Landscaper Jailed for Exorbitant Prices

An unlicensed landscape contractor in Hillsborough, California, was sentenced to 20 days in jail and given three years probation after pleading no contest to charges of contracting without a license and over-billing for landscape work. He was also ordered to pay restitution to the homeowner, who he charged $120,000 for work that the state Contractors Board concluded was only worth $84,000.

The bill included $13,000 for plants and labor, including a single cherry tree which was billed at a cost of $3,650. In addition, the homeowner will have to spend another $70,000 to repair the shoddy work performed on his property.

The contractor was originally hired do some minor landscaping, but authorities alleged he pressured the homeowner into agreeing to more projects and took an excessive down payment, followed by the hefty cost of the labor and plants.

In return for the plea, prosecutors dropped charges against the landscaper’s wife, who ran the nursery which supplied the plants used in the man’s landscaping.