still in the way tho.
Post by emilyinchile on Sept 20, 2022 12:38:48 GMT -5
Even if they want to put a gate in this is not the way to go about it! That looks awful, I'm sorry OP. I'd probably try the approach of "omg the landscapers clearly misunderstood what we neighbors agreed on, doesn't this make both of our houses look so much worse? What should we do?" and see their reaction.
Yeah, that looks like shit lol. I can't believe that after spending all that time and money landscaping the yard, they'd want that so close to their property.
I think the more reasonable thing would have been to have it removed completely if they didn't want it on their property. Of course they couldn't just do that themselves, but they should have asked you or at least told you they needed it off their property to work with their planned landscaping and given you the opportunity to take it out.
Their gate is on the other side of their house. No gate on that side for either of us. Also the beware of dog sign has been there since before we moved in 12 years ago and they don’t have a dog. bittybomb
Is that their fence though? Maybe they want to put a gate in on that side?
They have a gate and sidewalk on the other side and not room for much to get thru on that side (only about 3 feet wide)
That’s when you go back out and say “move it now.” And stand there while they do it.
I mean, after the fourth time of them agreeing to do it and then not doing it, that should have been a hint that stronger measures are needed!
They moved it those four times temporarily and then at the end of the weekend (when we weren’t there to see them) they moved it back.
This is the part that confuses me tho. They only worked on weekends, and left the landscaping truck all week when they WEREN’T there and working? That would have been a perfectly normal situation to bring up with the neighbors. I don’t understand, if the truck was parked there all week, why wasn’t it parked in front of the neighbors house or even in the neighbors driveway for the downtime?
Post by icedcoffee on Sept 20, 2022 12:48:11 GMT -5
To be fair that bush looks overgrown and also partially dead. If they’ve spent 3 months on their landscaping I could understand why they don’t want that on their property. I’m not saying they handled it properly, but it does look half dead and too big.
Post by shopgirl07 on Sept 20, 2022 12:50:41 GMT -5
The bush looks like crap, but I knew it would, I believed you! I do think it’s highly likely that the landscapers just hacked it with no regard for how it looks. Lately, anytime I’ve asked landscapers to “trim” something, they’ve done a hack job like that. I’m sorry your neighbors suck.