During the early part of 2018 we had two very large windy storms. The first knocked down some rotten posts and fences between us and neighbour1. We left it until the ground thawed but fixed up the roof tiles that blew away because the tilers did not take the little plastic off the back of the tiles so they never adhered to the adjoining tiles. Then we had the second storm which knocked down a chunk of neighbour2's fence and posts. The long fence between us and neighbour3 was ok but one of the posts did break but the fence was pretty much ok. I decided that we should just scrap the 20+ year old fences and get some good new ones all around. Something that would last at least 20+ years.
The year before, neighbour1 had his other side fence replaced rather cheap, though every time we asked, the exact number seemed to change. He suggested we do the fence between us as well. We were low on cash so I said we could wait a few more years. I was wrong.
Back to 2018. I got the business card of the guys who installed neighbour1's other fence. Called and texted 7 times and they kept making a meeting and never showing up and then they just stopped responding to my text all together. I got my wife to call and they actually showed up for her and quoted around $2700. But when it came time to call back to confirm things, again, they never responded.
In the meantime. We got quotes from everyone we could. Home Depot ($6700), people on Homestars ($8700), all of them were either very high, wanted a pre-deposit, or never responded. Going for a walk with my daughter around the neighbourhood, we say one of the neighbours getting their fence done and it looked pretty good. We chatted it up a bit, he was very friendly and gave me the details of the guy doing the fence. I chatted with him a few times, brought him over, he said around $2700-$3000 and could start as soon as he was done with this house.
I told neighbour2 right away and they were fine with it. Wife spoke to neighbour1 and he kept saying he wanted cheaper and we kept saying, this included the gate and it would be more cement above the ground so the posts would not rot again. He was ok.
Wife and I tried several times to talk to neighbour3, whom is behind us, on a different street. Several times during our walks, we would stop buy and knock and no one would answer. So I decided to write a letter. It had my intensions as well as 3 different ways to contact me. I actually talked with the wife and elder son and they took the letter and said the husband makes these decisions so would give it to him when he got home as he was away. This was around the time we just got the quote from the $2700 guys and before they disappeared.
Soon after, I got an email from neighbour3 husband saying;
"Sorry, I was away and could not respond to your letter on time. Yes, I am willing to join the group in replacing the fence. Please let me know my portion to when its all done.
Thank you,"
The year before, neighbour1 had his other side fence replaced rather cheap, though every time we asked, the exact number seemed to change. He suggested we do the fence between us as well. We were low on cash so I said we could wait a few more years. I was wrong.
Back to 2018. I got the business card of the guys who installed neighbour1's other fence. Called and texted 7 times and they kept making a meeting and never showing up and then they just stopped responding to my text all together. I got my wife to call and they actually showed up for her and quoted around $2700. But when it came time to call back to confirm things, again, they never responded.
In the meantime. We got quotes from everyone we could. Home Depot ($6700), people on Homestars ($8700), all of them were either very high, wanted a pre-deposit, or never responded. Going for a walk with my daughter around the neighbourhood, we say one of the neighbours getting their fence done and it looked pretty good. We chatted it up a bit, he was very friendly and gave me the details of the guy doing the fence. I chatted with him a few times, brought him over, he said around $2700-$3000 and could start as soon as he was done with this house.
I told neighbour2 right away and they were fine with it. Wife spoke to neighbour1 and he kept saying he wanted cheaper and we kept saying, this included the gate and it would be more cement above the ground so the posts would not rot again. He was ok.
Wife and I tried several times to talk to neighbour3, whom is behind us, on a different street. Several times during our walks, we would stop buy and knock and no one would answer. So I decided to write a letter. It had my intensions as well as 3 different ways to contact me. I actually talked with the wife and elder son and they took the letter and said the husband makes these decisions so would give it to him when he got home as he was away. This was around the time we just got the quote from the $2700 guys and before they disappeared.
Soon after, I got an email from neighbour3 husband saying;
"Sorry, I was away and could not respond to your letter on time. Yes, I am willing to join the group in replacing the fence. Please let me know my portion to when its all done.
Then those builders disappeared so I gave an update saying it was taking time to get this organized. He responded, "Thank you for the information."
When we finally got the contractor on board my wife went over their with our daughter and tried to contact them in person but no one answered. As she was walking away, an unmarked car rolled up, someone got out with a submarine sandwich sized package and knocked on neighbour3's door and someone took the package and the person drove away. My wife saw this, went back to the door and again, no one answered. This all happened around 9pm (dusk) on Friday.
Because of no response, I emailed (the only way we had access to them) saying;
"Just a quick update, we have a contractor coming in and should be starting work within a few days on the fence. He should have estimates for everyone available.
They had a very good price compared to everyone else and the neighbour down the street just finished with them."
Sunday rolls by, the contractor say he spoke to all the neighbours and gave them estimates so he started tearing down the fences. We were out at a farm for the kids and on the way back we got a call from the non-english speaking in-laws whom were living with us. They said to my wife that the neighbour3 wife was freaking out yelling at the contractor for tearing down their fence. We rushed home and I went to their house.
She started relatively calm but quickly escalated with anger as I kept pointed out that the husband agreed to this via email which is sounds like she was not informed of. I pointed out we tried to contact them several times but it was very difficult and she just blasted saying they are very busy. Then the husband drove up and I started speaking to him while she stormed off saying they were not going to pay for a darn thing. (City by-law says otherwise).
Finally got to meet neighbour3 in person. He was fine, mostly but later said, in the email, he meant to let them know of the quote before starting. The email (above) did not sound at all like that intention to me. I empathized saying that I would be annoyed if someone started tearing down my fence without consent but he agreed there was a miscommunication and seemed ok with things. Sounds like he wanted to do the minimum amount as he showed the other fence he has with another neighbour and all they did was replace some of the posts. He seemed ok but wanted a offical quote from the contractor so I created an email between the contractor's wife and him to iron things out.
A few days later the posts are up and it sounds like neighbour1 has been badgering the contractor for over 4 hours while he was putting up the posts. I took a look when the fences were installed and noticed there was a lot of wiggle on the fences. The father-in-law said the neighbour not only talked the contractor out of raised cement (which would prevent rot on the posts) but also told him to put one less post and spread the posts out more. Thus the large wiggle. I had no idea this happened until the fence for that side was up. It wiggles a lot and to top it off, the largest area is exactly where the fence fell down in the first place. This quickly went from a 20+ year fence to a maybe 5 year fence. I fear someone just has to lean on it and it will break.
I'll update this as more happens (which I am sure it will). I spoke with my coworkers and the one that did their fence a few years back said he just paid for the whole thing himself. I am beginning to see why.
