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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

About these loud, unexpected gardeners?

72 replies

KirstenRaymonde · 31/03/2018 09:34

Before I make an angry phone call to our property managers, please tell me if I’m being U because I don’t know.

We live in a rented house, we recently moved in. Various work hadn’t been done to the house that was meant to have been, and various repairs have had to be done over the last weeks, so it might be that my tolerance for drilling and machinery noises is very low right now. DP is also ill and we’re hosting tomorrow all day so I’m really worried I’ll get ill too and ruin the whole thing. So I might be overreacting.

8am this morning heard a knocking on the door, DP and I both asleep in bed. As DP was sick last night and neither of us went to bed until gone 2am, plus it’s Saturday! I checked my phone in case it was a friend or family with an emergency who would have called before coming round, nothing so I ignored it. Then they knocked again. Again I ignored it, I’m not expecting anyone and it’s 8 bloody AM.

Next thing I can hear our bins being moved around, and then the loud noise starts. We have several large bushes at the front and it’s an electric strimmer/pruner thing (sorry I’m not a gardener!) it’s really bloody loud! Really loud to us under our window and I imagine pissing off all our neighbours as well (who have put up with a lot of loud banging the last weeks whilst repairs have been going on, I sense they won’t like us). I looked out the window and they’ve got a big bag and clearing stuff. It’s still going now, an hour and a half later. I haven’t gone out to say anything to them because they will just have been told ‘here’s the job, go do it’ the details won’t be up to them. Plus I’m knackered and not dressed, I don’t want to deal with that on a Saturday morning!

No one called or emailed me to check if it would be alright for this work to be done now. If they had I would have said no - 8am is too early for loud work outside, especially at the weekend. Im gearing up to make an annoyed call to property management, but wanted to check I’m not being over sensitive in advance. Cheers.

OP posts:

AlannaOfTrebond · 31/03/2018 10:02

What other posters seem to have missed is the fact that when renting you have the right to quiet enjoyment. ie. You must be given at least 24 hours notice of somebody attending your property and have the right to say no if it isn't convenient.

Therefore if you knew nothing about this the gardeners should not be there.

MarSeeAh · 31/03/2018 10:03

YABU.

Welshmaenad · 31/03/2018 10:04

I actually don't think YABU. This would really piss me off. I know they're outside but they're still on your property - would people think it acceptable for workmen to turn up unannounced and let themselves in to do work inside the house?

You should have been asked if it was convenient and you weren't. My lie ins are few and far between and I would be really annoyed at being woken unexpectedly.

Also I sense this is a bit of a straw breaking the camels back because of all the other noisy work you've had to endure. I would at the very least email the property managers and say all works should be agreed with you in advance in future.

JaneEyre70 · 31/03/2018 10:07

You're getting your gardening done for you and you are complaining..... . I'd be grateful for a nice garden personally.

phoebemac · 31/03/2018 10:07

This. The OP should get to choose when the work is done, so is no BU.

DonkeysDontRideBicycles · 31/03/2018 10:07

I think 8am on a Saturday is too early but tbh I'd be irritated by drilling going on after 7pm.
Perhaps had it not been Good Friday yesterday you'd have been emailed advance warning.
(Hope DP feels better today).

Queenio24 · 31/03/2018 10:09

They knocked and you ignored them? They weren't to know that your husband had been ill so you'd had a bad night.
You could contact the management company to say you weren't informed when they were due, but this is work you wanted doing though? I imagine you might get the brush off. I think YABU OP, as you are at the end of your tether with it.

pictish · 31/03/2018 10:09

I understand it is annoying and has pissed you off but you need to get a grip here. You’re not entitled to expect the world to revolve around your own personal circumstances. Jobs are not arranged according to who is ill or what time you went to bed. 8 am is a reasonable time to create a disturbance.

I su pose you can rightly contact your landlord and tell him or her that you want 24 hours notice of works such as gardeners but frankly I don’t know how you could be bothered. Suck it up, get on with your day.

Cloudyapples · 31/03/2018 10:09

If you’re renting then YANBU to have expected fair warning - I think my contract says something like 24hours notice minimum

MeltSnow · 31/03/2018 10:10

If I was a Neighbour I would be really irritated by drilling after 7pm during the week. I’d be far more accepting of the gardeners noise.

augustusglupe · 31/03/2018 10:10

This happened to me recently, but with builders. It was some outside work they had to finish off for us. I didn’t answer the door, saw they were getting on outside ok...so I went back to bed. YABU

koyaanisqatsi · 31/03/2018 10:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Fattymcfaterson · 31/03/2018 10:11

It seems most people here do not rent their properties. You should have notified about work happening!!! I would be having a firm word with the letting agent. It's not acceptable practice

Original poster

KirstenRaymonde · 31/03/2018 10:12

I’ve been really easy going on the all the work being done - most of which should have been done before we moved in and wasn’t (it was in our contract that it would be done) and other work that’s because the property is full of dodgy stuff we didn’t even know about, so it might just be the straw that breaks the camels back.

I will email the property management and say please in future could we be informed before any work is being carried out.

OP posts:

viques · 31/03/2018 10:12

OK, I understand that you are pined off that the management company didn't contact you, they should have let you know. Since i learnt on MN that apparently right minded people don't open their door EVER unless by prior arrangement, then ok I almost understand why you didn't open the door at eight o clock. But in the intervening hour and a half why didn't you get dressed and go outside and talk to them, ask how long they are going to be and ask them to let you know in advance next time they come?

I might even have asked if they'd like a cup of tea .......... Or to use the loo (runs away very fast at this breach of MN propriety)

augustusglupe · 31/03/2018 10:12

Yes, meant to say, agree with another post. If renting you should always be given notice of 24 hours if they want to enter the property. Not sure about the rules as regards outside work.

SandyDenny · 31/03/2018 10:13

While I don't think 8am is too early I know for sure that my neighbours do, there's been a new estate of houses being built behind me with lots of complaints about noise early at the weekend.

But OP you should know that most posters will have been up at 6 whatever their illnesses and you can expect no sympathy.

Original poster

KirstenRaymonde · 31/03/2018 10:13

@MeltSnow it’s been one mirror or one picture at a time, usually by latest 8pm, so not excessive. But we have to go to work so before 7pm would be impossible.

OP posts:

Queenio24 · 31/03/2018 10:15

Gardening work is difficult to schedule in I.e. Can't trim hedges if temperatures are less than xx, if it's been raining grass will be too boggy so can't mow otherwise it will get churned up and customers will complain. I'm guessing they had a list of jobs and turned up.

Original poster

KirstenRaymonde · 31/03/2018 10:16

@viques they’ve been booked by the landlords, it’s not up to the gardeners to let me know, it’s up to property management. All the other workmen have used my loo!

During the week I’m up at 6, even if I’d been up at 6 today I would still have thought 8am too early.

OP posts:

BrownTurkey · 31/03/2018 10:19

I expect they fit in jobs as and when, thy could have informed you in advance and then not turned up three times. Easier to just knock and start. I wouldn’t be annoyed.

chemenger · 31/03/2018 10:19

In my experience of gardeners, they are in such demand that they, to a certain extent, call the shots. They have to to arrange jobs round the weather - you can’t be up a ladder trimming high hedges in high winds, you can’t cut grass when it’s soaking wet. Usually we get a text the day before to say that they’re planning to come, then one on the day to say they are on their way. Mostly we just tell them to come whenever it’s convenient for them. They won’t have your contact details so couldn’t let you know. If you had answered the door (instead of following the Mumsnet convention of never doing so) you could probably have told them to leave, or find something quiet to do first. I find if you mess gardeners around you never see them again, however.

GnotherGnu · 31/03/2018 10:23

Completely off the point, but why on earth are you hosting all day tomorrow if your husband is ill? Cancel it and give yourselves a peaceful day.

TSSDNCOP · 31/03/2018 10:23

YANBU it’s the weekend of a Bank Holiday. 9am start perfectly reasonable. All the rest of it YABU but given you’re knackered it’s ok to moan.

ParisUSM · 31/03/2018 10:23

Roads get dug up from 7am round here, even at the weekend so no, I don't think 8am is too early. It's not like you've had to be up to let them in to the house, so I don't think it is that big a deal.

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