G S HINSEN INTERIOR DESIGN

This Company was hired by a neighbor to do landscaping work. The Company hired a tree company to cut branches, trees, and brush along property line. The tree company came to our home, requesting that we give them permission to cut down a tree they "weren't sure about". We asked them if a survey had been done to determine the property line and they said it had not. They were unsure of the line and were guessing that the trees belonged to our neighbor. When we expressed our concern over who the trees belonged to, the tree company stopped all work until the Company was contacted. Unfortunately, the damage was done. The entire tree line had been cleared except for the tree in question and a small honeysuckle bush. The owner of the Company contacted us at our request and told us that "you don't get a survey to cut down trees". We found this suspicious since it was obviously not clear which property owner these trees belonged to. The trees in question provided a privacy barrier between us and our neighbors. We were planning to list our house in the very near future and were very concerned about the impact this had on resale value. Our very private lot was now in full view of our neighbors. The owner of the Company told us to get a survey if we desired, so we did just that. We had an independent surveyor come out to assess and stake out the property lines. As it turns out, our property line extends far beyond the line they were "guessing" at, and all of the trees removed were ours. We then had a landscape architect come assess the damage, and identify the remains of trees that were cut down within our property. He identified multiple stumps, some as large as 8 inches in diameter, and called the damage "irreplaceable". We asked for a quote from him to plant some sort of new privacy barrier between us and our neighbors and he quoted us $8500. We also had a realtor assess the damage to our property value. She estimates our property value dropped $10,000 due to this mistake by the Company. We contacted an attorney to help us settle this matter with the Company. We requested only the $8500 to replace the privacy that our lot once had, and that was destroyed by the Company. The owner of the Company and his attorney visited our property and saw the damage. The owner admitted in front of both attorneys and us that he cut down the trees. Our attorney once again asked that the Company settle this matter for $8500, the cost to replace the privacy screen between properties, and the Company refused. The owner of this Company made a mistake by not getting a survey prior to cutting trees on the tree line between his client and the client's neighbor. That mistake was costly to us and we gave the Company a chance to make it right but he refused. Our next option was to go to the homeowner (our neighbor) to ask to be reimbursed for these damages, but we are good people, and the homeowner is not at fault here. The only mistake the homeowner made was hiring the Company in question.