Workman continuously knocking on my door at 7am

[Lauriepop95]

I am probably being a bit U....

DD is 8 months and is in the middle of an awful cold, she fell to sleep at 1am last night after a lot of crying. We were both exhausted and I ended up cuddling her in my bed to sleep.

At 7am in the dot this morning, I hear a loud knock at the door, i jolted awake and checked the time. My parents are on holiday and I don’t have family that close where they’d turn up at 7 without telling me first. My baby’s father wouldn’t randomly turn up either. So confused as to who it is and since I’m a single woman with a baby I thought I’d just ignore it.

Well the knocks keep coming and I just can’t be bothered to get up as I’m still knackered. There must have been 10 seperate knockings now, spanning over 5 mins. DD started to wake up crying at this point.
Then the person at the door started constantly pressing the doorbell which is impossible to ignore as it’s so loud. I had to get DD up and went to the door.

At this point I’m worried it’s some sort of emergency as they’ve been constantly knocking.

Well open the door and it’s the plumber.

“Oh hi yeah you’re due a gas safety inspection and you haven’t answered our calls, been calling you loads”

Me- “I haven’t had any missed calls (this is truthful)”

Plumber- “well we have tried I think, anyway you need to get this booked in before 12th February”

Me- “right what about tomorrow then?”

Plumber- “oh you can’t book it through me, you’ll have to look the company up and give them a call”

Me- “so you’re here because?”

Plumber- “to remind you”

Anyway he went after that and I am now sitting with a crying DD who has only had 6 hours sleep but can’t get back to sleep as she’s over tired and ill.

AIBU to feel pissed off?

I just don’t like how he knocked constantly without letting up and then moved to the doorbell until I answered. He did t apologise either when I opened the door with crying snotty DD in my hip and rubbing my eyes

Anyone knocking on anyone’s door before 8am or after 5pm is totally out of order IMO - unless they are Friends, Family, or neighbor or it’s an emergency

@Rosebel I get what you’re saying and the fact he knocked at 7am isn’t too much of problem on it’s own- it the fact he carried on for ages and then moved on to the doorbell when it was clear I wasn’t going to answer

They usually come round and do this before they go to court to get access to do the check. They want to ensure that someone isn't doing the mn classic of ignoring the door, as some are getting same-day warrants.

It's not possible for them to think that the occupants might have had a bad night sleep, so knock later. They would have to start later and would then get a load of complaints because they knocked after 7pm.

7 am is 'out of order'.

I’m not at all convinced this guy was genuine - suggest you ring the company this morning to check ... call the police non emergency number if not as he may have been checking you out

Not on at all. Most companies have a 'between 8 am and 1 pm' call policy. 7 am is unreasonable and anti-social. Check his company's customer service charter. Absolutely complain. His behaviour was aggressive.

7am?? Bonkers. He could have put a card through the door. Rude, rude, rude. I'd complain.

Hope your dd is better soon.

Completely out of order.
I think it sounds dodgy actually.
Phone the plumbing company and make a complaint about it.
And contact your landlord to check up on whether the safety inspection actually is due before booking an appointment with the plumbers.

He was being totally unreasonable - 7am repeated knocking is crazy

Presumably his company had been calling your landlord?

I'd send a written complaint to the landlord / letting agent.

Delivery people etc often knock very loud and persistently because they have targets to meet and don't have time to stand around wondering if you've heard or not. That level of persistence is OTT though.

Lots of people look down on tenants and feel strangely empowered to bully them.

I agree that his behaviour was in the 'emergency only' category - and you should say that in your complaint. It sounds as though the landlord / agent has been negligent in failing to make arrangements with his company.

But, I've had Amazon deliveries at 7am and been surprised but not annoyed because I wanted the item. How you've slept the night before is irrelevant. No-one else can know that.

Just me then. Gas safety is important. You can’t live in a house that isn’t certificated, and nor should you. Being disturbed at 7 am is better than dying of carbon monoxide poisoning. You can go back to bed now.

Yes gas safetly is really important. Which is why her landlord has a responsibility to book an appointment every year to have it checked - and give the tenant the usual amount of notice.

Absolutely and definitely unreasonable. Nobody should be knocking on someone’s door unless it’s an emergency. His repeated knocking and ringing was probably because he knew/guessed you were in and weren’t answering - which is disgusting in itself. He had no idea whether you worked night/were ill/were in the bathroom.

He sounds an angry man. I had similar with a company who’d neglected to do some outside work. I’d politely phoned them and they promised to come and sort it. They didn’t need access to my house and they didn’t need my input, but the man who came was clearly pissed off at having to come back (even though it was his fault in the first place) so decided he’d call round just before 7am and knock at my front door, then walk around the side of the house and hammer on the window .

Your man sounds similar. Definitely complain to the company. It’s not acceptable in any way.

For me the annoying/worrying stuff is more that you haven’t had any missed calls and that he/the company think it's OK to send someone round to 'remind' you but not to actually do anything.

I'd write to the landlord/agency to complain.

Yeah because it is that easy to go back to bed when you have a poorly 8 month old @Zebracat yes gas safety is important, but if you read the OP they haven't even phoned her yet, why couldn't he have just put a note through the door and left?

@Zebracat except it's not due for another month and there were several other ways the company could contact the OP without sitting on her doorbell at 7am.

I'd have been raging and I'd probably be asking the letting agent if there is an alternative company they can use.

It may be that they thought you were at work during the day so came in the morning to ensure you knew

Many people leave the house before 7 for work.

And the incessant nature of knocking and ringing the bell, who the heck does he think he is?

Knocking once and leaving a note would be annoying but acceptable.

Reminds me of the time I complained about something to Virgin Media (by email) and then went on holiday. They phoned me about it on my mobile (despite the fact I had emailed them) and when I didn't answer, just kept pressing their redial button. In the end I blocked them and dealt with it once I got home.

Gas safety is important. You can’t live in a house that isn’t certificated, and nor should you. Being disturbed at 7 am is better than dying of carbon monoxide poisoning but he wasn't there to do the work, he was there to remind the OP, which could be done by a note through the door!

Am I missing the point or is it not the LANDLORD'S responsibility to arrange the gas safety inspection and not the tenant?

I think @Lauriepop95 you are possibly going to the victim of a scam.

There are often cases of 'tradesmen' making calls like this and finding work that needs doing when in fact they are casing the house or who lives there, or bogus altogether.

Do not open your door to anyone you don'y expect at that time of day. Use a spy hole in your door or don't answer.

Oh hi yeah you’re due a gas safety inspection and you haven’t answered our calls, been calling you loads

This is the clue.

He's lying.

I'd report this to your local neighbourhood watch or local police.

It wasn't genuine.

I'd say it was a scam except that the OP recognised him as being from the regular plumbing company.

I think the problem is inefficiency and lack of communication.

YABVVU! - Seriously? Someone tries to save your a** and you get offended?
Do you rent? Gas certificate is important.
And when someone knocks on the door, you get up and answer it especially when you have a poorly baby who might be woken up by it
7 am is normal time for most of us
He is probably not a mind reader to know that you had a poorly baby.
check your phone number with the provider - you have a baby, try to act like an adult!

I’ve called the company, they said my neighbour had their gas inspection booked for 7:30 so they told him he may as well try my door, I said fair enough but he was incessant in his knocking. Then had his finger on the doorbell for ages.

I think someone their end has been lying and has actually forgotten to contact me but to avoid getting in trouble had lied and said they had called me daily for the last few weeks. They have my phone number correct too, but I 100% haven’t had any calls or voicemails from them. They insisted they had called me loads. Think someone is telling fibs there