to pop a note through dead neighbours door to ask if the car is for sale

[VeraZera]

The occupant of a house a few doors down from me has died. Family were there last week clearing stuff out etc. Curtains have been closed since then. I didn't know the person who lived there, but know he drove a car which is now parked on the drive. I need another car as mine won't last much longer and this would seem a decent low vehicle.

WIBU to pop a note through the door to the family expressing condolences and asking if the car is for sale?

tHing is, for every one recently bereaved person who would be ok with someone swooping in to try to pick off , there are dozens who would be really upset and you simply cant take a chance that the stranger you approach will be ok, not when the risk is hurting or upsetting someoneduring a distressing time.

, oh baging, that is truly dreadful. I am so srry your mum and you had to deal with that.

Op on the off chance you aren't in need of a hand wax may I point you in the direction of

www.autotrader.co.uk/

They have lots and lots of car, plus you won't upset a grieving relative.

well i think if you started off the note apologising for insensivity you might, just might get away with it.

I am actually laughing out loud. No no no. Imagine what you would think if someone did this to you

So much for 'if you don't ask'- if you did this to anyone in my family, you'd be sent away not only without a car but with quite a few terms of verbal abuse and loss of neighbourly goodwill tbh. Really a nasty, grabby idea. If they want to sell the car (rather than e.g. give it to a young family member or something), they'll put up a notice.

It may well solve a problem for them.
I'd ask, but ask in person and extremely tactfully. Nothing ventured.......

I think it would be wrong.Tbh I am quite that you would consider this.
If they want to sell the car they will.

That is such bad taste. No way.

Thanks for the flowers Isee and to everyone else who posted sympathies.

Oh! I have just noticed the Scottish smileys. So, in honour of Burns night OP, have a and a as you don't seem to have returned after your initial post.

We actually did this after our elderly neighbour died andher car was sisitting on the drive for a few months. However, we knew the neighbour, visited her in hospital when she was ill and went to her funeral. She didn't have any relatives and so we left a note for her friend who was sorting the house sale out. They didn't mind at all but had already found a new owner for the car.

At the wake of a relative (held at the relative's home) the Vicar who conducted the funeral and cremation that afternoon asked if the property was for sale as he knew someone who would be very interested. Rude. Good job it wasn't me he asked.

lolll . .. are you for real OP ?

Why not put an envelope through the door addressed to the executor

bazingasheldon I've scrolled back. That was bad. I guessed as much.

gosh. Well, it would depend very much on how long ago the person died. For what it's worth, it took a year or so for my mum and her sisters to clear out their eldest sister's flat after she died, and after the first few months, I can't imagine they'd be bothered in the slightest by this kind of request and in fact it may well save them a whole load of hassle (and if it had been promised to a family member they would just say so). But my family are very prosaic and tend not to go in for lengthy grieving, and want to get on with the practicalities. A car needs to be sold. Someone comes along who wants to buy it. No advertising, showing multiple people the car, worrying that your never going to get shot of the damn thing etc etc. Job done.

I find this idea of the OP 'profiting' from someone's death rather odd. Are the people who bought my late neighbour's house profiting from his death? Yes, in a way, as they are buying a house on a desirable street that's come up for sale because the previous owner died. But that's a ludicrous way to think of it.

peanut that was especially out of order and unprofessional for a vicar.

See, I just couldn't imagine this occurring to me upon learning my neighbour died. I guess we're all different.

If it was my dad who'd died, I would be so upset if you did this. It feels so heartless and calculating.

A guy offered to buy my granny's NDN's house shortly after she died, which really upset the NDN's daughter as well as my granny and the other neighbours (NDN's daughter told them about it). He did then buy the house so he got what he wanted, although I don't know if he realises that all his old lady neighbours still frequently talk about his offer to buy the house before it went on the market, and how he was probably keeping an eye out for which one of them would die first so he could buy their house...

How long ago did the person die op?

That's exactly it, isn't it, SantasLittleMonkeyButler?

I am typing this with my mum's clingy cat sitting on my lap. Annoying little git [sigh]

YABU.

very vulture-like behaviour

People asked if we were going to sell my Nan's house and her mobility scooter not long after she died and to be honest it did not bother any of us. I ended up buying to off the family and must say the neighbours that asked are lovely. I think it depends on the family but you won't know what they are going to be like.

I would speak to them in person though.

I think there's a world of difference between a house eventually being sold in the normal course of time , after someone had died, and a neighbour seeing a chance to acquire an asset quickly (at the risk of deeply offending the bereaved family) by putting in an offer before anyone else gets the chance to.

It's the element of opportunism that makes it offensive.