Issue with Gardener

[abcfanatic]

Hi Everyone

 

I am new to the forum and would appreciate some help with the issue at hand. Basically what happened was, I have just moved into a new property with a crappy garden full of weeds and a messed up lawn. So instead of clearing it myself, I decided to engage a gardener to do the job. Sounds simple, so after going through a whole lists of quotations I settled on this gardener who sounds like he knows what he is doing and promised that he is so good he would not take any payments until the job is done to my satisfaction. Sounds great so far.

 

The job he was suppose to do was to clear the flower bedding of weeds and lay down a layer of mulch to slow them down and reseed my lawn. On the day the job was "completed" he assured me that despite only sowing seeds in patches around the lawn the grass will grow to cover the entire area and now that the weed has been clear and mulch laid, the bedding would be weeds free for a good while. But within days the weeds started popping through the mulch and the bald patches on the lawn never grew. I pushed aside the layer of mulch and noticed that the weeds were not actually removed but rather cut to a length so that they can be hidden under the mulch. After writing tonnes of complain email to him, he finally got 2 guys to come round and re-seed the lawn a second time but did not do anything about the mulch. At this point I was required to and made 50% of the payment. Now the entire mulch is covered in weeds, he is accusing me of being unreasonable and that I intended no to pay him his money from the very beginning. In his replies he has pushed all the responsibility onto me saying that I took the cheaper option and not maintaining the garden. He also made clear that he would not do anymore work to rectify the issue. Can someone tell me what I should do? (sorry I know the post is a little long)

[honeybee13]

Hi there. Is this something Trading Standards would get involved in? I'm not sure, but I see a site team member is hovering, maybe he does.

 

My best, HB

[raydetinu]

as we all know in the gardening world getting rid of weeds is not easy.

did you ask about his method of getting rid of or removing the weeds! weedkiller or dig up roots ( only way ) just picking of the tops will not do it!

Again lawn patch repairing is difficult if no preparation and subsequent watering not done.

However as he said when you took him on do not pay if you are not satisfied.

as evidenced by weeds regrowing quickly and no grass ( or id it start on second seseed )

Are we talking a lot of money here?

Always best to go by personel recommendation if you can ( neighbours etc. )

[abcfanatic]

He quoted me £510 of which £200 has already been paid. The problem with the weed was already brought up to him within days of him finishing the work. The problem with the lawn was only brought up a while later as the grass took time to grow and he assured me that despite the patchy work he did the grass will grow to cover the entire lawn which did not happen. So after about 3 weeks he finally gave in as at that point no money has been paid. He sent his workers down to repair the poor work done to the lawn for which he requested part payment.

 

Which is why the £200 was paid to him. Even his worker was shocked at seeing so many weed growing through the mulch. The employee suggested that I spend more money buying more mulch to cover up the problem. Which I think is very unfair to me, as the gardener has already quoted me £510 to give me a proper garden.

 

As this is already 3weeks after they initially began work, the gardener is now saying that I never had any intention of paying him the money and watching them work for free. In addition to that, he pushed the responsibility of the weed growing so quickly onto the fact that I "took the cheaper option" of not replacing the soil and only having the weeds removed. Which is not true as I have spoken to him when he first came round about replacing the soil and he assured me that his method was just as effective. He also made it very clear that he will not do anymore work to correct his mistakes and that I should either refuse to pay in which case he said he would use other means of collection or offer him part payment. I feel that the option he suggested just makes me look like I never wanted to pay him his money after he has completed the work? Which is really not the case. Any advise on how to reply to him would be much appreciated. I can post his email to me on here if it is require.

[perplexity]

It is not so easy to see how Trading Standards or anybody else could help with what appears to be an agreement that has been and ought to be negotiated between the parties.

 

If you fail to satisfy yourself you could invite a judge in a county court to take a look but I doubt that they would relish a task that is not so clear cut.

 

If you completely reject a partial payment that is tantamount to refusing to negotiate, so it does indeed makes it look like you never wanted to pay. Another way to sort it out would be to agree between yourselves to engage an independent third party, to arbitrate, but there again I doubt that they would relish the task.

[abcfanatic]

Thank you all for your advise. I have proceeded with negotiating a partial payment. I just hope he agrees to it and I would not have to see him again. This guy is being really unprofessional and horrible. Anyhow, thank you all for your advise once again !