manhattan42 wrote:

INSURANCE: A homeowner can't usually talk to a contractor's broker.
Well, you can talk to them but you cannot make a claim against his
insurance. Only he can do that.

What you can do is to call your homeowner's insurance and tell them
about the damage to your property. They in turn will pay you and then
pursue his insurance company for reimbursement.

The problem with this approach is, depending on your deductable, you
may end up paying more out of pocket by alerting your insurerer than
what the damages are worth.

WITHHOLDING PAYMENT: In many states it is illegal to withhold payment
from a contractor without first

a)Making full payment on the portions of work completed and with which
there is no dispute
b)Notifying the contractor within 7 days of the receipt of his bill for
services that there is a dispute and just what the dispute is.
c)Failing to follow this proceedure can cause you be be fully liable
for all financial claims by the contractor, have to pay interest on any
money withheld, and having to pay for court costs and attorney's fees by
the contractor to collect his debt.
d)It can be a criminal offense to stop payment on a check in some
places.

SMALL CLAIMS: You could proceed via small claims court but it will cost
you to do so and there is no guarantee you will win. Even if you are
100% correct people lie and judges don't know when they are lying
especially when the lies are corroborated by witnesses. If this fellow
has his employees show up and they say the rake was already broken and
that your shed roof was already damaged, you could be fully out of
luck. Magistrates and small claims judges don't even want to waste
their time with cases like these in most situations and may be irked
with you simply because yu brought the case to trial.

CONTRACT: What does his contract say about damage from falling trees or
branches? Some tree men will fully disclaim any and all responsibility
for damages from falling trees or branches and also not warrant any
damages to your property from their heavy equipment in mud. If your
contract agreement has a no damage clause, then you have no case.

Personally,and for the amount of damage that is involved, you may just
wish to swallow this loss and chalk it up to experience...

It could cost you more to pursue any action and you coudl come away
empty handed.


Agreed. After considerable thought I have decided to pay the balance
due. The reality is that the work he did is worth more than the full
payment to him. His estimate was a good thousand
or 12 hunderd dollars lower than my next lowest bid.
I will then clain it against his insurance company. I have already
contacted them. I'm not going to involve my insurance co.
Not for this.
By doing this, I know that I will be in the right and clear. If they
don't fix it then I can fix it for only a hundred or two dollars and
some elbow grease.
It feels better this way.

I appreciate all the input from everyone.