Devastated - can't believe my builder did this

Why so aggressive? I've worked in the area. It would be shared responsibility. I'll leave it there, you are allowed to have your own opinions and thoughts, clearly ours differ.

I love gardening and I absolutely feel your pain. I would be completely devastated. What a total moron to do this without having a specific brief of what to do. Plants are so expensive, take ages to grow and I also have sentimental plants from family members so feel your pain. I am a very reaosnable person but for this I would go ballistic and tell him: look I appreciate you thought youd help us out. But I am incredibly disappointed and you have causes me a lot of misery by this. I’d like to see all the damage paid for plus some extra for me having to now take months putting everything back together. I’d literally sue a contractor for this. I know some people won’t agree with that but I think it’s entirely out of order. Especially taking trees out!! The lawn ok you can just sow a box of seed for 15 quid, but the rest? Unforgivable!

Just have read the updates. So nothing ripped out really. Just trimmed a bit harshly....

And thank you for mentioning their nationality. That all made it the clearest one I've seen here in a while. Poor Romanians steal plants now

They’ve stolen your plants OP. I can pretty much guarantee that not all the plants which were ripped out, ended up being disposed of. Just imagine how you’d act if items of your furniture had been taken. Very differently I’d imagine!

Bit of backstory - we've been having an extension done on the house, it's taken well over the agreed time (almost a year over) but we've been mainly patient about it. Builders have been dumping stuff in our garden, making it unusable for the most part. Everything was overgrown as I've been unable to mow the lawn or trim down the bushes, but I've been OK with that. I knew that once they cleared their crap from the garden, I could get back to gardening and sort it out. My garden had some beautiful, well established plants and fruit trees, and some taller bushes that worked as an extra privacy screen, which we really need from our neighbours. Without those, the neighbours can see into my kitchen.

Some of the plants were of sentimental value, gifts from my mum, a plum tree growing from a cutting that my aunt gave me, from my grandma's garden, etc.

The building work has meant I've been unable to use my garden - which was my sanctuary - this summer and last summer.

Anyway, on to current day.
I've been away on holiday with my (older) kids. Dh stayed home for various reasons.

Builder has been in, finishing up on the house. His dad came along (he sometimes helps builder out on projects) and asked Dh if he's OK to clear the garden. Dh naturally assumed he meant all their builder's mess - bags of cement, wood palettes, etc etc. I've been saying for a while that I can't wait for all that to go so that I can tidy up the garden and even be able to access the washing line again.
So Dh said yes please clear it up, and then left for work.

The guy brought in a team of men and they removed everything. Every single plant, bush, tree. Completely removed the lawn (which, to be fair, was riddled with weeds and needed returfing anyway).

But it's completely bare.

All my beautiful beautiful plants, my sentimental ones, my privacy ones. All gone.

Dh didn't tell me until the car journey home as he didn't want to ruin my holiday. But i've just returned home a couple of hours ago, and I'm absolutely devastated. Don't even care about the rest of the work thats been done while I was gone. Struggling to even talk to Dh about holiday or anything else. Completely ruined my return home.

I know some may say, ah it's just plants.... But they cost so much money and effort and time, and can't be replaced just like that. I'm going to have to spend hundreds to fill it up again, and it's going to take years for them to establish. And it needs so much extra work and attention now.

Gutted. Aibu for feeling this way.

Any advice? What do I say to the builder? Dh didn't say anything at the time as he hates confrontation but wtaf?!! And now the builder will think I'm being unreasonable. But it was my sanctuary, my space, my privacy.

Ps please forgive any spelling errors, I've barely slept.
.

A judge would not use the phrase “shared responsibility”. That is legally meaningless. Come on, tell us the actual detail of this experience that you claim to have.

@INFJismyvibeI’m so sorry OP I’d have gone fucking mental on him, regardless of his relative having cancer. Why on EARTH haven’t you called him?

I'm not going to continue arguing the point, im basing it on my experience of law. It's unfortunate, but she won't win in court, at best they'd say shared responsibility.

I have and I know I'm right, so there's no point continuing. You can quote all you like, but it would be classed as shared responsibility.

Let this be a lesson to others. Be careful who you select to do work on your house. I have a renovation going on two doors up from me, all nationalities. It’s amazing how they often forget the command of English. We’ve had a neighbour’s car written off, out of hours working, bonfires, one fall off a scaffolding and they couldn’t get the gurney up the drive due to the mess and paramedics had to get specialist equipment in. I could go on…… He hasn’t even moved in yet and he’s already pissed everyone off.
On the other hand, my neighbours had more reputable builders in, who worked 8-5pm, no weekends, were polite, tidy and did a brilliant job 🙂

You haven't argued your point though, you've just said you don't think it's true 'based on your experience of law'.

The consumer rights act (i.e. the law) disagrees with you.

Bit of backstory - we've been having an extension done on the house, it's taken well over the agreed time (almost a year over) but we've been mainly patient about it. Builders have been dumping stuff in our garden, making it unusable for the most part. Everything was overgrown as I've been unable to mow the lawn or trim down the bushes, but I've been OK with that. I knew that once they cleared their crap from the garden, I could get back to gardening and sort it out. My garden had some beautiful, well established plants and fruit trees, and some taller bushes that worked as an extra privacy screen, which we really need from our neighbours. Without those, the neighbours can see into my kitchen.

Some of the plants were of sentimental value, gifts from my mum, a plum tree growing from a cutting that my aunt gave me, from my grandma's garden, etc.

The building work has meant I've been unable to use my garden - which was my sanctuary - this summer and last summer.

Anyway, on to current day.
I've been away on holiday with my (older) kids. Dh stayed home for various reasons.

Builder has been in, finishing up on the house. His dad came along (he sometimes helps builder out on projects) and asked Dh if he's OK to clear the garden. Dh naturally assumed he meant all their builder's mess - bags of cement, wood palettes, etc etc. I've been saying for a while that I can't wait for all that to go so that I can tidy up the garden and even be able to access the washing line again.
So Dh said yes please clear it up, and then left for work.

The guy brought in a team of men and they removed everything. Every single plant, bush, tree. Completely removed the lawn (which, to be fair, was riddled with weeds and needed returfing anyway).

But it's completely bare.

All my beautiful beautiful plants, my sentimental ones, my privacy ones. All gone.

Dh didn't tell me until the car journey home as he didn't want to ruin my holiday. But i've just returned home a couple of hours ago, and I'm absolutely devastated. Don't even care about the rest of the work thats been done while I was gone. Struggling to even talk to Dh about holiday or anything else. Completely ruined my return home.

I know some may say, ah it's just plants.... But they cost so much money and effort and time, and can't be replaced just like that. I'm going to have to spend hundreds to fill it up again, and it's going to take years for them to establish. And it needs so much extra work and attention now.

Gutted. Aibu for feeling this way.

Any advice? What do I say to the builder? Dh didn't say anything at the time as he hates confrontation but wtaf?!! And now the builder will think I'm being unreasonable. But it was my sanctuary, my space, my privacy.

Ps please forgive any spelling errors, I've barely slept.
.

I'm not going to continue arguing the point, im basing it on my experience of law. It's unfortunate, but she won't win in court, at best they'd say shared responsibility.