Someone has cut my grass and now wants money

[SliceOfCakeCupOfTea]

I'm working from home today today and heard the noise of a lawn mower out the front. I didn't really give it much thought and just moved into one of the back rooms.

I've just had a young bloke knock on the door and he explained that he's accidentally 'done my garden' instead of my neighbours. We live in a semi and it's the neighbour we are attached to. Our front gardens are separated by a knee high wall. Neighbour is out (car is gone and they aren't answering their door so I assume they're out) but the lad wants paying for cutting my grass. Since neighbour pre-paid him and they're aren't in, he's now saying that I owe him money because he has provided me with a service.

Neighbours garden is just grass surrounded by the wall. My garden is a bit more wild with plant boarders all around and a couple of small trees and bushes. The lad has cut my grass, trimmed the edges, tidied some of the bushes etc. It's obviously a bigger job than what he was hired for.

I don't want to pay because I didn't ask him to do this. Nor am I too happy with the job he's done anyways. He's saying that his time needs compensating and if our houses were clearly marked then the mistake wouldn't have happened. He's also saying that since I'm home and could hear the lawn mower, I should have said something instead of 'letting' him carry on 'doing my garden'.

AIBU?

Are you the scammer gardener?

He's coming onto your property without consent, damaging it, and blaming you for not stopping him then trying to charge you?

Obviously no. Ask Billy Bigballs for £50 compo to have his damage sorted by an actual gardener and report him (non emergency report) to local police. He could be doing this to others who are less able to say no.

@Hippoh is probably Scammy McGardener's mum.

I had a neighbour post through a letter one day saying "leave your gate open, we'll cut your hedges tomorrow". I went to him to tell him I was fine, no thank you. He got my neighbour to open the gate and did them anyway.

He then REPEATEDLY knocked at my door, demanding money ... so much so I had to get the police involved as it became quite harassing!

Lol… no not guilty.

just depressing reading about lady who quite clearly knew her garden was being mowed refusing to pay as decided to move to back room and pretend she didn’t understand. Could have spoken up but didn’t now getting validation for shitty morals via internet.

How did she CLEARLY know it was her grass being cut?

Were you there? I think you ARE the scammer!!

How did she CLEARLY know it was her grass being cut?

I’m assuming she is not an idiot, that she had windows and common sense. This whole ignorance thing smells fishy to me.

I could be wrong though x

He’s a cheeky git! I’d have told him to sod off Definitely not your problem apart from the fact he’s ruined your plants

just depressing reading about lady who quite clearly knew her garden was being mowed refusing to pay as decided to move to back room and pretend she didn’t understand. Could have spoken up but didn’t now getting validation for shitty morals via internet.

You may live in a stately home with extensive grounds (and spare money to match), but most of us live in residential areas surrounded by lots of other properties - and we have our own things to be getting on with and have no interest in being nosey neighbours.

A lawnmower is a very common neighbourhood noise to hear, and the noise carries. It's the most normal thing in the world to hear mundane household noises like lawnmowers, hedge trimmers, power tools etc. without it remotely occurring to you that it might be somebody working on your garden/property, without ever approaching you or being asked to.

Added to all this, OP didn't even care about the lawn that much and has now had her bushes ruined for this year, just as the growing season was beginning - do you really think that she would have smugly sat back and let that happen?

I don't know if you are the garden scammer or his relative, but your victim-blaming attitude is appalling. Just how many meals do you think OP should now have to miss in order to instead give that carefully-budgeted money to a stranger in exchange for him ruining her garden?

Well HA! Jokes on you because I am an idiot. So there.

Depends on whether they've been hacked or done appropriately by someone competent tbh. (I am a person who does it for a living and does it well)

Tell him to fuck off he’s pulling a fast one; you don’t ask someone else to pay for your errors the cheeky twat; shut the door on the cockwomble it’s made me laugh though 😂😂

I’m assuming she is not an idiot, that she had windows and common sense. This whole ignorance thing smells fishy to me.

I could be wrong though x

Do you even realise how the majority of people in villages, towns and cities live - with properties in close proximity?

Have you genuinely never heard the noise of a lawnmower being used by a close neighbour on their own property from your own house? Why do you think that there are laws and commonly-accepted consideration etiquette that prevents people from mowing their lawns very early or late in the day, if nobody in a different property could hear it anyway?

ODFOD 🙄

To be clear, again, if I had realised he was in my garden, I would have stopped him. While it may have "saved me a job", it also meant that DH and I (under FILs watchful eye) will need to work on the garden to save what we can. This also means I actually have to learn about plants etc which I've very happily not had to learn so there's another job for me.

We were broken into a few years ago and the idea of someone in my garden, mowing the lawn and the plants has actually made me really uncomfortable and I've been on edge all day that he'd come back. But hey! At least the grass is neat!

Love that my cover as a stay at home scam artist is FINALLY coming into fruition!

Scratch that!

Love that my cover as a stay at home scam artist has FINALLY come into bloom.

(Damn I wish there was an edit button)

I love people who come back to make right a missed pun 😂

Do you even realise how the majority of people in villages, towns and cities live - with properties in close proximity?

yes… I have lived in villages and towns my whole life which is why I'm
not convinced by this story. She was in, has windows and a brain so could have stopped some young lad a couple of hours work but didn’t as she knew she could talk her way out of paying and play the poor me card to boot!!

Anyway… it’s obviously cool so fair play xx

I do have windows, you are correct. Also blinds as my house faces onto the street with other houses. I wasn't looking out the window. I didn't look into the front garden or the street. I was looking at my laptop, heard a noise and moved into a different room.

I'm not a curtain twitcher so don't exactly care what's happening out front. My focus was on my work. Genuinely thought it was a neighbours garden being cut because why in the world would I expect it to be mine when DH was at work and I clearly wasn't doing it myself?

@Hippoh you could also learn to read door numbers or if you can't, knock on them, instead of trying to scam others. By the way you post i assume you are the "gardener" in question.

PS real professional gardeners don't charge that much per hour so he really is a scammer twice over.

I was once gardening and had a vague "oh next door is hoovering" passing thought. Came inside to find it was actually my son vacuuming the whole house for me. It's not so obvious where an everyday sound is coming from.

So.. you heard a noise while at home alone… suspiciously close… that may have been someone in your garden.. that was someone in your garden… decided not to look out to check just moved room… unless your house is massive I’m guessing you could still hear… but decided to ignore it… then when work was done and door was knocked played ignorant and claimed you have been violated by a vigilante gardener.
sorry this happened xx

But Daffodil, you have windows and a brain! Surely you knew it was happening in your house?

(^^sarcasm...just in case it wasn't obvious)

I'm such a scammer!