Not paying for garden work

And did she?

As an aside I wonder if the poster is in a position to claim trespass and criminal damage? He has gone on her land uninvited and has taken plants and chopped grass etc without permission. Surely legally I would have no right to wander into some random person’s garden and start hacking away at stuff? It’s then even more galling to be asked to pay for the service as well!

I doubt the OP has any legal obligation to pay the gardener. This reminds me of a work colleague who got home to find her garage had been re-roofed. It turns out the builder got the wrong street, but still wanted her to contribute.

Where has the gardener been until now? Surely he should have been doing work before this and if not they should have expected a jungle, didn't they notice the garden was perfectly tidy already? How much is the bill? If it's not much I would pay half, if it's a lot no way.

There’s 2 parties at fault here, to a lesser or greater extent, and neither one is op.

The gardener should have checked his services were still required after a long hiatus and the previous owner should have cancelled his services when the house sold.

The 2 parties should find a solution between themselves and leave op out of it. As I said upthread, I did the same thing with a window cleaner. I’d never have expected anyone else to share the cost of my mistake, however sparkly their windows were.

Very generous of you. Just get the gardener’s bank details and get on with it.

Out of interest how much does he want?

I would say legally his contract was with the previous owner and therefore he needs to pursue the full debt with them. Morally you could argue you have been the beneficiary but again, not through choice. If he has agreed that the previous occupier can pay half then that doesn’t mean he has the right to demand you pay the other half. That would depend on your good will and it sounds like you don’t feel like the work was required so the good will isn’t there.

Why thank you, you've summed me right up.

Hiw much is the bill . And is money tight for you?

If you've got plenty I'd perhaps pay half if money is tight then sorry no

The previous owners have been professionally careless and negligent by not communicating clearly. The blame rests with them as they did not inform the gardener that they no longer needed him. He may well have had an agreement with them to do the garden every six months, say, and was unaware it had changed if they not give him notice. But that is between him and the owners, and you are not obliged to pay for work you did not ask for or know about. If it is not a large sum you could go halves on it to help the gardener out, but I'd be making my feelings known to the previous owners.

And you sound like a complete snob.

YANBU You have no contract with the gardener so you don't have to pay, whether you benefit or not. It's the previous owners' fault and they are responsible for paying the bill.

Legally you don't have to pay, but I would pay half.

… but totally correct.

Yanbu.
I would also make sure the gardener is clear his services are no longer needed.

The 50/50 split proposal kind of implies a handover to a new client. You could come home on another occasion he's done more work and now expects 100%

You sound a delight. Very classy

But time IS money; and money IS time.

Some people prefer to do jobs themselves rather than paying somebody else to do them and some people simply cannot afford to outsource jobs that they can do themselves.

Rich people may pay others to do their ironing, cleaning, washing, cooking, gardening, driving, life admin etc. - and this all saves them a lot of time, but obviously costs them a lot of money.

Ordinary - and also poorer - people could not pay to buy all of this extra personal time, even if they wanted to. Aside from the fact that spme people actually enjoy cooking, driving and other chores.

In reality, you appear to be saying that people who are not sufficiently well off to outsiurce household tasks automatically all have a bad character.

This isn't somebody who agreed to a paid-for service and then reneged on paying the bill; this is somebody who never remotely asked for the service but has been given a bill for it anyway.

Nonsense.

Maybe she enjoys caring for her garden and didn’t want to “save time.”

Maybe he pulled “weeds” she planned to cultivate.
Maybe she just doesn’t want a stranger on her property.

OP is the wronged person in this scenario. Let the gardener be more careful about checking with clients.

I wouldn't pay.
You have no contract with him.
The previous owners engaged him and should have disengaged him.

Did they really have a "yearly" job done?

The fact you've been there since December and this is his first visit makes me feel like he's trying it on for business.

Just say no.

I’d say not your problem!

I'd pay half, tbh.

OP hasn't said that it's work she would have chosen to have done at that time or at all. The person who booked the service should pay for it, and it says something about their character that they haven't.

Bollocks. OP didn't ask or want her garden doing, she owes nothing to anybody

whilst you didn’t cause this situation, of course not, I still think it says quite a lot about your character that you’re refusing to pay half when even though you didn’t request it, it has saved you some work. Let’s be honest here, it has saved you a lot of time.

I knew you would
It’s all in the name
👏👏👏