Repair & deduct??? (getting an estimate from a company on the cost)

[anbereska]

This past Memorial Day weekend, Sunday morning, we woke up and the front half of one of the trees in our front yard split and fell, covering the street (which is the only outlet for half of our neighborhood). I immediately took a photograph and sent it with a text to the landlord saying that we were having to take care of it. My boyfriend is a landscaper, so he already had all the tools.
These trees (Bradford Pears) have been brought to the landlord's attention numerous times as posing a danger (if it had been the back half of the tree, we would have no porch or living room). This matter was of urgent neccessity to take care of (we noticed it before church time) and it took my boyfriend 6 hours, use of his tools and gas, and then loading and hauling away.
Would we be out of line to get an estimate from a company on the cost of having this removed immediately, on a Sunday, and on a holiday weekend and have him deduct it from the rent? If we had not been able to pounce on this problem as quickly as we did, who knows how long it would have taken......

[sandyclaus]

Originally Posted by anbereska This past Memorial Day weekend, Sunday morning, we woke up and the front half of one of the trees in our front yard split and fell, covering the street (which is the only outlet for half of our neighborhood). I immediately took a photograph and sent it with a text to the landlord saying that we were having to take care of it. My boyfriend is a landscaper, so he already had all the tools. These trees (Bradford Pears) have been brought to the landlord's attention numerous times as posing a danger (if it had been the back half of the tree, we would have no porch or living room). This matter was of urgent neccessity to take care of (we noticed it before church time) and it took my boyfriend 6 hours, use of his tools and gas, and then loading and hauling away. Would we be out of line to get an estimate from a company on the cost of having this removed immediately, on a Sunday, and on a holiday weekend and have him deduct it from the rent? If we had not been able to pounce on this problem as quickly as we did, who knows how long it would have taken......

It probably WOULDN'T have been out of line to arrange LL to pay for the costs of removing that tree by deducting it from your rent. But you didn't make those arrangements; you simply told the LL you would "take care of it", which you did.

Any arrangements to be paid for the work needed to be made BEFORE the work was done (preferably IN WRITING). However, since no such arrangements were ever made, the LL is under no obligation to pay anything.

While I'm sure that there was a certain urgency to the situation, it was LL's job to get it taken care of. Constant complaints to him from you, your husband, along with any residents affected by this could have put pressure on him to approve your husband's services, but the fact that you and your husband went forward and did the job without even discussing payment is a problem. There was no expectation from the LL that he would have to pay anything to have this done - the expectation that you gave him. (And wasn't it lucky that he had a tenant who had the skills necessary to take care of this little problem for him, meaning he didn't have to go out and try to hire someone last minute on a holiday!)