To think you wouldn't expect this service for free?

[littleladyluna]

I am currently house and cat sitting for a client for five weeks. I met the next door neighbour while in the garden yesterday who asked if I could water her plants while she was away on holiday for four weeks. I told her I'm sure I could, and that I'd drop over a client enquiry form the next day. As I was already at the house next door for the duration I told her the charge would be £5 a day.

She said nothing, but the look on her face and the sound she made when I told her there would be a charge told me that she wasn't expecting to pay.

AIBU to think you don't expect 60 potted plants in your courtyard garden to be watered everyday for four weeks for free?

I think your price sounds reasonable for the number of pots/doing it twice/day etc, although it does add up, doesn't it?

I wonder whether she did not realise you are doing this as a business venture and not just out of the goodness of your heart as a favour? I'd clarify that with her and, yes, if you have a price list hand one in to her.

I think £5 is reasonable

It's reasonable. It's time. People don't seem to realize that.

Oh my god i cant even string a post together today i meant to say for 60 pots a fiver is really a lot

Isnt*

Yes it adds up.

But if you know you're away for all of August, you either don't plant 60 pots, you co ordinate holidays with neighbours (yes my Aunt & neighbour actually do this) or you pay someone to look after them.

She's lucky Luna is next door & offering a great rate. If I was going to pay someone to come and water once a day, let alone twice, I'd expect to pay at least £10 per visit. Which is why I wouldn't plant pots if I was away for a month in the middle of summer.

MrsJayy 🍫☕️

Which is why I wouldn't plant pots if I was away for a month in the middle of summer.

Yes. That.

OR - your DH rigs up an irrigation system. In Scotland - because that is what we need most, isn't it, a frigging irrigation system. But, it has to be said, my hanging baskets looked marvellous on our return from a 2 weeks holiday. No annual fee to a plant waterer (sorry, OP!), but who knows what he spent in B+Q for little pipes and connectors and other fiddly bits…

PD. I do love your husband 😊

But only because he lives in your house, he'd probably 'live' under my patio 😁

I'm sure there were 20 billion things you'd have appreciated him doing before taking the boys away for a fortnight before 'Irrigation for hanging pots' got to the top of your list!

It was probably your drainage, not irrigation that made them lovely - Scotland & all 😁

Oh, he has come very close to ending up under the patio on more than one occasion.

Our draining is shocking (don't ask how much ££££ we have invested in trying to improve it ), but hanging baskets dangling in the breeze drain fine.

As you were. Sorry about derail.

I watered a garden front and back once a day for a week. It was a pain in the butt to unwind the bulky hose , drag it to the the back and then the front and rewind it. I wd not have done it for what you were charging , op . She sounds like the neighbours who went behind an op's back and got her nanny to look after their kids in her house. There are chancers everywhere. Wonder if they tell the person who is paying you lies about you if you do not do what they want for free? I.'d let your employer know about the exchange just so she has a context if the neighbour tries to pay you back.

£5 a day seems reasonable for 60 pots. It's a business arrangement, you're not her neighbour of friend.

£5 a day to water that many pots even without anything else sounds perfectly reasonable to me (but I am in Surrey where everything is expensive, maybe I have south east skew?)

I think it just seems so much because she's away such a long time, £35 for the week actually sounds a bit low to me when broken down like that.

I wouldn't even expect this for free from a friend! Okay, I probably wouldn't pay them £5 a day, but I would give them something.

Of course £5 is reasonable. If it's hot then every three days wouldn't be enough.

I think you handled it perfectly OP, she just hadn't done the sums in advance so the money came as a bit of a shock. TBH I find that every year I do a bit of a double take when I have to get the money out to pay our catsitter and say "How much!!?!" When I budget for holidays I never remember that there's an extra 200 quid on top, even though it's the same every year.

I look after my friends garden for her when they go away. Her & her DH have it lovely 💐💐💐💐💐 the first few days I quite enjoy pottering about watering the boarders, fruit trees, various areas of planting, at least 10 tubs and 6 hanging baskets etc. By the 4th day I'm praying for rain 😁 I don't mind doing it for them at all (free) because they're good friends, but it's definitely a 'chore' and there's no way on this little green earth I'd do it for someone who wasn't a good friend for £10 a visit, let alone £5.

I'd expect my neighbour to do it for free (especially given the amount of cat feeding, lift giving, picking up bits of shopping I do for them) but I'd never expect their house sitter (paid or unpaid) to do it free, especially not for a whole month! Though as I said, I wouldn't plant pots if I was away for a month because it's too much of an expense to pay someone to come & water them and it's way too much of an imposition to ask a friend or neighbour.

I think that's perfectly reasonable - we pay €25 per day to have our two cats visited, feed, watered and littered, and when we travelled down under for almost a month, I admit it hurt leaving €650 on the kitchen counter but equally we knew it was someone we could trust with the ginger Devils.

I always do my neighbours for free, I'm doing it for the next two weeks actually. There are about 20 pots and it takes about 10 mins so £5 for 60 pots is very reasonable for someone who isn't a neighbour or friend.

Probably a bit of SouthEast pricing. The customers are in central London so it's a decent price and she's unlikely to get it for less in that area.

I think what bothers me most is that she didn't even ask "So what are your rates?" or indicate that she would be prepared to pay. I will mention this to my client when she returns, just to cover my back.

Thank you for all your comments, I feel fine about my proposal and the neighbour can either take it or leave it.

By the way PacificDogwod sounds like you have a lovely husband!

I think your rates are completely reasonable.

I'd do it free for a neighbour or friend, but that's not your situation.

I think she expected you to pop over and do it for free.

Which is ridiculous, as you don't even know her.

Not in London; still think £5 a day on the cheap side. We pay local lout aka teenage nephew £25 when we go away for weekend and the agreement is that the minimum he needs to do is open/close curtains. Refill water& dry food for cat (she's an unsocial able shit) and not have a party.

So basically £17:50 for 30 minutes little fits ripping us off.

£140 to keep plants healthy for a month sounds very reasonable to me.

You sound very professional Luna, I'm very intrigued by your work. I'd love to be nosy and ask how it works.....you are house and cat sitting at the moment so I presume 'living' there? What kind of charge do you make for that service? What about your own home? Is it a year round profession? Or seasonal?