Mower broke our fence - advice? Anything I missed?

[TheReader]

We live in a managed community (i.e, it will eventually be an HOA run thing, but right now it's a management company, until the neighborhood is close enough to completion to gain homeowners on the board); they hire a lawn/landscaping company to mow the public areas. 

The mower today was mowing the area behind our fence (we back up to a space that will eventually be a road, but is right now just green space), drove too close to the fence line and his mower broke the support post and the bottom cross-beam on one section of our fence, causing it to fall into our yard. This damage was not there this morning when we woke up (so was not caused by last night's storms), was noticed while the mower was still in the vicinity (a few "rows" out from the fence by that point), and seems very obvious to us that it was caused by him. 

We took photos -- you can clearly see the tire tracks/depression made in the wet grass by the lawnmower tires, which align pretty perfectly with the clearly broken by an impact stump of the fence post immediately next to the tire tracks, and the broken cross-beam a little before that. We have photos of the fence damage taken from inside our yard, taken from the other side looking in (and showing the tire marks, etc), and pictures of the mower, showing he was still there in the vicinity when the damage was noticed. 

We have called & left voicemails, emailed, and submitted the official online form to request a repair (with photos sent both via email and via the repair request form). 

Is there anything I'm missing?? Anything else we can/should do?  This just happened this morning, I just want to be proactive and we need it done sooner than later as we have dogs. 

If they reply in the negative and try to make us complete & fund the repair ourselves, what would be our next steps? DH thinks they'll say "oh, sorry" and not offer to do anything; I think *surely* they will see that this was caused by their hired service and take care of it....(maybe I am being optimistic?). Anyway, if they do as DH thinks and refuse, what next? 

Anyone faced similar and successfully dealt with this?  (the photo below most clearly shows the tire tracks in the grass, immediately adjacent to the broken beam; this is one of several, but gives a pretty clear idea)

 

 

[mommyoffive]

Oh man I am so sorry.  That really sucks that if that is what happened they didn't even stop and fess up to it.  I am not sure about next steps.  I am assuming you guys were not home at the time.  Do any neighbors have cameras?

That sort of thing happened one time while I was home and the mower of empty lots by us shot rocks through our siding of our house that left holes.  I was home and heard it and went out and looked seeing the holes.  I was able to stop the person mowing and talk to them about it and we were able to get the company to fix it.

Is the mower already gone?

[Spryte]

Have you filed a police report? I wonder if that might help? I think I would go that route if they aren’t responsive.

Would your homeowners insurance be of help?

Edited May 30 by Spryte

[Pawz4me]

I have no advice, but weirdly enough our fence man was just here fixing a gate. The fence was just installed late last summer/early fall, so when we noticed the gate hanging weirdly we contacted him. He told us that it was caused by a mower hitting the lower clamp. The owner of the lawn service is the one who usually does our yard, and he's very careful. But a couple of weeks ago one of his crews did it, and we're guessing that's when it happened. Thankfully ours was a quick, easy fix and the fence guy did it w/o a charge. Anyway, my point is -- he said that fence damage from mowers is very common. Hopefully that will mean you won't get any pushback on getting it fixed.

[TheReader]

30 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

Oh man I am so sorry.  That really sucks that if that is what happened they didn't even stop and fess up to it.  I am not sure about next steps.  I am assuming you guys were not home at the time.  Do any neighbors have cameras?

That sort of thing happened one time while I was home and the mower of empty lots by us shot rocks through our siding of our house that left holes.  I was home and heard it and went out and looked seeing the holes.  I was able to stop the person mowing and talk to them about it and we were able to get the company to fix it.

Is the mower already gone?

We were home; by the time we saw it, the guy on the mower was quite a ways off - I suggested talking to him &/or going out to whoever is in the trucks (there are usually many of these guys around at a time on the day they service the neighborhood), but DH didn't think that would do anything -- the guys on the mowers aren't in any position to do anything, ya know? 

Since the management company hires them, that's who we thought to start with, and hopefully they'll do the right thing, but we'll see. 

By this point, yes, the mower is gone, but we did manage to get a photo of him, showing which type of  mower he was using (tractor with a pull-behind thing, which is probably the part that bumped the fence & broke it), and that he was still in the vicinity, etc,, when the damage occured. Hopefully that helps. 

[TheReader]

29 minutes ago, Spryte said:

Have you filed a police report? I wonder if that might help? I think I would go that route if they aren’t responsive.

Would your homeowners insurance be of help?

I can't imagine filing a police report....hmm. That seems excessive for an accident.  (although, we did call the police the year the neighbor caught our lawn on fire with stray fireworks, mainly b/c he then ignored the fire, and kept shooting more fireworks). 

Contacting our insurance is an idea; if the management company responds negatively, maybe having our insurance company contact them to get the info will work. 

[TheReader]

26 minutes ago, Pawz4me said:

I have no advice, but weirdly enough our fence man was just here fixing a gate. The fence was just installed late last summer/early fall, so when we noticed the gate hanging weirdly we contacted him. He told us that it was caused by a mower hitting the lower clamp. The owner of the lawn service is the one who usually does our yard, and he's very careful. But a couple of weeks ago one of his crews did it, and we're guessing that's when it happened. Thankfully ours was a quick, easy fix and the fence guy did it w/o a charge. Anyway, my point is -- he said that fence damage from mowers is very common. Hopefully that will mean you won't get any pushback on getting it fixed.

Thanks! I hope not. We'll see. 

[mommyoffive]

3 minutes ago, TheReader said:

We were home; by the time we saw it, the guy on the mower was quite a ways off - I suggested talking to him &/or going out to whoever is in the trucks (there are usually many of these guys around at a time on the day they service the neighborhood), but DH didn't think that would do anything -- the guys on the mowers aren't in any position to do anything, ya know? 

Since the management company hires them, that's who we thought to start with, and hopefully they'll do the right thing, but we'll see. 

By this point, yes, the mower is gone, but we did manage to get a photo of him, showing which type of  mower he was using (tractor with a pull-Bubehind thing, which is probably the part that bumped the fence & broke it), and that he was still in the vicinity, etc,, when the damage occured. Hopefully that helps. 

Not that I have handled it correctly but I always went to talk to the mowers.  We have had other issues like that happen.  However we don't live in a place that has an association.  Just was empty lots and whoever the owner of the lots hired to mow them.  But it happens in winter with snowplows hitting mailboxes, trees, and tearing up landscape.   In my case making sure the mower knew about it was the issue.  They were able to call their boss on the spot and give me all the information.  Also it just gave them a chance to admit to it.  In my case I doubt that they knew that rocks they mowed over kicked up and went through our siding.  You would think in your case they would know that they caused the damage.  Maybe not though.  But yeah you don't ever know how that interaction is going to go.

[Annie G]

If they don’t call you back in a day or so, I’d send a photo and explanation, via certified mail, keeping a copy for yourself. I might visit the police station and ask them if filing a property damage report is necessary. If you don’t hear from the company after sending them the letter/photo, I’d get a repair estimate and file in small claims court. And also contact whoever hired/pays them to let them know what happened so they can have the info if they are weighing whether to continue w the company in the future.  I probably wouldn’t file an insurance claim because my deductible is high and I don’t want it to increase my premiums. But I guess it doesn’t hurt to call the agent and discuss it. 
Yeah all of the above sounds over the top, but they damaged your property and should repair it. 

[TheReader]

Mini-Update -- the management company rep emailed back and said actually the developer hires the lawncare guys; she forwarded my email & info to them and to the  Board of Directors (and passed me their contact info to follow-up if we don't hear back). 

So, it's gotten to the right people, and now we wait some more. I'm encouraged by the promptness so far - it's only been less than 2 hours so far, so hopefully they do the right thing. 

[TheReader]

UGH

The management person says she passed our info to the developer; she sent me a phone number I could use to follow up. 

Well, I tried to call just now, because we've yet to hear from anyone -- the number is disconnected.  Okay, maybe it's an old number she sent by mistake. I emailed her to ask for the correct number and she says she heard back, the developer contacted the hired mowing company and "they were instructed to reach out to you directly."   They who? 

I asked who to follow up with, what's the phone number for this person/entity, because we haven't heard. She says now that she's not allowed to give out that info, but if we don't hear, she's our way to reach the developer. :sigh: 

I've written back asking when we can expect to hear, and letting her know to please pass on the info that we expect to hear something by close of business today so we can get this repair scheduled, reminding her it's not only unusable for our dogs, but a safety issue as well. Gah. I hate not having even the basic info of *who* to call and talk to about this. 

 

[KungFuPanda]

Call your insurance, give them your evidence, and let them decide if they’re going to just pay you or go after the lawn company. It’s why they have lawyers. 

[TheReader]

Okay, whew! The lawn company called, they're sending a team in the  morning to repair the fence. I have the name/number of the owner of the company (he called me himself) so this should be settled/taken care of then. Thank goodness!

 

[mommyoffive]

3 hours ago, TheReader said:

Okay, whew! The lawn company called, they're sending a team in the  morning to repair the fence. I have the name/number of the owner of the company (he called me himself) so this should be settled/taken care of then. Thank goodness!

 

Yay.  I am glad it worked out so fast for you!

[TheReader]

11 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

Yay.  I am glad it worked out so fast for you!

Me, too! (of course, this morning it's raining, and leaning more, but now that I've been in contact with the right person, I'm much more relaxed about it)