Firm charged $20,000 to remove tree after tornado in price-gouging scheme, AR suit says
As neighbors grappled with the damage to their communities as tornadoes ravaged Arkansas in 2023 and 2024, a local tree removal company offered its assistance.
Word spread in Little Rock as the company made promises to remove fallen trees for no out-of-pocket costs, according to Arkansas’s Attorney General Tim Griffin.
However, the bill was eventually put on customers when their insurance companies said the prices were inflated. When they saw the total, removal for a single tree was at least $20,000, the attorney general said.
Now, the state is suing the Capital City Tree Service, accusing it of a price-gouging scheme following devastating storms in 2023 and 2024, officials said in a Feb. 3 news release. Prosecutors say homeowners over the age of 60 were targeted.
Capital City Tree Service did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Feb. 4.
In the aftermath of the storms, removal for a single tree cost at least $20,000 but went as high as $35,000, the lawsuit said.
According to the attorney general’s office, state law prohibits companies from increasing prices over 10% when a state of emergency is declared.
To get around this regulation, the company had clients sign contracts that required them to pay for a minimum of eight hours of work even if the project took less time, the lawsuit said.
This turned a two-hour job that would typically cost $2,510 into a $10,040 job, an approximately 300% increase, according to the complaint.
If jobs did not take the full eight hours, prosecutors said the tree removal company did not lower the final price of the service. Instead, clients would receive a “grossly excessive invoice,” according to the lawsuit.
The company often rushed clients into signing contracts by assuring them the bill would be paid by their insurance companies and not them, the lawsuit said. However, the insurance companies sometimes did not cover the full amount, prosecutors said, sending the bill back to the customer.
The lawsuit also accused the company of refusing to negotiate with insurance companies.
Company put lien on man’s home, lawsuit says
For one Little Rock resident over the age of 60, the gouged prices left him with an invoice charging him for 16 hours of work when the task took eight following a storm in March 2023, according to court documents.
The man sent the bill to his insurance company, which refused to pay the “inflated” fee, the suit said. The insurance company said the total cost for tree and debris removal from the property should have been $7,777.82. The man was invoiced for $28,080, the lawsuit said.
The tree removal company refused to negotiate with the man’s insurance company and instead put a lien on the man’s home for the full $28,000 payment, the lawsuit said.
In response, the homeowner sent the company a check for the $7,777.82 the insurance company estimated, the lawsuit said. The tree removal company refused the check and later increased his amount owed to $33,846 for late fees, prosecutors said.
The man was scared of losing his home after receiving threats from attorneys representing the company, the lawsuit said, so he agreed to pay a total of $37,000 to remove the lien on his home.
The lawsuit shares stories of 11 other customers who were forced to pay steep prices for tree removal services and late fees, but prosecutors say the company violated Arkansas law at least 120 times.
The state is seeking approximately $1.8 million from the company for a series of violations.
