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AIBU?

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Original poster

Drying washing on our balcony

493 replies

Emmabryant123 · 03/08/2019 11:37

We private rent in a block of 16 flats
The flats vary from rented to owned .
We put our washing on two airers today on our balcony
No offensive clothing etc on show
We came down to this message on the main front door
Are we being unreasonable!? Or is this person who wrote this note being unreasonable?

Drying washing on our balcony
OP posts:
Thread gallery
13
AutumnalLeaves38 · 04/08/2019 21:58

(off-topic)
polymere

"I also used to live in a village where fish and chip shops are banned due to various apocryphal stories."

Was the ban due to an infamous prosecution for another type of...um...laundering (i.e. £££s) ?
And was it a cotswold village beginning with T?!

If yes, we may have once lived near each other!!

Tinkerbelle57 · 04/08/2019 21:58

Check with landlord and check your lease. If you have never been told you can’t do this, tell the note writer to Fuck right off !!!!
They are snobs referring to council estates like that. There are a lot of decent respectable hard working people on councils estates . So just tell them to get in and worry about their own business rather than look at your washing.

YesQueen · 04/08/2019 21:58

It's just crazy. If you look at my road there is say 10 back gardens. 9 of them have washing lines. I am number 10 and not allowed ConfusedHmm

sleepylittlebunnies · 04/08/2019 22:00

The UK Government have declared a climate emergency yet there are people who won’t dry their laundry outdoors and can’t bear the sight of other’s laundry.

Things have got to change. It is such a low effort way of helping the world. It’s some sort of vanity that people don’t want to be seen as unsightly or trashy and are so willing to risk our futures for appearances sake.

The declaration of a climate emergency should make such snobby rules illegal. The Government should have the power to revoke rules already in place that force people to waste resources unnecessarily.

TrickyKid · 04/08/2019 22:01

Where else are you supposed to dry it if you live in a flat? Regardless of what the rules are I'd be drying it outside in the balcony if you don't have access to any outside space.

SistersOfPercy · 04/08/2019 22:02

I was born and raised in a council estate. The house on the corner was situated in the plot in such a way that they had very little back garden but a huge front garden.
My mother bless her would be horrified when passing to see washing "in the front garden! On display!" Used to amuse me no end as I never did understand the problem.

StarJumpsandaHalf · 04/08/2019 22:05

The note is unnecessarily rude.

We have a flat with a balcony though and washing is not allowed. It's in the lease.

People put bikes, barbecues and all kinds of stuff on the balconies and the managing agents do their rounds and send sternly worded letters round.

Basically all they allow on balconies is tables and chairs and plants. That's it.

I open the balcony doors and leave the clothes airier in front of them just inside.

StoneofDestiny · 04/08/2019 22:14

My very houseproud Glaswegian granny would openly judge people on their laundry, if there wasn’t a sparkling line of washing out on every available drying day then said wife was a sloven, dread to think what she’d have to say about all you tumbly queens and ‘oh my can’t have laundry outside’, you’d be deemed filthy lazy middens!!

But Glasgow had many old apartment blocks (tenements) before apartment blocks were commonplace elsewhere. Washing was hung out in the back green, or on the roof which had washing poles and lines for that purpose - not outside the front.
Problem is - modern blocks are built with balconies nobody really used for the right purpose and have no drying facilities at the rear or on the roof.
I live in a house and admit I wouldn’t like it if people hung their washing in their front gardens instead of the rear. Much nicer to look at flowery gardens, not lines of washing. I’m sure there are no rules about it, but can’t see anybody liking it.

That said, the note left was crass and cowardly and the flats are clearly not adequate for modern needs.

DGV · 04/08/2019 22:14

Lapun

Some of the answers here are very unthinking. I have lived in my flat for 34 years and we have restrictions in our lease on many things: no ball games in garden, no pets allowed, nothing on the fire escape/balcony. These rules were agreed by the owners in our 999 year leases. If you do not want to abide by the rules then move. If you insist on putting your washing on the balcony, your landlord will be told and if he wants to keep good relations with other owners, he will tell you not to just defy the block rules. I don’t want to see my neighbours washing thank you!

First thing, RTFT.
Second, why? What is so appalling about your neighbour's washing?
Thirdly, how do you propose that people in flats, with no outside drying area, dry their washing?

supermommyof4 · 04/08/2019 22:27

Yanbu..they are. How else are people supposed to dry clothes, are we not supposed to be doing everything to use less power. The council estate reference is just unnecessary and comes across snobby and predjudice, surely even home owners dry their clothes outside on an airer, or a line. If your tenancy does not say anything about it then ignore and carry on.
I do not understand how some people believe they are some how superior to a council estate, sorry I've seen council houses better looked after and nicer inside than some private ones..certainly seen cleaner ones, either way their poop still smells and you still get buried in the same hole in the ground. I grew up on a council estate and I'm proud of it..we had a real community spirit and we all looked after one another.

supermommyof4 · 04/08/2019 22:35

@DGV quite agree. On any given day i can look out of our window front or back and see peoples washing lines full of washing, why would it bother anyone...id rather that than tumbles going all the time. No wonder we are killing this planet!!! It's how washing was always dried back in the day.

DGV · 04/08/2019 22:41

supermommyof4 I've just never been able to understand this prejudice/snobbery 🤔 and to be honest, until I read this thread, I truly thought that it was only my mother that thought this way. Literally no-one, ever, has commented/complain about this to me, in my whole life!

DGV · 04/08/2019 22:42

Aside from DM, of course.

soloula · 04/08/2019 22:43

Love your reply OP. Is it bad I'm hoping they reply back...?

Keep hanging your washing out. No use cluttering up your flat and getting damp when you can dry clothes outdoors in this weather. Especially when your landlady has given you the go ahead.

manicmij · 04/08/2019 22:44

There may be some restrictions in lease,
conditions attached to the property that prohibits this. Check it out. If nothing then carry on. Would you believe one of the conditons on the property I own is that no washing line is allowed must be a rotary dryer. These conditions are legal and a neighbour anyone else in the estate can challenge you if you contravene them. No leg to stand on in court!

pollymere · 04/08/2019 22:49

@autumnalleaves38 Village in Berkshire, also begins with T. Not money laundering. Stories are that the local family who own the freehold for the shops either, 1. Didn't want the smell of fried food in the village and/or 2. wanted their workers to buy their food, not takeaway food and/or 3. Wife had affair leading to ban.

The village has every other type of restaurant or takeaway but still no fish and chips.

Leftiefterson · 04/08/2019 22:52

Bloody hell whoever wrote that is a complete tosser!

JanewaysBun · 04/08/2019 22:54

Im very particular about drying washing outside and have a "no washing on balcony" covenant.

The argos basics (around a fiver) one is the height of balconies so would advise trying that. You can't see it (unless it's a rail balcony) and clothes get lovely and fresh!

avamiah · 04/08/2019 23:58

Passthecherrycoke,
Fire exit ?
I have lived in a apartment/ flat, and there was no fire exit directly from my balcony .
😱

TheStuffedPenguin · 05/08/2019 00:03

How do you dry laundry in a flat ? Used to live in one so used tumble dryer or clothes on an airer and airing cupboard with the boiler in it .

notapizzaeater · 05/08/2019 00:05

I e just seen this story on a news website 👿👿👿

ThePhoenixRises · 05/08/2019 00:09

Emmabryant123
Has landlady responded yet and did you mention the note you found?

Would be interesting to know if landlady replies with "must of been them from number x ignore them" or similar.

avamiah · 05/08/2019 00:29

Lets be honest here, if you have a balcony and wish to dry your clothes naturally instead of using a tumble drier inside your property then why shouldn’t you be able to.??
I live in London and we have had amazing weather recently and all of my neighbours have had their washing out to dry.

llizzie · 05/08/2019 00:46

Perhaps those people are showing off that they have a tumbler dryer and think you don't have one, but airing clothes in fresh air is nicer sometimes.

llizzie · 05/08/2019 00:48

When all the hotpoint faulty dryers have been called in everyone will have their washing out.