Have posted before about works being done to outside front of house - it's part of regeneration work at no cost to us. New windows went in a few weeks ago and they are now working on frontages, with no access required to the inside of the house.
Obviously as council-commissioned work we have had no say in the firm used for this work. Window guys were lovely and very professional, scaffolders a bit blue of language but very polite and tidy. Builders have been a bloody nightmare. Rude, ignorant, repeated very loud foul language being shouted in the street, very loud radio on right outside the house. The other day I popped out front for a cigarette and was treated to a loud reminiscence from one about how smacked some poor girl in a local nightclub on the butt so hard he made her skin bleed, which was apparently HILARIOUS and source of much guffawing. In short, they've done nothing to endear themselves to me,I'm can't wait for them to finish, and plan to make a complaint to the council when they do (not wanting to do so beforehand due to fear of retribution). I don't trust them and I do not want them inside my home at any point.
This morning as I was packing the kids into the car one approached and me and said "can we have electric off you today?". I said no, sorry, as I was going to be at Uni all day. He then said I should just open a window for them. I said no, I wasn't prepared to leave a window open all day when I was out. He said no, not open, just enough to have the cable through. I repeated that I was going to be out all day (usually get home 5.30 and they generally piss off at 4) and they wouldn't be able to unplug, and besides, that still meant the window wasn't locked.
He stood there for a good thirty seconds scowling at me, possibly waiting for me to suggest some alternative, or back down, which I wasn't really prepared to do, then snapped "oh FORGET IT THEN" and stormed off. They've been working for several weeks and this is the first I've heard that they need access to electricity. They were rendering my house today, I'm not really sure why that necessitates access to electricity, but I'm not really very clued up on construction! Possibly they just need it for their very loud radio, who knows.
At no point were we advised that we would be required to supply electricity for the builders or provide access for them to get inside, only that we would need to provide access for the window fitters, which we have done. I kind of think when you are working outside this is a problem for the building firm to solve, and I don't think I should be required to compromise my home security for people I don't trust and who have behaved obnoxiously up until now. AIBU?