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?

Whether the rate is too high is a bit of a red herring. You should have agreed a price in advance and that’s the problem here. You didn’t so 💩

Reported as this is so obviously bollocks

Complete
She's done all that in an hour too!
I really think letting her go would just benefit her, I wouldn't like to work for you

I want a £20/hour gardener. Ours is £30/hr but we don't have a plastic lawn.

"Garden cleaning"

Missing the point of the thread but what is the OP doing in the garden that requires weekly patio spraying? 🤔

I know cleaners who are happy to have online shops delivered and put groceries away

Ooh! I say to my oh that I’d gladly pay someone to put away the shopping! I don’t mind actually shopping, it’s the putting away that I hate!

Quite a few people in my office get their online delivery during the day when the cleaner is here, and they happily put everything away. As long as they are paid for the hours they work, most people don't see an issue. It's hardly demeaning.

Are you the cleaner and testing the waters..? If so, or if not, that’s reasonable, my gardener charges that an hour, but can have finished the work in half the time and I still have to pay in hourly units... and if that’s going to be a regular aspect, indoor and outdoor is a completely different matter. Same difference in paying a plumber and a handyman who cleans gutters, have you never had a trader do the main job and then offered a lower price for something simpler and not necessarily their skill...? ...