Woman worried that unwanted yard work caused deep-rooted damage

EDMONTON – Peggy Hurst came home Sunday afternoon to find an invoice on her door for a lawn aerating service she declined. But the bill is the least of her concerns.

“The bill is for $52.50. The damage to my property is probably in the thousands of dollars,” Hurst said.

The Edmonton woman fears that all the holes that have been put in her lawn may have damaged her underground sprinkler system.

“The worry is the entire yard, the sod, will have to be lifted and the irrigation system will have to be replaced,” she explained.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "The worry is the entire yard, the sod, will have to be lifted and the irrigation system will have to be replaced," she explained.

Hurst says she hired Canadian Property Stars a couple of years ago. She’s still on the company’s phone list and received a call on Saturday, asking if she wanted aeration work done the following day. Hurst said no.

“The worker had missed the note that it has been cancelled and had performed the service,” said John Lombardo-Bottema of Canadian Property Stars.

The home was one of more than 400 serviced in the area on Sunday.

Lombardo-Bottema says Hurst is “obviously not going to be charged for the service.” The company will also hire a third-party sprinkler inspector to make sure there’s no damage to her irrigation system.

“Nine times out of ten, there never is because all the sprinkler heads are along on the outside, all the lines are deep enough that they don’t touch the lines whatsoever. But I want her to be comfortable with the situation,” Lombardo-Bottema added.

This time of year, many lawn care companies are circulating neighbourhoods, hoping to get as much business as possible.

This isn’t the first time a landscaper has made a mistake. In 2011, an Edmonton family came home to find its front lawn missing.

Watch below: Julie Matthews and Vinesh Pratap helped solve the case of the missing Edmonton lawn. As it turned out, the company that removed it had the wrong address. 

Service Alberta says it hasn’t received too many complaints yet – those usually come after the season.

To ensure you’re happy with the service you get, Service Alberta’s Scott Seymour recommends getting any contract in writing, and doing your homework.

That can include researching a company and checking references, or even asking neighbours with well-manicured lawns which landscaping companies they used.

“Be proactive,” Seymour said. “You’re better off to go out and shop for your own services, rather than have them bring it to you, to try to sell to you.”

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With files from Kendra Slugoski, Global News