Horrible Tree Service with Damage to Living Trees and Yard
Our house sits on a dead-end road adjacent to an undeveloped, wooded area in eastern Birmingham. This large wooded area is owned by St. Vincent’s East Hospital. Three trees located on the property of St. Vincent’s East Hospital were at risk of causing damage to our house and property, i.e., a very large, completely dead pine tree and two trees with significant soil erosion around their root systems leaning toward our house. About 15-years ago, a tree on their property fell on and destroyed our outdoor storage building. St. Vincent’s East Hospital was liable for the replacement of the destroyed storage building. Due to this previous occurrence, I contacted Medxcel Facilities Management (hereafter “Medxcel FM”) at St. Vincent’s East Hospital requesting the removal of these trees. I did not wish for additional damage to our property to occur for which St. Vincent’s East Hospital would be liable. Regarding the current three trees, it took Medxcel FM about ten months to get a tree service to cut down the three trees. They contracted Allen Tree Service in Birmingham, Alabama to do the work.
On Thursday, 12/28/2017, Allen Tree Service sent a crew to cut down the three trees. Unfortunately, no one contacted me regarding the date and time the tree removal would be done. I gave permission to the crew to back their crane truck into our yard. I did not give permission for any other equipment to be in our yard. The Allen Tree Service crew cut down all three trees so that they fell away from our house into a wooded area. The crew made no attempt to remove any part of the trunks nor branches of the three trees that were cut down. Several nearby living and viable trees on the St. Vincent’s East Hospital property were damaged due to the method the three trees were cut down. A large section of our front yard was damaged, i.e., truck and utility loader ruts with destruction of the underlying grass, with little to no attempt to repair this damage by the Allen Tree Service crew. The area where the three trees fell looked as if a tornado passed had passed through, i.e., the large trunks and branches of the three cut down trees on the ground with damage to adjacent living trees.
Our two neighbors have commented on the unsatisfactory job performed by the Allen Tree Service crew, and the “eyesore” created by their unacceptable work. One neighbor voiced concern that the “eyesore” created from their shoddy work will have a negative impact on the sale of their house. Because all sections, i.e., trunks and branches, of the cut-down three trees were left by the Allen Tree Service crew, I shall have personally pay for the proper removal of the tree trunks and large branches. Someone will have to prune the living, viable trees damaged by the way the dead trees were cut and allowed to fall. In addition, I shall have to level the yard where ruts were made and place new sod in the area where the grass was destroyed by the Allen Tree Service equipment. A more acceptable and professional approach without the incurred damage should have been done in removal of these three trees.
For the past several decades, dying trees on St. Vincent’s East Hospital’s property at risk of damaging our property have been a repeated problem. Several years ago, I notified a different facilities management company at St. Vincent’s East Hospital regarding two dead trees on their property adjacent to our property. They arranged for Ace Tree Service to remove the two dead trees. Ace Tree Service removed all parts of the trunks and branches from trees from the area and caused no damage to adjacent living trees or our yard. This previous experience was entirely different from that recently encountered with Allen Tree Service. Due to the manner the trees were cut down and left on the property adjacent to our house as well as the damage done to our front yard, I would NEVER recommend Allen Tree Service to anyone for any type of tree service. From personal experience and previous work done, both Ace Tree Service and National Tree Service provided complete and excellent tree removal services.
Date of experience: January 07, 2018