Call the company directly. Be civil and direct. If they don't comply, tell them you will be left with no choice but to call the police to report vandalism of your property.

Yes, you do have other choices if that doesn't work if and you actually want your lawn fixed.

Find out the cost and procedure for small claims court and then decide if you can proceed on your own or if you need a civil attorney.

Calling the police and having criminal charges filed is another way to go if you really want this to drag out forever.

Stupe said:

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Yes, you do have other choices if that doesn't work if and you actually want your lawn fixed.

Find out the cost and procedure for small claims court and then decide if you can proceed on your own or if you need a civil attorney.

Calling the police and having criminal charges filed is another way to go if you really want this to drag out forever.

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You don't have to file charges yet but I would get a police report on file while the damage is fresh.

Agree with above. The EASIEST AND BEST (CHEAPEST) WAY to resolve this is to be super nice and super civil. I know you are pissed but these things DO happen. It's an error and the company will make it right. You also have to be reasonable with what you want. It's your yard, step in when you feel like you need to. The only thing they owe you is to return the yard to a state in which it will grow and be the same as before. Nothing more.

The cops will tell you it's a civil issue. Contact the contractor via email asking them to have the lawn leveled and resoded. If they drag their feet have an attorney send a demand letter or do one yourself. If they don't fix it, hire an attorney and file a small claims suit. You'll win and get a judgement to cover the cost of repairs plus attorneys fees. You may be forced to have the attorney follow up with collections after the judgement.

Who is the contractor by the way?

Had this happen to me last week, except it was the gutter cleaner. Cleaned my gutters and left. Was talking to the neighbor, they were supposed to have done their gutters instead.

Much better problem then having them destroy my yard.

I just want to make sure I handle correctly. Trying not to act like a crazy woman about anything.
Thank you for your replies, my attorney has the pics and video I took and we will see if the owner steps up and either springs for the sod...or heck, comes and finishes the job and widens my driveway!

It was Evolution Concrete

FYI I wasn't going to call the police haha

NurseC said:

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my attorney has the pics and video I took

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Seems like if I had an attorney to send pics and video to I would just ask their advice instead of a local forum.

[Do not post in that manner again on this particular forum. -Staff]

Absolutely no reason to involve police, and would be a waste of their resources. Their pics or yours, pics are pics to document what was done. It wasn't a crime (there is an intent required for criminal mischief), so don't involve them.

If they want to play hard ball, take them to small-claims court.

"(a) A person commits an offense if, without the effective consent of the owner:

(1) he intentionally or knowingly damages or destroys the tangible property of the owner;

(2) he intentionally or knowingly tampers with the tangible property of the owner and causes pecuniary loss or substantial inconvenience to the owner or a third person; or

(3) he intentionally or knowingly makes markings, including inscriptions, slogans, drawings, or paintings, on the tangible property of the owner."

No. It isn't. Being a complete misunderstanding does not equate to a crime. The person did not knowingly damage the property of OP. He thought he was damaging the property of the neighbor (with their consent).

It is an accident, for which the company is negligent.

Don't you dare throw facts into this.

Lol. Strike two. He wasn't trespassing either.

"(a) A person commits an offense if the person enters or remains on or in property of another, including residential land, agricultural land, a recreational vehicle park, a building, or an aircraft or other vehicle, without effective consent and the person:

(1) had notice that the entry was forbidden; or

(2) received notice to depart but failed to do so.

(b) For purposes of this section:

(1) "Entry" means the intrusion of the entire body.

(2) "Notice" means:

(A) oral or written communication by the owner or someone with apparent authority to act for the owner;

(B) fencing or other enclosure obviously designed to exclude intruders or to contain livestock;

(C) a sign or signs posted on the property or at the entrance to the building, reasonably likely to come to the attention of intruders, indicating that entry is forbidden;

(D) the placement of identifying purple paint marks on trees or posts on the property, provided that the marks are:

(i) vertical lines of not less than eight inches in length and not less than one inch in width;

(ii) placed so that the bottom of the mark is not less than three feet from the ground or more than five feet from the ground; and

(iii) placed at locations that are readily visible to any person approaching the property and no more than:

(a) 100 feet apart on forest land; or

(b) 1,000 feet apart on land other than forest land; or

(E) the visible presence on the property of a crop grown for human consumption that is under cultivation, in the process of being harvested, or marketable if harvested at."

Once again, there is a culpable mental state needed to commit a crime. It wasn't met. For comparison, when you are involved in a car crash, and it is your fault, do you get charged with criminal mischief? You might get a ticket, but it's for the traffic violation, not the crash itself.

Wow. This is getting super cereal.

I just hope the owner of Evolution Concrete chooses to make this right. I understand mistakes happen.

Thank you for everyone's input, I will keep you updated!

KC

meezermom said:

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Long story short, they won't let you press charges because apparently they just see it as a nuisance and not a crime (being wrong about an address and vandalizing someone else's property doesn't seem to be a crime to CSPD). They will tell you to work it out amongst yourselves. We were lucky and he replaced our fence, but had he not, I'm not sure what we would have done since the cops wouldn't work with us on pressing charges.

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I'm sure that they would have documented it as a civil matter but if the guy made a legitimate address error then his intent was not to vandalize your property and thus there was no criminal mischief offense. He thought that he was doing his job. Now why he didn't stop when you asked him to, that's another matter. Was it a worker who thought he would get in trouble for stopping?

You have to realize that officers don't decide whether or not offenses are prosecuted. They follow the law and in both your case and the OP's case, address errors were made and the workers did not intentionally decide to dig a hole in the wrong persons yard or intentionally tear down the wrong fence. Why would they do that intentionally anyway? They won't get paid for doing work on the wrong address.

Many, many times officers are called to take reports that the reporting person thinks is a crime but it is really a civil matter. Just because the person wants the offense to be criminal doesn't make it so.

Note: I realize that the OP said he/she wasn't calling the police so this isn't directed at them. Just wanted to clarify that the officer wasn't being negligent, they were just following the law.

Looks like it is time for your attorney to get involved