Take my loss or continue to fight?

[Jeff Sacco]

Hi All,

I own a 2-family, which is currently my only investment property and the first house I bought. I now have both sides as rentals and get great cash flow. So far everything has gone well with the exception of a few headaches, but now I have an issue on my hands and I would love all your advise on. 

When I bought the house the yard was a mess and I had a landscaping company clean out the yard, plant new grass seed, etc etc. He really cleaned the place up and made it look nice. After that I had him plant 14 arborvitaes along the back of the yard with the plan they would grow and create a nice natural fence. I watered these things correctly and now every single one is dead after 1 year of install. The kicker here is he guaranteed them for 4 years and I have been going back and forth with him for 6 months on replacing them and now he will not answer any call or text. These cost me $4,000 to install. 

Should I take my lump and move on or should I go the attorney route? I really hate losing but I also don't know if this is worth much more time and energy. I would love to hear from you all and see what you think.

Thank you!

[John Underwood]

The attorney fees will likely approach the amount of money you put into these plants. 

The lesson is don't put a lot of money into a rental property landscaping as renters generally won't take care of them.