Cleaner charging higher rate for garden cleaning

[user874158974267]

We've had this cleaner for a few months now. She charges £13/h for domestic cleaning (going rate here is £10-£12) And this week for the first time I asked her to clean our garden. Now she sends me text saying that she spent 1h cleaning the garden and she wants £20/h for that work.

Garden is small with artificial lawn. She had to sweep the leaves and clean the small patio area with a power washer. And she cleaned some garden furniture - a table and a few chairs. And she put some kids toys around the garden in a storage.

I've had my fair share of cleaners so far and was never charged extra for garden tidying and cleaning. And the extra seems too high (over 50% of her domestic cleaning rate).

I could just suck up the extra cost to avoid a hassle. But once the weather gets warmer I need this cleaner to clean the garden each week. So the cost increase for me wouldn't be negligible.

AIBU to expect a cleaner to do some garden cleaning (as per the requirement above) at the normal rate?

This can’t be serious. You asked your cleaner to power wash the patio ? 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Bloody hell. Just hope for her sake you never need your gutters cleaned out.

I need this cleaner to clean the garden each week

Switch that round to I need this gardener to clean my house each week and you'll see how bonkers your statement sounds. YABUtterlyU

Unless it was previously discussed when you first employed her this seems fair. It's still pretty cold outside across most of the UK and the minimum workplace temperatue is 13 deg C. Also as PPs have said working outdoors, especially in winter, is much dirtier than cleaning the inside of a house.

Surely cleaners don't do gardens? I've never heard anything like it. She can charge what she pleases. If you don't like her prices find someone else to do your garden.

How obnoxious. You 'need' this lady to clean your garden every week? You do realise your garden is outside, do you? It's not another room in your house. Your 'need' does not trump this lady's right to charge a gardener's wage for gardening work.

She should have agreed the additional cost in advance before doing the work but I can see why she’d charge more, it’s harder, dirtier, colder work.

This is her telling you she doesn't want to do it.

You clearly have done this a lot and people have let this slide. Don't be shocked that your entitlement to get something for nothing is not met with open arms. Would you do someone's else's job as well as your own without expecting a pay rise?

You are being very unreasonable

You’re insane! Gardening has no parity to cleaning.
Oh my days!
And you’ve got an environmentally unfriendly fake lawn, that cannot be recycled when it reaches its death sentence in ten years’s time.
What are the garden birds to feed on?
By the way, gardeners don’t power clean your toys or garden furniture.
You do it , else employ a jobbing labourer .
Cleaners don’t do outside work. If your previous cleaner did those jobs then she/he was a mug.
You need a housekeeper with a cleaner , maid and groundstaff.

Not normal to ask your cleaner to clean outside, no. Unless you discussed it when you employed her, YABU.

Well, you're being unreasonable to expect her to do anything outside. But, she was being unreasonable to not tell you it was a higher rate before she did the work.

Wow

🤣🤣🤣🤣 you’re at it right?

Why stop with gardening? Get her to service your car or artex your roof as well.
You're taking the Michael.

She is perfectly within her rights to set her own rate for doing a completely different job - which this is.
If you'd both had any sense, you'd have asked her in the first place if she were interested in doing a different job for you as well, and she should have told you that her rate for doing that job is £20ph.
The fact she generally works for you for £13ph means she should have mentioned that she had a different rate for doing outdoor work before doing the job.
However, she is completely reasonable to have a different rate.

You are completely bonkers to want someone to "clean your garden" each week and she is well within her rights to say she wants more for doing that.

x-posted with steff13

I would never contemplate asking my cleaner to clear my garden but if I did would fully expect to pay her what I pay my gardener which is £20 an hour. Total CFery.

My husband cleans the garden. But he calls it gardening.

She is charging you more because harden work is much harder than housework. You've got the cold, mess if you squirt yourself while power washing, cold, rain...

This is her way of saying that she doesn't want garden work. It's like when tradesmen give a ridiculous quote because they don't want the work but don't want to say directly.

Yabu!

I’m a cleaner. I don’t clean outside windows let alone gardens and patios! That’s outdoor work!

However she seems happy to do it so you’re very lucky and should happily pay her £20.

FWIW I don’t do ovens. I could. If someone really wanted me to. But they would be paying a shit load more than my hourly rate of £13. Oven cleaning round here starts at £35 for a single oven. So that’s what I’d be charging. Regardless of whether it took me less than an hour or not.

I've never cleaned a garden that's bonkers

YANBU since she should have told you in advance what her rate for this work was, unless it is in a written contract or she told you in advance I wouldn't be happy paying the extra.

Her wanting to charge more and letting you know in advance is totally reasonable.

Yabu our cleaner did the house cleaning
The gardener mowed the lawn and did a few bits around the garden and constructed a few garden features