<p>
When you’re ready, LTS, short and to the point. Short and to the point.</p>
<p>LOL, no, Jack, I read your post, and a light bulb went off. In addition to what Andale just synposized, I think it’s entirely appropriate to send an email to the landlord essentially saying, the landscaper slept on it, talked to some of his colleagues, and realized he really needs to get, say, $500 for the work, lol, so, therefore, surely the landlord will want to shop this out…</p>
<p>LTS:
$25? In our area, it would cost that much to get anyone to get into their car! By the time they got to our house, it would be $75 before any work was done.
An acquaintance was quoted $1000 by a local company (and he shopped around!) to take care of bugs; $6,000 for pruning shrubs and trees.</p>
<p>Anyway, I’d do two things: tell your landscaper to familiarize himself with the going rate in your area; tell the cheese-paring prof that he should do his own negotiating and that you are not to be held to the estimate you gave only as illustration not as a firm quote as you do not have the authority to negotiate on behalf of the landscaper.</p>
<p>All I can say is…I wish your landscaper lived near me. I would overpay him royally and I would be pathetically grateful to him and to you forever, to boot.</p>
<p>can the landscaper cut down the tree and keep the wood and sell it for firewood? </p>
<p>its a thought</p>
<p>I think they’re in Miami. Limited demand for firewood. Mulch, maybe.</p>
<p>Actually, CGM that is a thought - if he could make more money on it, it might work - actually, several of the higher end homes here do have fireplaces. Sometimes in the evenings during the winter, the temperatures can get as low as the 60’s, and once even in the 50’s…when we moved in, February, we turned on the heat for a few nights…we get cold, wear jackets etc. when it’s in the 60’s…so, firewood is used here. I cannot imagine though that anyone will be motivated to buy it during the summer, plus with the humidity I cannot imagine how to get it dry - maybe mulch, instead.</p>
<p>Irrationally, just now, I thought maybe I should just go outside, put christmas lights, ornaments and tinsel on it - but then I remembered all of our christmas decorations are in a closet at the house we own. Oh, well…</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of a tree being “saved” after falling over like that. Re-planting a 40-foot tree would be some piece of work, and I can’t imagine that anyone would trust it to stay upright.</p>
<p>Oh. I thought the branches were just bent way over; I didn’t realize the whole tree fell over. </p>
<p>latetoschool: Your idea is a good one, but I just thought somebody might want to save the tree, if it could be saved. But if the whole thing fell over, and not just branches leaning way over, then–yeah–just send the landlord an email. Let him take care of it; hopefully, he’ll hire the landscaper. If it’s a live tree, and just came up out of the ground, the landlord’s insurance should actually take care of it.</p>
<p>LTS, I’d be most concerned with the idea that the landscaper may be (almost definitely for this price IS) uninsured and wouldn’t want to be involved at all, especially for something as dangerous as the safe removal of a 40 foot tall tree with long branches. We pay many many times that amount for the removal of a similar sized tree - crew comes in with all kind of safety equipment.</p>
<p>Putting that aside, though, I was going to suggest the same thing as your lightbulb in the head, LOL, namely that the landscaper was talking off the top of his head and has reassessed the difficulty of the job. Then I’d tell the landscaper that you spoke out of turn on his behalf and that you think he should charge a fair price to the landlord - you can give the number of the landlord to the landscaper or vice versa and I’d definitely suggest that they deal with one another directly.</p>
<p>Jack, we don’t really know if the whole tree fell over, we cannot get close enough to the base of it to actually be able to see. The surrounding growth is too thick and too high. But you raise a very interesting point - his insurance should cover this I think. He might have Citizens though which if he does, getting them to do anything at all, even if the policy says, might be impossible. </p>
<p>Anyway, thanks for all of the suggestions. As soon as I can push aside my distaste I am going to answer the email, as briefly and concisely as possible. </p>
<p>Marite, I feel very sorry for the landscaper. He does absolutely beautiful work. Everyone stops by and talks about what an excellent job he does with the edging, and how clean and beautiful everything looks. He’s a minority, maybe 40 or 50 years old, clearly not anywhere near in the best health, missing half or most of his teeth, and comes across as terrified to ask for money. And it’s HOT here - miserably so for anyone who works outside, and the humidity is always very high, and, there are always things like snakes and various sorts of bugs…when he comes, I always fix a huge container of ice, together with containers of fresh water, and when he leaves it’s all gone - it’s as if he never gets anything to drink. Sometimes he has someone to help him but most of the time not. So I get really angry when I get an email that says “well, I’ll give him the $25 but if you want to TIP him…”</p>
<p>“Congratulations–you’ve won a tree!”</p>
<p>Possible solution–see if the cat can wield a chainsaw…;)</p>
<p>(Sorry, not helpful at all!)</p>
<p>lts, </p>
<p>Tell the landlord that it’s up to him to hire the landscaper and you just need this taken care of so you can enjoy the property that you’ve rented. Call the landscaper and tell him what you learned from the landlord about the quotes he received and what his price point is, specifically, that he probably can get the landlord up to $300 (or more) and shouldn’t take a penny less than $100.</p>
<p>In other words, if your conversation with the landlord led to the landlord getting some market intelligence about your landscaper’s bargaining position, there’s no reason you can’t “level the playing field” and give the landscaper equal intelligence (seeing as your landlord was kind enough to share that info with you).</p>
<p>Set things back to neutral and back away.</p>
<p>(Or, some might say, pull the pin from the grenade and back away.)</p>
<p>Either way, do it and move away from this as fast as you can.</p>
<p>DO NOT HIRE THE LANDSCAPER FOR THIS JOB.</p>
<p>Garland … maybe not helpful, but funny enough that LTS might get over being mad and be able to email Scrooge?</p>
<p>Garland that is just simply hilarious, thank you for that. No, I haven’t sent the email yet, but, that will certainly help me get down the road to where maybe I can.</p>
<p>D’yer, thanks for that, I will. I am on a plane mid day tomorrow and not back until late Friday, so it will be an easy matter to lob the email, close the laptop, turn off the blackberry, and be gone. (At least I hope it’s going to be that easy, I hate these situations.)</p>
<p>P.S. Garland - I still have Jackie O BTW. I have to pay people to come over and play with her and feed her while I’m gone, and, I have to pay extra for it, because she eats so much - twice as much as our first cat - that it is going to require the person make three trips a day (have to keep refilling because the food cannot be stockpiled outside in the heat). She’s costing a fortune lol.</p>
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<p>Depends on the kind of tree. I had a willow recover from much worse. People have replanted big palms too.</p>
<p>We had a big apple tree fall completely over (but roots not pulled out of the ground) after a hurricane, and we propped it up, and it survived.</p>
<p>From a landlord’s point of view- and not an arborist, botanist, artist, or any number of other things.
I am a landlord, and if I had a tree blow down, that most likely needed to be removed, or, if the easiest solution was its removal, I would be pleased if the tenant there knew a guy who could solve my problem for $25. I think it is ridiculous for you to suggest a guy for $25, then add that you typically overpay the workman because he charges too little and expect the landlord to follow the same course of action?
It was you that suggested the workman, and quoted the price. If I were your landlord, I’d tell you the same thing- if he quoted $25, but you upped it to $50 then you pay the additional $25. I see what you mean about the principle, and taking advantage. YES, you would be taking advantage of the landlord if somehow you obligated him to pay $50 for a job he could have gotten for $25. It would also be unfair of you to renig on the offer, or to lie that the gardener was no longer available. How many teeth your gardener has is not relevant to the deal you brokered. The landlord has damages, and probably diminished property value due to the storm, but is quite willing to clean up the debris- just as a good landlord should. You’re outraged at “outright stealing and taking advantage of people” yet it was you who told the landlord $50 when it was really $25? It is you who is considering lying about being able to contact your gardener? You might consider renegotiating after-the-fact because others would have charged more? What exactly makes that ok? Is it because its only $25? Or is it ok because the landlord is more prosperous than your gardener? Is it wrong to take advantage of a poor man but not a prosperous man? Is paying a man just what he bid on a job taking advantage? Is making a man pay more just because he can afford it ok? The time to “level the playing field” was before the landlord agreed to the gardeners terms, not after.
I just don’t get it- you discussed a couple of options, you specifically suggested one option, and quoted a price, but now have hard feelings toward a landlord because he wants the option you suggested? You want to blame the landlord for that? “Not your responsibility”? You chose to act as agent for the gardener, pointing out the tree problem, getting his bid, then modifying it and passing that on to the landlord. In the future I would urge you to only recommend a workman if you would expect to be happy with the result. And then, you might choose only to pass on contact info and let the other parties negotiate the terms. I believe you initially had the best of intentions to help the gardener and the landlord. I suggest you take the high road and continue to finalize the original deal. I agree with earlier poster that if you felt you handled this poorly and you didn’t do as well for the gardener as you might have, then recommend him to others, and/or continue overpaying him. Perhaps you can obligate your referrals to overpay him too.
Similarly, what if your landlord looked at your rent payment and said “I’ve been charging you X dollars, but the home is worth more than that. Next month double the rent”. No doubt you have a contract that states the rent and terms, and such, and so you wouldn’t permit, and he couldn’t enforce such a demand. Your gardener made an offer, you passed it on, the landlord sent you an acceptance.</p>
<p>Younghoss, sorry, we view this differently. What would have been dishonest is if I would have told the landlord, say, $500, a very believable, competitive number, and paid the landscaper $25, and pocketed $475. </p>
<p>My expectation is that reasonably educated people of average or above average financial means take responsibility for their property, and manage their resources efficiently, but stop well short of stealing from those far less fortunate. Within the range of my influence, miniscule though it may be, the world will NOT be that way.</p>
<p>The original offer was made by the landscaper while he was still on the premises. “Hey, I can take it out for $25.” LTS contacted the landlord, and he said no, he wanted to come look first. I think the fact that the landscaper, if hired, now has to make a second trip, etc, means the opportunity for the deal has been lost. The landlord turned down the original offer. All bets are off.</p>
<p>Your rent analogy doesn’t work because there is already a contract. There was no contract with the landscaper, only an offer. LTS has no obligation to be a go between, or to ask the landscaper to do something she is uncomfortable with. I think we all agree that she shouldn’t have mentioned the cheaper price. It’s possible that the landlord will still get him for the cheaper price, but it should be between them. If LTS is involved, then I suggest that she tell the landlord she has a $25 agent fee in addition to the landscaper’s fee!</p>