If you’ve never been through the process of hiring a landscaping company before it can be a daunting process. It doesn’t matter whether you need some professional assistance to have a single feature added to your yard or you’re looking to have a complete overhaul and a new landscape design implemented, you need to hire landscaping contracting professionals that are capable of doing the work. All too often (we’ve heard many horror stories from homeowners in Thornhill, Richmond Hill and Woodbridge) people agree to work with the first contractor that they contact and they end up being scammed. If you want to avoid losing out financially or suffering the disappointment of low quality work, you need to be able to identify the red flags that indicate something is not quite right. During this article we’re going to point out some of the biggest signs of dishonest landscaping companies.
Know How to Spot When Landscaping Companies are Trying to Scam You
While the vast majority of landscaping companies that operate in Thornhill, Richmond Hill and Woodbridge are 100 percent committed to meeting their clients’ needs, there are a few “rogue” operators that let the industry down and have no intention of fulfilling their responsibilities. To be able to protect your financial interests you would be wise to watch out for the following red flags when going through the process of hiring a landscaping company.
- Large Upfront Payments – Reputable landscaping companies will never ask you for a large deposit before they start work, so if a company does ask you to do this then you need to walk away from any deal that’s on the table as it will only end badly. A small deposit will usually be requested though.
- Shy Away from a Written Estimate – You absolutely must get any landscaping contractors that you want to work with to provide you with a written estimate before they start work at your property. If you have a positive onsite consultation with a landscaping professional and they provide you with a verbal estimate, that’s no good as there’s no physical evidence that that’s the amount you were quoted should a dispute arise when they try to charge you more after the work has been done (which is how these scams typically work). Insist on a written estimate and if the contractor keeps skirting around the issue simply walk away and contact several other landscaping companies instead.
- Use Low Quality Subcontractors – One way in which dishonest landscaping companies seek to maximise their profits is by employing low quality subcontractors to do the bulk of the work on larger scale projects, leaving you with an end result that is far below your expectations. It’s typical for the contractor to show great enthusiasm initially. They will most probably conduct an onsite consultation, talk you through the various options available to you and even provide you with detailed plans to help you make your mind up, but as soon as you sign that contract you most probably won’t see them again. Instead they will send the sub-contractors round to do the work and when you get in touch with them to see what’s going on they will most likely claim they are occupied with other projects and that the staff that are handling the work are more than capable of achieving the required standards. There is a simple way to avoid this though. Before you sign a contract, ask the landscaping companies that you contact whether they use sub-contractors or not. Problem solved!
It’s very important to be as thorough as possible when hiring landscaping companies as failing to carry out your due diligence can really come back to haunt you sometimes. If you’re interested in a new landscape design, and outdoor kitchen or pool landscaping in the GTA, get in touch with our team today at 416-984-0180 or 416-688-8511.
