To oil my neighbour's gate

[digggers]

My neighbour's gate squeaks. Has done for months, and it often wakes me up at night (they seem to come back home in the small hours alot). So the other night I just went out and oiled it. Now it doesn't squeak, I'm no longer disturbed and no dispute was had.

My boyfriend thinks that what I did was wrong though, that I should've asked them before oiling their gate and that they are probably annoyed. Do you think this is true?

no I dont think they would even have noticed.

YANBU. they won't even notice.

They need never know....

I wouldn't have told DP if I'd done something like this..

Hmm. Our gate squeaks, and I quite like it. Gives me a warning that someone's coming up the path. But, we keep regular hours so I'm pretty sure it doesn't bother the neighbours.

Its the slippery slope...

YANBU I would love to have my little odd jobs done for me.

Phew, glad that the response hasn't been overwhelmingly yabu!

WYLI, this is why dp thinks they would be annoyed, because they may have liked it. He thinks I should have asked them first. Would it have annoyed you if your neighbour had oiled your gate without asking?

YANBU, now if you could come round and oil the shop next door's swinging sign please, that'd be great

I swear one night I'm going outside with a stepladder and some WD40

What slippery slope? I'm promise I'm not going to get rid of their gnomes under the cover of darkness or weed their garden. ;-)

It was a rather weak joke...sorry

yanbu

Go for it kaloki, it felt surprisingly good. Geurilla oiling is good for the soul!

If you use WD40 it will work and I doubt your neighbour would even notice.

We went to France on a dance trip and were staying in hostel type accommodation. Big rooms with 10 bunk beds in and 10 wardrobes every one of which had squeaky doors . We went and bought wd40 and oiled them all. WWBU ?

No YANBU

Hurrah!

Why do you think dp is being such a worrier ? How odd!

DH did this once. I thought it was hilarious. The neighbours' gate would blow in the wind and squeak. It drove him mad. So he got up one night and fixed it.

He agonised for days about whether he had been rude.

YANBU and you were being neighbourly.

I wish I could 'fix' my neighbours' windchimes and their weird disco coloured shed lights which shine in my kitchen window...not to mention their humungous tree growing about 6 feet from my back door.

OP, yes I would be annoyed if neighbours oiled my gate.

Not going to happen though. It's squeaked since (before) the day we moved in, over a decade. Plus we all talk to each other (bar one household) so I feel they would mention it if it was a problem. It's not loud, I'm just tuned into the sound.

I would be annoyed, as I would only have a squeaky gate for a reason. I have 2 cowbells on mine. I want to hear if someone comes in. My neighbor has the same cowbells on her gate.

(backyard gate, rarely used anyways)

i have a squeeky gate, i've gotten used to the squeek and it allerts me as to when someone is walking up the garden path.

that being said if a neighbour wass to come and oil it because the squeek annoyed them, it wouldnt bother me in the slightest. i'd just be pretty embarressed i5 had been annoying them for so long and i'm too lazy to do anything about it!

Yes, like addicted, if I did have an oil gate, and someone complained, I would oil it. I don't think a bell is as annoying a sound as a gate though.

I did oil a swing set in our old apt. building playground once. Even 12 floors up, the constant loud sound drove me nuts. Like a fork on a plate.

Correction. If I did have a squeeky gate.

gtamom you spelled it right the first time

Probably a bit unreasonable, but I would have done the same thing myself!