Re: Apartment landscaping service damages car
Robert Bonomi
L Crumbly <dudlyd...@fastmail.fm> wrote:
>
>[sneck]
>
>I have told both the landscaper and apartment management that it
>borders on vandalism to my car, and how can no one be responsible?
Except in cases of acts of God/Nature, someone is _always_ responsible.
what you have here is a difference of opinion as to *who* is responsible.
>Does anyone have suggestions?
"If in doubt sue them -all-, and let the judge sort it out."
<wry grin>
less extreme:
1) go back to mgmt, tell them what landscaper said, request mgmt to
issue different directions to the landscaper.
failing that,
2) set up -joint meeting -- you, mgmt, _and_ landscaper. Ask them
both, 'who can change/solve this problem?'
if neither 1 or 2 are practical, or nothing is accomplished, you're
left with 'let the judge sort it tout'.
good luck.
Doug Brown
news:662385t5h9996f1l5...@4ax.com...
>I live in an apartment that hires a landscaping service to mow the
> grass. The parked cars are near a strip of grass that they use a weed
> wacker to cut the grass. The action of the weed wacker throws grass
> and any loose items onto the cars. My car is covered in grass (that
> stains the car), and other debris. I also think small pebbles may have
> caused some dings and chips in the paint.
>
> I have approached the apartment management about this. They told me to
> talk directly to the landscaper. I talked with the lead guy with the
> landscaper, and he told me that he cannot be responsible for anything
> that may happen to my car, as the apartment complex requires him to
> weed wack that area.
>
> I have told both the landscaper and apartment management that it
> borders on vandalism to my car, and how can no one be responsible?
>
>
>
If in fact you have damage you should be able to make a claim for it, but
you will first have to establish that you do have damage, quantify what the
damage is and then show that it is the direct result of the landscaper using
a string trimmer to perform their maintenance.
Simply saying "My car is covered in grass (that stains the car), and other
debris. I also think small pebbles may have caused some dings and chips in
the paint." is not sufficient.
How can the grass stain the car and what is the damage? A $5.00 car wash or
a $5,000 repainting? Are there indeed dings to the body? Chips to the
paint? How old is your car and what is the general overall condition? Are
we talking about a 20 year old clunker or the latest off the showroom floor
Canyonaro?
Then I would suggest either going to your own insurance company (probably
not the best idea) or getting in touch with the owner of the landscaping
service, not "the lead guy". Present a formal written claim, attach
detailed description of the damages including photos and also at least two
repair estimates.
You can always go to Small Claims Court, but you have to make sure you can
prove your damages.
mm
<doug....@sasktel.net> wrote:
>"L Crumbly" <dudlyd...@fastmail.fm>
I can hardly believe grass will damage the paint. I did a bit off
googlling. grass damage paint gave a several hits about paint
damaging grass. Finally I settled on what damaages "car paint" and
the 3 I looked at said nothing about grass. Is this grass on the hood
and trunk, or grass hitting the side of the car. Either way, you'll
have to bring something in print, at least from a webpage, to convince
anyone that this is possible. Maybe you can get a bodyshop guy to
testify to this, but... has anyone ever agreed that grass can do this?
>
>> I have told both the landscaper and apartment management that it
>> borders on vandalism to my car, and how can no one be responsible?
I think it's a mistake to end a complaint with a question. Especially
one which has the embedded assumption that no one is responsible.
There are a lot of questions I can't answer and neither can they, and
that they can't answer How doesn't change the fact that you seem to
have established the premise that no one is responsible.
This is not a critical mistake here, and it's nice that you're not a
bulldozer, but sort of admitting that no one is responsible is going
too far. :)
Besides what Doug and Robert have said, pictures, lots of pictures,
close up pictures and at least a couple pictures of the whole car, so
the landscaper, and the judge if it comes to that, can see the general
condition of the car, can feel confident that the pictures of chips
are chips on your car,
If you have a digital camera, you don't have to print anything until
you need the pictures, and even then, if you have a laptop, I think
you could bring the laptop to the landscaper or the small claims court
and show them 12" pictures of everything. If your camera didnt' come
with good software (I have two. The Fujica software is very good.
The Ricoh software is no good, but I can use the Fujica for both. And
Irfanview is a free program that is good for displaying pictures from
a digital camera (and has lots of other uses too.)
Some people bring pictures to court on the tv court shows, and the tv
viewer can barely see a thing, and the judge says the same thing. It's
not enough to take pictures. Look at them after you take them and if
they're not good enough, take more. Move the car so the light is
right.
> Present a formal written claim, attach
>detailed description of the damages including photos and also at least two
>repair estimates.
>
>You can always go to Small Claims Court, but you have to make sure you can
>prove your damages.
I'm sure you mean, after you've presented the claim to the landscaper,
not in place of doing that.
As to Roberts post, somewhere I got the impression that small claims
court in NY or Md. won't allow more than one defendant, but I could
surely be wrong. (Is that the rule in any state?) One suit with two
defendants is far better than two suits, one for each defendant, so
find out the rules in your state in advance to plan strategy.
warkn...@gmail.com
..
Stuart O. Bronstein
worth it to them, they'll sue the other guy to get their money back.
--
Stu
http://DownToEarthLawyer.com
--
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Roy
> My landlord was using the weedeatter 1space over from mine when something flew over and hit the door on my van . I got out and look found where it hit waited until he turned off WEater and showed him the damage . He responded oh well. Later I went to shut my back hatch it was open at the time of the incident.And a screw about an inch long fell out I than placed it up to the damage perfectatch. What do I do
> ..
>
I had a similar problem where the guy's weed eater threw a rock into
the side window on the car. Insurance took care of the whole thing.
micky
>My landlord was using the weedeatter 1space over from mine when something flew over and hit the door on my van . I got out and look found where it hit waited until he turned off WEater and showed him the damage .
>He responded oh well. Later I went to shut my back hatch it was open at the time of the incident.And a screw about an inch long fell out I than placed it up to the damage perfectatch.What do I do
you do.
But I posted to say that I think it's very unlikely the screw fell out
becasue of something that hit the door, or hit the car anywhere for
that matter. An inch long? Did it have threads for a half-inch or so?
How could it get unscrewed? I would try to find where it goes and
replace it asap so that things don't get work. Maybe it just held on
trim or upholsstery, but maybe its absence will put a strain on a
bracket and cause it to bend. Maybe not but at least look.
Oh, perfectatch means perfect match. Are you saying that's what hit the
car?
--
I think you can tell, but just to be sure:
I am not a lawyer.
Barry Gold
legal theory... it's not negligent to use a weedeater, and screws
sometimes fall into random places.
Was the "weedeater" a home-type (has a shield around most of it to keep
you from sticking your foot into the area where the nylon whip is going
around at high speed)? Or a professional type (no shield).
If it's professional, that might be beyond his expertise, which could
make it negligence. Or if he does have that level, he might count as a
professional gardner/lawn trimmer, in which case he might be liable for
any forseeable damage, even if not negligent.
BUT: you might not want to damage your relationship with the landlord
over a small ding on the door of your van. How important is a
perfect-looking van to you?
--
I do so have a memory. It's backed up on DVD... somewhere...