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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that neighbours could pick up the bill?

86 replies

Gravitsap · 12/10/2019 19:15

We have moved house about 5 month or so and we don’t know our neighbours very well as yet. We all live in detouched houses, but one not very far from another.
A week ago I had a professional window cleaners and the whole or house was washed.
Then Last weekend a van arrived at the neighbours drive way and started jet washing their pavement. As a result all four our ground floor windows were very dirty.. I have found this only after that cleaner has left. So I went to the neighbours and said I have recently paid for a professional window cleaner to wash our windows, and the windows are dirty again. They gave me a leaflet to contact the cleaner, which I did. I have called him and asked him to come back to clean the windows he has dirtied. He said he will come back in a couple of days. Guess what, he never materialized..
So I went to the neighbors again. Explained that their pavement cleaner is ignoring me and if they could contact him. They said they will. They never did apologize, nothing like that. All smiley, friendly. But that's it. The following day the neighbor is knocking on my door and saying that he has tried to contact the cleaner, but no luck, and would I like him to hose my windows? God, no. I would not like him to hose my windows, they don't get clean from it. I want them to be washed. Very politely I told him I will have to hire professional cleaners AGAIN. He said ok and left. I am so annoyed. WTF?Hmm
Now I have contacted my window cleaners and they came again to wash the windows and I have paid Confused phew

OP posts:
Dollymixture22 · 12/10/2019 20:25

My next door neighbour had their driveway power washed. It kicked dirt all over my driveway and what ever they used killed a large patch of my lawn.

While I was really annoyed they didn’t apologise (the damage was obvious, their lawn died too), I just fixed it and moved on.

I think that’s what you will have to do.

Runningsmooth · 12/10/2019 20:27

My windows get dirty from neighbours doing building work, next door neighbour building a gazebo and converting the place in saw dust, leaves from neighbour's trees. I would never dream of asking my neighbours to pay for my windows to be cleaned. You shouldn't get on the wrong side of your neighbours over something so petty.

beestripey · 12/10/2019 20:29

Pressure washers can really make a mess and its not normal window dirt, so YANBU, and if I were your neighbours I would apologise and pay to have your window cleaner out again. I think it is the only civil thing to do. I might have let the neighbour hose the windows off though if it seemed likely to work well enough.

The reaction to this is weird because I’ve seen almost an identical post a few years ago which got the exact opposite opinion and the neighbours were CFers.

I've found AIBU on a weekend is quite different from AIBU on a weekday! BankKitten! A weekday would have almost unanimous cheeky fuckery I am sure.

daisypond · 12/10/2019 20:29

.Idontbeeditall sadly not. The only way to get it cheaper is signing up to get the front done on a monthly contact of £15, and then the back windows they will do for £40. I’ve given up now, so just don’t do them. It was 50 quid years ago.

FrancisCrawford · 12/10/2019 20:29

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

daisypond · 12/10/2019 20:30

I can only dream!

nespressowoo · 12/10/2019 20:34

Ours are cleaned every month. Just get yours back. Don't cause an atmosphere with new neighbours.

AllFourOfThem · 12/10/2019 20:35

It’s £15 here (SE England) for our house.

nespressowoo · 12/10/2019 20:36

£8 a month for ours in the north-west

BanKittenHeels · 12/10/2019 20:40

£100? Shock

We paid £15 for an initial clean and then £8 per month for a 5 bed house, inc orangery.

Timeywimey10 · 12/10/2019 20:43

I had my windows washed about 3 weeks ago. About 2.5 weeks ago a pigeon pooed in the very middle of my bedroom window where we absolutely can't get at it.

It has rained since then. A lot. Has it cleaned the poo away? Nope.

It is annoying but I'll just wait until the window cleaner comes back.

Arthur2shedsJackson · 12/10/2019 21:01

When we lived in London 2-3 years ago we paid £120 for one (admittedly very large) window to be cleaned one Hallowe’en after some merry pranksters chucked eggs at it when we didn’t open the door to them. Mainly because we weren’t in.

Chocolatedeficitdisorder · 12/10/2019 21:05

@Daisypond

£100 is so expensive!

I'll come round and do them for £90

daisypond · 12/10/2019 21:10

Oh, don’t, all of you with cheap window cleaning services! I can’t bear it! London - of course.

Lexplorer · 12/10/2019 21:13

What was so bad about letting the neighbour hose the windows? I think it was generous of him to offer and can't see why he was scoffed at. And yes, he'll be yearning for his old neighbours just like you are Grin

Agedtoperfection · 12/10/2019 21:13

I thought mine was expensive at £6.50, up recently from £6

Winteriscomingfast · 12/10/2019 21:18

They shit on our door step

They put excrement on your door step? Human?

Namechangeforthiscancershit · 12/10/2019 21:34

Bloody hell @daisypond that's a fortune! I pay £9 and I'm in the SE, and we generally get charged London prices for most things. Not for window cleaning obviously!

OP your neighbour offered to clean your windows himself and you said no. I can't see how they're bad neighbours. Anyway their patio cleaning and your window cleaning coinciding is just bad luck and hopefully won't happen again

Nanny0gg · 12/10/2019 22:03

YABU. But window cleaning is expensive, so I sympathise. I’m in an ordinary terraced house and it’s about £100 to have them cleaned as a one-off, less if you sign up for a monthly service.

What?

Mine cost £15 per month and I'm in a detached house!

BarrenFieldofFucks · 12/10/2019 22:16

We pay £15 every other month for a 3 bed. I wouldn't get overly wound up.

doginthemanger · 13/10/2019 07:58

I think it was fair enough to point out that your windows had been dirtied, OP, but you should have accepted the neighbour's offer to hose them down for you. That was him trying to make amends.

My window cleaner who charged £8 retired and I now have a firm who charge £14 for a ground floor flat, admittedly with large Victorian windows. And I'm very far from London.

Marshmallow91 · 13/10/2019 08:03

Don't make a mountain out of a molehill. It costs me 3 quid a week to have my windows cleaned and the neighbours weren't doing it to be spiteful. They offered a solution and you're being too stuck up not to accept it.
I feel sorry for your neighbours if this is how you go on about a bit of dirt on your windows.

0DimSumMum0 · 13/10/2019 08:17

You don't need professional
cleaners again just clean the ones they dirtied with a bit of window cleaner. You are making a mountain out of a molehill.

GunpowderGelatine · 13/10/2019 08:24

Jesus you are a nightmare neighbour OP. WHY would they apologise?! And he offered to hose down your windows - how nice, I'd have closed the door and laughed about you then avoided you forevermore for being so weird.

Also lol at "professional cleaner" - what a £5 window cleaner Hmm

wowfudge · 13/10/2019 08:26

A lot of the responses on this thread are surprising. Would those posters who are saying the OP is BU really not be bothered if it was their windows? I doubt it. But, I would have taken up the neighbour's offer to hose the windows down and asked them to please let me know when they are next having their drive pressure washed.