I sprayed the wrong property once. Thankfully it was just hort oil on a Hemlock. The guy I was working for at the time wasn't big on work orders and just said spray such and such tree on such and such road. It's close to the road you can't miss it.Yeah, we took out the wrong tree at the wrong address once. It was expensive, but not nearly as bad as it could have been.
I sent my crew to take out the Scotch pine at the correct address. They took out the 70' tall blue spruce across the street. When they came back, I was kinda pissy about how long they spent doing that dinky tree. A few days later, I sent them back to grind the stump.
The next day, the owner of the missing blue spruce called and asked me if we were the ones who stole his tree. He was actually in pretty good humor about it and thought it remarkable that someone came and stole his tree. Then returned within the week to steal his stump! At that point, he did some research and figured out that we should have been removing the pine across the street.
He settled up with me for $1500 worth of landscaping and maintenance, since he was not very happy about the tree to begin with. I was so lucky, since it was a spectacular tree, and was symmetrically matched in his landscape with another one just like it. I don't know what an insurance company could have been forced to pay, but I'd bet $100,000 couldn't have replaced that tree, even 30 years ago.
The $300 or so (back then) for taking out the pine wasn't even enough to cover the wages on the time the crew wasted doing the wrong tree, and we still had to go back and take out the correct tree. At least they knew where to go at that point.
Our victim did compliment the quality of our tree theft services. According to him, we were both stealthy and efficient, having left almost no traces of our activities.
Not legal tho I think, unless you added it to the contractThat's the problem with tree removals... you can't exactly put them back if they don't pay, can you... 20 yards of mulch in the driveway can be a bit of a pita though...
Take this as a word of advice.Not legal tho I think, unless you added it to the contract
Where I live we can do a lien without a contract so that's nice
Yes, possibility 3: customer wants a tree cut down on neighbors property. This happened a few years ago at the house I grew up in. They hired a company to cut a tree that they didn't own. The lady that did own it came home just after it came down. It was clearly in a landscaped area that didn't belong to the "customers" property, maybe 5' over the line. The guy with the saw stammered a bit, then beat feet to get out of there as soon as he could. NOT good for neighborly relations which were already a problem before this.Possibility 1. Crew screws up and takes wrong tree. Careless. Should verify with homeowner.
Possibility 2. Prank / revenge act, similar to ‘swatting’. Crew sent by someone else.
There were some threads about this a few years ago.
Other possibilities?
Many years ago, I heard of a house built on the wrong lot, at a newly platted subdivision.
Philbert
I did land survey work for a few years (where I heard the ‘house built on the wrong lot’ story).They hired a company to cut a tree that they didn't own
People greatly underestimate the power of the chips coming from a chipperproceeded to blow out the front lounge window of the house because the chute was wasn’t locked in….
I sprayed the wrong property once. Thankfully it was just hort oil on a Hemlock. The guy I was working for at the time wasn't big on work orders and just said spray such and such tree on such and such road. It's close to the road you can't miss it.
Well there was another 3 houses up from the intended one.
Could have wound up a lot worse than it was. Never heard a thing about it and went back the next day and sprayed the right tree.
If it's questionable, you *might* want to check with adjoining landowner.
YES!I would also mark the tree with paint or flagging tape. Timber guys have to do that to keep their crew from going on someone’s property or cutting the wrong parcel. They also flag the way in and out for their trucks.
ETA: Don’t trust county maps. They are notoriously wrong.
Enter your email address to join: