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

Totally fine to ask. Wouldn't be fine if your builder broke off working to go and do the job. Fine for him to have a look on his break/home time. Ridiculous thing to get annoyed about.

Really can't see what was wrong with this or why you would take such offence.

Eh? Honestly don't understand the problem. Builders don't look for new work only when they've finished their current job. They need to have stuff lined up. I think it's weird behaviour if he didn't look at the work. Totally normal for a neighbour to ask. In fact - we always share work men recommendations on our street for people who are currently doing work. Our roofer has likely chatted to about 3 of our neighbours over the last month about possible work (we've all got the same roofing issues).

My DH is a builder and gets this a lot.

He would usually nip in after he’s finished for the day to have a look/ quote and is how he gets a lot of his work.

You are being utterly ridiculous I can't believe you have posted this.

But it could have been done as soon as he knocked off for the day at the OP's site.

She's talking as if she has the exclusive right to this builder's time and attention as long as he's working "for her", but actually he's working for himself att her house, and his time and attention are his own.

Honestly, many builders, painters, handymen, and other trades where I live put up a little sign in front of houses they're working on (as well as dropping off business cards or leaflets up and down the street they're working on).

This.

I think you're being precious.

Every builder, plumber, landscaper, roofer, gutter cleaner, window cleaner, concrete layer, drain guy, and house painter around here puts business cards in neighbourhood mailboxes when they're working on a street.

They would welcome being approached by potential busnesss.

If a neighbour won big an op would post 'my neighbour won millions and won't give me half' there would be people agreeing 'I'd be raging you need to report them'

No matter how odd or unreasonable there would always be people agreeing it's weird

I’m guessing because of the nature of neighbours problem - a broken toilet - they’re ask was more can you come and fix it today, not quote for a future job. Hence why it sounds cheeky as they’re clearly working for @EmbarrassingMother

Were you paying him per minute or was the job priced as a complete job? I honestly cannot believe you’ve posted and a few people actually agree you.

Can you imagine that?

"AIBU... I'm having some work done and the builder stopped for 5 minutes to answer a call and speak to another customer, I thought this was really cheeky as they should only call in the evening when he's obvious finished and the builder shouldn't take calls whilst on my time?"

TBF I'm of the view I'm always pleased when contractors we have in then pick up extra work off the back of what they've done for us - we recently had someone in to sort our garden and he picked up 2 extra jobs from neighbours. Provided (as a PP said) it wasn't a 'can you sort it now' whilst he was on your clock as it were then I don't see the problem

I dnt think it's an issue. Builder is also likely to receive calls about future work in the day.

Yeah same, we're having work done at the minute.
If one of the neighbours wants to approach them with work of their own, so what?!
As long as they're doing our work alright I don't care lol

This 😁
Also, did he mean right now?!
Might have seen them working and needed work done themselves and so thought worth an ask

YANBU, polite thing to do is get their number to approach them to have a look AFTER your work is complete.

This is what I was trying to get across in my post about my husbands business. It’s been a huge source of work for him, neighbours treating their neighbours judgement. They’d rather have someone their neighbour has used to do the work on their house than just choose someone they don’t know anything about. I definitely don’t see this as CF territory, I do all his admin/bookings/marketing etc so neither of us had ever had any negative feedback/complaints about a neighbour asking for a quote. So unless there’s some history that hasn’t been mentioned here I’m not really sure why it’s an issue but would be happy for any feedback off anyone on the thread who it would be an issue for; so we know if we’ve approached it the right way

Ye I'm wondering if OP thinks she "owns" the builder in some way because she's paying for set amounts of his time...

I'm really conscious of neighbour etiquette and id find this absolutely fine. If he went off for hours fixing it then understandably that's not ok. If neighbour has form for causing various problems or being generally difficult as a neighbour then I might see this post differently. But that isn't clear as an issue from the post.

When you look at some of the things people are dealing with in life this feels really silly. Its daft in the grand scheme really. Try get some perspective by looking at it like that.

I dint see the issue sure if they take a look and go ahead and pay as long as your work gets done ehat on earth is the issue? That is how trades get jobs word of mouth

I really can't see an issue

If I had something go wrong and there was an appropriate tradie working next door, of course I'd approach and ask them if they had time to look at the issue. I wouldn't expect them to do it while working on your job, but you don't own them 24/7 so they could stop on on their way home to look. Most tradies provide free quotes anyway, so its not like the neighbour is trying to save money on your dime.

Nothing here suggests your neighbour was wanting you to pay for the job, or steal “your” time.

Chances are your neighbour just needed a tradie and figured they might as well see if the person literally outside was available. They might have been. They might have sent the apprentice to take a look. They might say not now but I’m free at lunch time.

What’s it got your knickers in a knot for, OP? The builder isn’t in an exclusive relationship with you, he can pick up work from anyone.

my neighbors are great and if they've selected a workman to do xyz repair i can trust them to be good.
when they have had certain trades doing work i've popped over and asked for a business card.
i don't see that as cf territory.

My husband is always being asked to pop round to just take a look at something. He’ll always say x time once he’s finished for the day he’ll pop round but never once was he expected to do anything for free or on the neighbours money. It’s always been a request to quote for a job because if he’s doing work for the neighbour then it’s worth them getting him to do the work for them as word of mouth is the best marketing for his business & how he gets the most work. Is there history there with your neighbour being a CF? I don’t see why you would assume the worst immediately unless there’s some history there

edited to add that he’s never been expected to go round immediately either, they just ask at the time so they don’t miss him packing up at the end of the day