To tell DH not to pay some cold caller 25 quid to clean our gutters

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

Just went outside to clean our leaves off the front path and some bloke called DH over and said that he comes to our street every year offering to clean people's gutters. He reckons he had done 9 houses in the street today and that he has seen our gutter and it's half full of sludge. He offered the "bargain" price of a tenner for the front and 15 for the back and dh accepted.

I was fuming and told Dh there was nothing wrong with our gutters - the ones lower down on our garage and porch occasionally get leaves in which dh clears himself but no-one has ever had to clean the roof gutters in the 11 years we have been here. We have never had a problem. There are no trees nearby that are higher than the house so quite what they were supposed to be blocked with I don't know. He also said he could see the sludge in our gutters while he was doing other people's gutters. Really? I fail to see how he would be able to see in them.

I told dh it was probably the quickest 100 quid he'd ever made for a couple of hours work and that was only one street and that if he didn't go back and tell the bloke not to come then I would NOT be happy.

Give him his due, he went back and told the bloke his wife wouldn't let him have it done. .

I am assuming this is a scam? I am annoyed that other householders have been duped into it - is it worth reporting it to the council do you think?

We have all manner of people offering these type of services, but we do need ours doing.
The last one we refused as he said we were breaking the law not getting them done, cheeky git.
The going rate is £ 15 for front and a tenner for the back, if you have guttering at the back.
I agree he couldn't have seen yours needed doing, unless he had done your neighbours and seen from the ladder.

Of course it is a scam. Never give money to anyone who turns up on the doorstep.

morethanpotatoprints: How do you know if you need it doing if I can't see the very top gutters? Does the rain water pour over the edge when it rains?

I'm not really sure why it should be separate amounts for front and back? Surely if the gutters need doing they need doing all the way round?

He said he'd seen ours from neighbourin houses - I didn't see him doing our next door neighbours, maybe I should have knocked and asked them if he'd actually done theirs.

I don't know...... Gut feeling told me it wasn't right. He didn't knock in the end - I'm glad as I was all hyped up and ready to give him a mouthful!

Scam! If water does not run over the edges and splash down directly onto the walls when it rains then they are not blocked.

Ours did block once, because some arsehole birds built a nest there, but hubby just went up the ladder and removed it himself.

I have a motto which I took on from my own mother. She always said "nobody ever sells me anything. If I want it I will go out and look for it". She's right. I think of it every time I want to stop myself being guilt-tripped into something I never intended and do not want.

They do get filled with moss that washes down from the roof sometimes.

at "some arsehole birds" . Poor birds

Someone did that to our 96 yr old neighbour without us knowing...they took the cast iron Victorian drainpipe, put a plastic on in its place and scarpered. You were 100% correct in putting a stop to it.

I should add that I am not actually anti-birds and do love them in the garden, but they can be arseholes if they build their nests in stupid places.

It's fairly likely your neighbours weren't duped, they just say they've done x houses in the street to try to get you to sign up on the "if they did it it must be okay" basis.

we need our gutters doing every year as they fill up with crap from the trees over the back - lots of leaves and skinny long spiky things - paid £30 the other day to get them done which was less than the window cleaner charges to do them (he charges £10 per side of guttering and we have gutters on all four sides). We dont have a ladder long enough to get up to the top gutters so need someone else to do it for us

p.s. we have had a quite a few people round offering to do the gutters but let this guy do them as he looked and sounded a bit more reputable.

Before our window cleaner had the extendy thing he used to do ours and didnt even mention it (found the crap on the path). We do have bungalow height roof so he would see it as he went to clean the dormer windows.

Thanks, all! I think next time it rains hard I'll go outside and have a look at the gutters.

I think at least one of the neighbours WAS duped - I saw the fella coming off their path with a bucket. (Think a pensioner lives there too.). Unless he knew I was looking and it was just for show.

There is a policeman a couple of doors down - I just remembered. I'll ask him tomorrow about it.

I meant to say, Fourarms, that we don't appear to have any moss on our roof at all. No leaves, nothing. There is a dandelion growing out of the top of the downpipe attached to the porch - I can see it from ds's bedroom window. Keep meaning to remove it but it still doesn't seem to be stopping the rain from getting through so I never remember.

Someone came to our door & quoted £150 !! Needless to say I didn't take him up on it but I would have paid £25 very happily; gutters can get blocked & I think it is worth having them done regularly.

Send him round mine! £25? Bargain!

I don't call it a bargain myself. He's not paying any overheads or using any special equipment. A ladder and a bucket was all he had. Doubt he was insured. Say he would have taken 20 mins on each house - 25 quid per house multiplied by 3 for an hourly rate. Comes to 75 quid. Not a bad hour's pay for something that requires no special training or equipment. I wish I earned that much.

I don't see why it's a scam...if they clean your gutters then where's the scam?

Well to some people, going up a ladder isn't possible....or desirable. So they might be happy to pay 25 pounds to someone else to do it!

No it doesn't take training but the person doing it has energy and guts to go out and do something that earns cash. You just sound bitter.
Get a ladder and go and do it yourself if you're jealous!

He wouldn't be paying tax either if it's cash in hand. If he worked 10-3 doing 3 houses per hour then in just one day he would earn £375 quid. That isn't even a full time day - it's 5 hours. If he did a 5 day week that is £1875 in just one week. A month of doing that and it's £7500. Nice little earner.

I came- if they don't need doing in the first place? He told me he comes every year to clean people's gutters. Well, like I say, we have lived here for 11 years and never had to clean our roofline gutters. We could have paid him 25 quid each year all that time. That's nearly 300 quid just from our house for doing something that didn't need doing. You see?

It's not a scam if he actually does clean them. You can still get a sediment buildup over time without there being any trees closeby. Especially if they haven't been cleaned for eleven years. Some people coldcall because they are trying to make a living,not because they are cheats.

Well Curly off you trot to report him then. And get your ladder once you've done that.

Making a living is one thing but there are a few older people in our street and it was those people's houses he seemed to be doing. Ie the ones who aren't able to verify what he's saying.

Anyway....it doesn't matter. My gut tells me that I did the right thing. And a google tells me it's a common scam which local police forces often out notices out about.

Curly, I don't think it is a scam. It is right to be wary of scammers, but I don't think this was one was.

We had people knock at our door for it and I said no, thinking it might be a scam, but the neighbour had it done. They used a hose and cleared out the gutters. It took about 15 or 20 minutes.

We do our own. They do get clogged up with moss that slides down from the roof.