Next door neighbour asking my builder to do some work in his house :/

Had this - the neighbour actually trailed into my flat and kept yakking on about her sodding boiler.
I just interrupted after a few minutes with the fact that I'd previously put the guys' number to her specifically on the WhatsApp group, I was currently paying him by the hour to fix my boiler, not discuss hers. Then said boiler guy could visit her when he'd finished if he had time, or she could call him.
He was glad I'd got rid of her.

It doesn't necessarily mean he was trying to get him to do it for free

True, @BobbyBiscuits, but as I just mentioned the tradesman refusing might well suggest that's exactly what they expected

After all getting jobs from other jobs is perfectly normal, so something must have happened to make him decline

non issue 🙄

Wouldn’t bother me in the slightest. We had a builder for months when we first moved here. I came home one day (mid all the work) to find him retiling next doors storm porch. I never once thought I was paying the builder while he did work for my neighbour. Ultimately he had quoted me a price and I paid that price, he didn’t bung on an extra £200 for a bit of tiling. I’m sure the neighbour paid him. Another neighbour also got him to do some chimney work.

CFN was thinking he’d take our builder on our time and ask him to diagnose a problem… without having to pay a call out charge or anything

The builder having refused may suggest you're right
It's normal for someone to ask if they'd have a look at their job once they've finished - either for the day or completely - but it makes a difference if she expected them to "pop in" right now

Especially since "popping in" is so often followed by "Could you just ..."

Ye, they don't quote per hour as such but for how long the job will take

If they went and did a job for someone for free and then took longer on your job as well they'd be losing out double.

This. They are not YOUR builder and this is how many of my tradie friends get business. You can't be precious about this

The guy is a plumber, the man has a broken toilet. I don't really see why he shouldn't ask him to look at it. That is his professional career!
It doesn't necessarily mean he was trying to get him to do it for free. My plumber takes calls from other clients while he's working in my house. It's up to him to manage his own workload. As long as the job is done on time then I don't really see the issue.

Yes he's YOUR builder. He's not allowed to talk to anyone else.

I wouldn't consider this cheeky at all, and I've never paid a call out charge for work to be quoted either. I imagine they just think it's convenient since the builder is there.

I would be wary if it was my neighbour because they are CFs

We had a tree surgeon in to prune some trees and unbeknown to me she asked him to climb over the wall and lob a couple of branches off one of her trees 'as he was there anyway'
He told me about this afterwards.
He said to her ' No, I'm here to do a job for Mrs B, here's my card if you want to contact me to come and quote'

She has form for this on all sorts of ways

This!

I honestly don’t understand your knicker twisting.

I have a neighbor that does this all the time. It used to annoy me but now I realize it shouldn’t so I don’t let it get to me anymore

You don't own "your" builder and he's allowed to line up work whenever. You are presumably paying him for the job and not by the day? If you were paying for his time that does not preclude him quoting for work in his own time. Builders work pretty flexibly. It's fairly standard that people will stop and ask tradespeople in the street. Its just how it's done.

Also, don’t builders or maintenance people usually give you a quote for the job that you need done? Rather than an hourly fee? So, it wouldn’t cost you anything for a neighbour to ask your builder for a consultation or a quote. Therefore, not cf territory.

Op, this is exactly how I would see it. It really wouldn’t bother me. Because, I would probably think that neighbours could see that my builder was good and I would give them the benefit of the doubt that they were not trying to take my builder away from the work that they were doing on my house or trying to get a free service, but were interested in getting a quote for additional work for the builder after they were finished with mine and at a time that was convenient for the builder.

Have no problem with this and it has happened several times when I have had various workmen in. No problem if neighbour is asking him to pop in and give him a quote, which I’d expect builder to do at the end of his working day or on his break. As long as he’s not going in there for a protracted consultation about something complicated when he’s working at my house.

My neighbour seems to ask nearly every tradesperson I have doing work to look at something of hers. It is slightly irritating (I know this is unreasonable) because it takes them away from my job for a while, but after all, I'm paying them for the job, not by the hour. I think I am irritated because we haven't always got on. Once she had someone do a job for her and I thought they seemed really good and had loads of equipment, so I asked her for their name and contacted them myself. Somehow I didn't feel comfortable going round and talking to them at the time.

I don't see the issue. Asking him to have a look when he's got time is fine. Why do you care?

LOL yeah, super cheeky. Good for the builder for saying no! Are the posters saying it was OK not reading the OP's first post properly? The neighbour asked the builder to come in and look at his broken loo whilst he was working for the OP (and being paid for working for the OP!)

I mean we were having a new roof aerial fitted last year, and our neighbour opposite shouted over to the chap (when he was on the lawn not on the roof!) 'can you come and give us a price for a new aerial when you're done please?' And that was OK IMO. But asking someone to do a fix on something when they are doing a job for you .. Noooo. 😆

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I don't see the issue if he just said can you quote for some work. It makes sense if they are already in the area. I wouldn't pay a call out charge for a quote anyway.
We often use builders that we have seen doing work for other people.

Its not cheeky at all. . Builders are allowed to set up new jobs after they've finished yours. It doesn't mean the neighbour expected him to either look at it straight away or get it for free. Good builders are hard to find - if you see one apparently doing a good job for a neighbour, it's a great opportunity to try to get them to do a job for you. The neighbours can vouch for their work.

I approached the guy doing my next door neighbour's new bathroom as they said he'd done a great job at a reasonable price and I had some jobs to be done. However, I asked him to come and see me when he was finished there or indeed when he had time. I think that's ok? My ex husband was a tradie and often got other work this way. Nothing wrong with asking.

1 million thanks that I am not your builder or neighbour. YAB massively petty and U.

This happened to me. I saw the workman talking to my neighbour from further up the street when he was getting something out of his van. He finished my job and asked if it was ok to leave his van outside mine as he was going over to look at a problem in the neighbours house. He was happy as he'd picked up another job to do.

Neighbour later said thanks as they'd been meaning to ring round and find someone and then when they noticed the van outside mine, they figured it would be someone reliable and trustworthy so I saved them the legwork!