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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Someone has cut my grass and now wants money

384 replies

SliceOfCakeCupOfTea · 22/03/2023 14:07

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?

OP posts:
AdoraBell · 22/03/2023 16:28

NO. He did not proved you a service, he cut grass that no one asked him to cut. His mistake = his problem

KnottyKnitting · 22/03/2023 16:28

£40 an hour! Jeez I thought £20 was a lot when we were recently quoted for gardening work!

jannier · 22/03/2023 16:30

Nice try but no you do the wrobg job your loss mate....and yes I do have a photo of you and your car

Original poster
SliceOfCakeCupOfTea · 22/03/2023 16:34

snazzlealpaca · 22/03/2023 16:27

How / when did he realise that he'd cut the wrong lawn? Given that he is blaming it on the houses not being numbered, surely he would only realise that he'd done the wrong garden after your neighbours came home and asked him why he'd not cut their lawn.

I have no idea!

I heard the mower start-up around 10ish which was when I shifted into the back room. He knocked on my door around 1ish. Both gardens were done then. Maybe he clocked the house numbers? I couldn't even tell you is the mower sound was consistent or if he left and came back. Honestly I just heard a noise, moved and ignored it until he knocked on my door. I only know it was around 10ish because I'd not long been home from the school run, made a brew and got settled before I had to shift.

OP posts:
Ofstedareunsafe · 22/03/2023 16:34

vivainsomnia · 22/03/2023 14:25

I can't believe the responses. What a nasty nasty world we live in. Here's a young lad who is cutting grass for a bit of pocket money, who made an understandable mistake that ultimately benefited you.

Are you that heartless that you can't give him at least something? I wouldn't have thought twice just because it's a nice thing to do to a young hard working lad.

For many people if they spent unplanned money on this there would be consequences to their budget elsewhere. It’s unfortunate but it’s not a problem of the OPs making.

Original poster
SliceOfCakeCupOfTea · 22/03/2023 16:35

KnottyKnitting · 22/03/2023 16:28

£40 an hour! Jeez I thought £20 was a lot when we were recently quoted for gardening work!

I've never employed a gardener in my life so have no idea if that really is the going rate.

OP posts:
HereForTheFreeLunch · 22/03/2023 16:36

SerendipityJane · 22/03/2023 15:36

Is there any obligation - in law, religion or trading cards - to stop someone wasting their time ?

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OMG! Mumsnet would be out of business if there was an obligation to stop people wasting their time.😂

JudgeRudy · 22/03/2023 16:38

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Getting on with next doors hopefully!

PrettyMaybug · 22/03/2023 16:39

@SliceOfCakeCupOfTea

He accidentally did your garden, and you never really noticed him 'accidentally doing this' and made no attempt to stop him? Confused None of what you say is making sense (to me.) The SECOND anyone put their feet onto my property, I would be asking them what the hell they think they're doing on MY property. But this man managed to fully mow your lawn, and trim your bushes, and neaten the borders, without you noticing?

What work do you do from home by the way, that means you can post at great length on Mumsnet at the same time as doing your job? Count me in. I'd like a job like that!

nopuppiesallowed · 22/03/2023 16:42

£40 ph! My gardener (unqualified and in his 70s) charges £15 per hour.

Original poster
SliceOfCakeCupOfTea · 22/03/2023 16:45

PrettyMaybug · 22/03/2023 16:39

@SliceOfCakeCupOfTea

He accidentally did your garden, and you never really noticed him 'accidentally doing this' and made no attempt to stop him? Confused None of what you say is making sense (to me.) The SECOND anyone put their feet onto my property, I would be asking them what the hell they think they're doing on MY property. But this man managed to fully mow your lawn, and trim your bushes, and neaten the borders, without you noticing?

What work do you do from home by the way, that means you can post at great length on Mumsnet at the same time as doing your job? Count me in. I'd like a job like that!

How do you know the second someone steps foot on your property? I was busy working.

I've already said I was editing promo videos which is why I had beefy headphones on and was sat in the back room on the house ie AWAY from the front garden where he was.

I can't see through walls and doors, nor do I have alarms around the parameter of my house to alert me to intruders.

OP posts:
bellabasset · 22/03/2023 16:45

If he's wasted 2 hours cutting your grass it must be a big front garden. The guys that charge £40 an hour tend to come with a massive 48" mower and lots of equipment. If the neighbours had paid him in advance sounds as though he'd been out and looked at it. His error and some people want some of their garden left wild.

ancientgran · 22/03/2023 16:47

SliceOfCakeCupOfTea · 22/03/2023 14:39

Now if he'd accidentally folded and put my washing away I'd be divorcing DH and marrying this man....

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I'd quite like someone to come and do the garden, wouldn't be too bothered about putting the washing away but if someone came and did they ironing that would be well worth a divorce.

Original poster
SliceOfCakeCupOfTea · 22/03/2023 16:48

Let me be very clear here. If I had noticed him cutting my grass I would have told him to stop because I don't want to pay someone for cutting my grass. That's why I don't have a gardener. Same reason I don't have a window cleaner or someone who cleans my bins.

OP posts:
SerendipityJane · 22/03/2023 16:51

Are you that heartless that you can't give him at least something? I wouldn't have thought twice just because it's a nice thing to do to a young hard working lad.

It's not a great idea to reward failure. It's how we ended up with Liz Truss succeeding Boris Johnson

JudgeRudy · 22/03/2023 16:52

So next door's pre-paid and he managed to finish the whole job before he noticed his mistake....right
He's trying it on. Tbf if he'd done a good job and was apologetic/sheepish I'd have had a completely different attitude and could well have paid him (something). The fact that the CF is entitled and irresponsible enough to make his incompetence your problem would make it a definite no from me.
If he got arsenal I'd take his pic and say if he doesn't FO you'll be contacting Police or Inland Revenue or your local FB Community group. His choice

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 22/03/2023 16:56

Sounds like OP is as much a scammer. Pretending she didn't know what was going on in her front garden (despite moving in the back of the house), letting her garden being cut, trimmed, what she herself admits is quite a bit of work, and then throw the guy out because he dared asking for something when she thought she'd het the service for free.

You're either having a laugh or are of the same CF mindset as this bloke. We live in a residential area too (as opposed to a stately home/farmhouse with its own substantial grounds) - as most people do - and we have much better things to be doing with our time than to be stopping what we're doing and twitching the curtains every time we hear somebody else living their own lives and mowing their lawn, trimming their hedge, receiving a delivery or whatever.

Where is the benefit to receiving a 'service' that you neither asked for nor wanted? Plenty of people do their own gardening, not because they're too poor/tight to pay somebody but because they actually enjoy doing it and/or want it done in a particular way.

It's an extremely entitled, classic egocentric CF way of looking at things that, if you decide you want to earn money, you find a job that you reckon you could do, do it completely unbidden and then angrily demand that the stranger setting eyes on you for the very first time 'owes' you for your work (whether you've done a good job or not).

It's hilarious to accuse somebody of 'scamming' you by not capitulating to your scam or incompetence. Phone scammers often get angry too at having their time wasted when somebody whose time they are wasting (and money they are trying to steal) strings them along.

Fluffodils · 22/03/2023 17:02

Ask him to put it back how it was

BadgerFacedCoo · 22/03/2023 17:04

jizzlord · 22/03/2023 14:29

You sound like a scammer's dream

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You'll regret that. She's marrying to a US Navy Seal she met on Facebook who's currently on deployment and just needs a bit cash to get home after secret OPs and once he's on to you using his CIA contacts you'll be sorry.

ArabellaScott · 22/03/2023 17:10

My scam is I stay home and when innocent people do odd jobs on my house without being asked to I then don't pay them! It's great BUT it is quite unpredictable.

😂

Somethingneedstochange78 · 22/03/2023 17:18

I highly doubt he's got the wrong house by mistake. He's a chancer saw your long grass and assumed you would want it doing. Funny he noticed after he had done it then did next door.

Kamia · 22/03/2023 17:22

He's scamming you. If he didn't know the house he was supposed to mow he could have knocked on the door and asked or called his agency and looked at his diary. It's not your problem.

Notjustabrunette · 22/03/2023 17:22

If he comes back, break out into a song and dance routine. Then ask him for £20 because he got to watch you.

Saschka · 22/03/2023 17:25

SliceOfCakeCupOfTea · 22/03/2023 15:37

Why? I didn't enlist his services nor can I afford to be giving strangers £100. That's literally a weeks shopping.

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£100! For your lawn mowing? That’s extortion. DM gets hers cut for £60, and she has a massive rural garden.

dawngreen · 22/03/2023 17:26

We had a guy come round to ours , and the first we knew was my fella went to make a drink. And he saw this guy wandering about in our side garden. Then he comes to the door saying he is from the council, and he is here to trim our trees. He then starts throwing prices around. And he was not in council branded gear, so my fella told him we have gardening help for free, and he left looking really moody.