- Report: #970015
Complaint Review: Foreclosure Cleanup Services - Lawnside New Jersey
Reported By:
Aprille -
Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Submitted:
Updated:
-
Author Not Confirmed
Why?
Foreclosure Cleanup Services
284 S Charleston Ave Lawnside, 08045 New Jersey, United States of America
Phone:
856-204-0684
Web:
www.foreclosurecleanupservices.net
Categories:
Business Rating:
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Foreclosure Cleanup Services Tresspassing, Vandalism, Destroyed Tree, Severed 220V Power Lines with Chainsaw. Lawnside, New Jersey
We live in a row home. The one house next to ours is vacant/foreclosed. The bank (?) has hired a cleaning service to come out regularly to maintain the vacant property by mowing the lawn & trimming the weeds/brush.
The first incident occurred around Sept 10, 2012. I was home sleeping, as I work night shift & must sleep during the day. I am used to hearing all sorts of lawn mowers, weed whackers, etc, from all the neighbors maintaining their yards & bushes, etc. And I was aware that a cleaning crew regularly showed up at the vacant property next door to keep it well maintained. So, I did not think too much of what was going on outside since I was trying to sleep. However, after I woke up, I soon discovered that this crew had completely hacked down, to a pathetic stump, my Elderberry tree that was in the back corner of my FENCED-IN yard!! This tree was as tall as the 2-story house & provided shade, privacy, & a welcome change to the eyesore of a brick warehouse-type building & flood lights directly behind us. Now there's just a huge gaping hole where the tree used to stand. It was too late to do a thing about it because the crew had already done their damage & packed up & left.
The crew came back again on November 12th, 2012. This time they were on the root with a chainsaw hacking through some thick creeping vines that were growing up the side of the vacant home's enclosed porch & onto the roof. Well, not only did they throw all the hacked up debris into our yard, they decided it would be a good idea to come over onto OUR ROOF. They proceeded to hack through two 220V power lines (There are on the far side of our chimney, probably a good 2' away from the edge of the vacant home's roof.) I was inside & heard a loud, weird pop & immediately lost power to half of my house. The power was out to the kitchen stove, refrigerator, entire basement, and the 2nd floor bathroom & bedroom. These guys were STILL up there waving around a chainsaw!!
I knew right away what happened & went out there to scream at them. I told them I was calling the police because they just cut through my power lines! Well, it's no surprise that these guys vanished completely within less than a minute. Also interesting to note is that they barely spoke a word of English - but they sure understood "Police" and ran as fast as they could & took off in their van. So I called the police & I called the Electric company (PECO). PECO said there were no reported outages in the area besides ours, so after I explained the situation, they sent out an emergency repair tech. The PECO tech placed a shunt (i think this was what it's called, not sure) in the meter so that we would have full electricity restored for the night, and another repair tech would be out to service the cables in the morning. So the next service guy arrives & climbs up to the roof & can't believe that those incompetent fools hacked through 1 full 220V cable & partially through a 2nd. There are burn marks & charred vines - it's a miracle no one got killed. And of course the wires are on MY side, not PECO's, so now I have to hire I private electrician to replace the entire length of cable running from the meter up to the main power lines.
We've called Foreclosure Cleanup Services several times. They told us they would have a crew come out the next morning to clean up the mess they left. They told us they would have one of their electricians come out the next morning to replace the cables. Well, it's 4 days later & still nothing. I've called several private electricians & we are getting estimates of $500- $800 to replace the entire length of cable. And of course the company that needs to step up & take responsibility for their incompetence is playing games with us & won't return our calls or provide any sort of compensation for the mess they created. This company is supposedly "fully licensed & insured" so I don't understand why they refuse to take responsibility.
I've been to the police station to file a report. I've filed a report with the BBB. Guess next step is talking with a lawyer. I'm living in terror - wondering what destruction they will cause, at my expense, the next time they show up next door. These people have no authorization to be on my property whatsoever. So as far as I am concerned they are trespassing & vandalizing my home & yard.
The first incident occurred around Sept 10, 2012. I was home sleeping, as I work night shift & must sleep during the day. I am used to hearing all sorts of lawn mowers, weed whackers, etc, from all the neighbors maintaining their yards & bushes, etc. And I was aware that a cleaning crew regularly showed up at the vacant property next door to keep it well maintained. So, I did not think too much of what was going on outside since I was trying to sleep. However, after I woke up, I soon discovered that this crew had completely hacked down, to a pathetic stump, my Elderberry tree that was in the back corner of my FENCED-IN yard!! This tree was as tall as the 2-story house & provided shade, privacy, & a welcome change to the eyesore of a brick warehouse-type building & flood lights directly behind us. Now there's just a huge gaping hole where the tree used to stand. It was too late to do a thing about it because the crew had already done their damage & packed up & left.
The crew came back again on November 12th, 2012. This time they were on the root with a chainsaw hacking through some thick creeping vines that were growing up the side of the vacant home's enclosed porch & onto the roof. Well, not only did they throw all the hacked up debris into our yard, they decided it would be a good idea to come over onto OUR ROOF. They proceeded to hack through two 220V power lines (There are on the far side of our chimney, probably a good 2' away from the edge of the vacant home's roof.) I was inside & heard a loud, weird pop & immediately lost power to half of my house. The power was out to the kitchen stove, refrigerator, entire basement, and the 2nd floor bathroom & bedroom. These guys were STILL up there waving around a chainsaw!!
I knew right away what happened & went out there to scream at them. I told them I was calling the police because they just cut through my power lines! Well, it's no surprise that these guys vanished completely within less than a minute. Also interesting to note is that they barely spoke a word of English - but they sure understood "Police" and ran as fast as they could & took off in their van. So I called the police & I called the Electric company (PECO). PECO said there were no reported outages in the area besides ours, so after I explained the situation, they sent out an emergency repair tech. The PECO tech placed a shunt (i think this was what it's called, not sure) in the meter so that we would have full electricity restored for the night, and another repair tech would be out to service the cables in the morning. So the next service guy arrives & climbs up to the roof & can't believe that those incompetent fools hacked through 1 full 220V cable & partially through a 2nd. There are burn marks & charred vines - it's a miracle no one got killed. And of course the wires are on MY side, not PECO's, so now I have to hire I private electrician to replace the entire length of cable running from the meter up to the main power lines.
We've called Foreclosure Cleanup Services several times. They told us they would have a crew come out the next morning to clean up the mess they left. They told us they would have one of their electricians come out the next morning to replace the cables. Well, it's 4 days later & still nothing. I've called several private electricians & we are getting estimates of $500- $800 to replace the entire length of cable. And of course the company that needs to step up & take responsibility for their incompetence is playing games with us & won't return our calls or provide any sort of compensation for the mess they created. This company is supposedly "fully licensed & insured" so I don't understand why they refuse to take responsibility.
I've been to the police station to file a report. I've filed a report with the BBB. Guess next step is talking with a lawyer. I'm living in terror - wondering what destruction they will cause, at my expense, the next time they show up next door. These people have no authorization to be on my property whatsoever. So as far as I am concerned they are trespassing & vandalizing my home & yard.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Aprille
Marcus Hook,Pennsylvania,
United States of America
***UPDATE*** DECEMBER 18, 2012
#2Author of original report
Wed, December 19, 2012
You know, I thought we would be done with the B.S. after they hacked down one tree & chainsawed through our electrical power lines on the roof.... but NO!!!!
These disrespectful, incompetent people were back again this afternoon (Dec 18, 2012) & now we are, again, down one more tree!!! (only one more Maple tree left, & I am betting it gets hacked down next time they are out.) I cannot believe these people have the audacity to hang over a 6-foot solid wood privacy fence to hack down trees in a neighbor's yard!! And then the owner of this company tells me I am rude & arrogant for calling him out? I feel completely violated & distressed in MY OWN HOME. These people just do as they please & have no regard for other people's property & space. I cannot even sleep peacefully during the day (I work night shift) without worrying what destruction I will wake up to. Do these people WANT ME TO FILE A LAWSUIT?? Will they not stop until there is a lawsuit!? And then what? I have to live in fear of any repercussions. I am just waiting for them to burn down the house, or who knows what next!! Seriously, how would they like it if someone violated THEM?? I guarantee you they would be very upset & screaming their heads off. But apparently it's okay for them to trash other people's property. They don't care at all about that. No big deal to them, I am being unreasonable apparently.
And now I am terrified that someone is going to be angry & possibly retaliate because I had the nerve to defend MY PROPERTY!! I do not know these people or what they are capable of. They obviously have no moral conscience.
They CLAIM they knocked on our door. Okay, well we had two people home, sleeping & the front door is right under my bedroom & I WOULD HAVE HEARD IT!! We even have a sign posted on the front door requesting people to knock very loudly as we sleep during the day. Okay, so let's say they DID knock & we didn't hear it, does that give them ANY RIGHT to chop down a tree on our side of the fence!? I mean, they didn't just trim off the branches that were sticking over the fence, no they hacked the entire tree down to a naked stump.
Then these rude people have the nerve to tell me I need to clean up my yard!! OMG! Seriously!? I have to clean up the mess they keep leaving & I'm some disgusting slob!? Okay, it's been raining all week, it's wet & muddy outside & I have to work like 80 hours a week. And these people have no problem hacking down my property & tossing the garbage in MY YARD!!! Wow, I am utterly flabbergasted. These people should be embarrassed to treat anyone the way they do. No respect whatsoever.
And now I have to deal with the owner calling & emailing me numerous times a day accusing me of slandering his perfect image. Well, maybe he needs to take responsibility for his employees. I mean, how difficult is it to COMMUNICATE with someone & tell them to STAY THE *F* OUT OF THE NEIGHBOR'S YARD!?! And that means NO HANGING OVER THE FENCE TO HACK DOWN TREES ON MY PROPERTY!!!! You'd think after the first TWO incident's the owner would actually tell these employees to stay away from our yard & DO NOT hack down our trees. I have no problem with branches being trimmed, but of course they are incapable of trimming. All they know is destruction. Seems like someone needs some property training on tree trimming etiquette.
Aprille
Marcus Hook,Pennsylvania,
United States of America
**UPDATE** NOVEMBER 29, 2012
#3Author of original report
Fri, November 30, 2012
NOVEMBER 29, 2012
This is an update, since ripoffreport.com will not allow me to access my original report to make any changes or amendments.
The company owner of Foreclosure Cleanup Services finally got in contact with us (NOVEMBER 18, 2012 I believe it was) & agreed to pay for the damages that were caused by his employees. I've delayed updating this report, as I was waiting for the reimbursement check to CLEAR before making any further statements on this matter. I am sure you would all understand my reasoning behind this.
We have been reimbursed for the cost of the private electrician that we were required to hire to replace all of the damaged electrical cables running from the meter to the main wires. Unfortunately there's not much to be done about our huge tree that was destroyed, other than wait for a new one to grow, which will take YEARS.
I consider this matter resolved at this point in time and am grateful that the owner finally took responsibility for correcting the issues to the best of his abilities.
Sincerely,
Aprille
