Should I pay Gardener for this?

[GardenerCharge]

I hired a gardener to come and do some work for me. All went well, and I paid him as agreed. He asked me if I would like him to take the waste (chargeable) or put it in the garden waste bin for collection, I asked him to put it in the bin.

Collection day comes and they won’t take the bin! They said it’s too heavy, he didn’t warn me of this. I’ve asked him to come back to empty the bin (not take it away) and he wants to charge me for this. I said I don’t think that’s fair and asked him to just come and do it for me.

Is this a wind up???

Of course pay him, he didn't do anything wrong.

If you don't want to pay for someone else to do it you can always either take it to the tip yourself or maybe split it into smaller batches and get rid of it over several weeks.

It's not your gardeners job to know exactly what your local binmen will and won't take away. He presented you with the options and you had the opportunity to make the choice.

Why should he come back and empty your bin when that's what you requested?

He did as you asked - he wouldn't be aware of the bin men's metrics for refusal based on weight. If you want him to come and take it out of the bin, you'll need to pay for his time.

You told him to put it in there - get it out yourself, or pay him to do it.

If you want him to empty it, pay him for that service.

Take some out yourself and keep it till after the next collection? Not his job to warn you about weight. You could see the stuff and you know the rules for your council, he doesn’t. You told him to put it in the bin because you didn’t want to pay for disposal. Your choice. So, take some out for next time.

Think hard - if he had said "this is too much for the bin, it wiil be too heavy", what would you do? Either a) "in that case, can you take the extra to the tip for me?" (with a cost) or b) "can you put the extra in a big heap over there and I'll sort it out next week". You have the same two choices now. Ask him to remove it and pay him, or sort it yourself and don't pay.

He's be quite justified in charging you a higher amount as you've made it into a bigger job for him, coming out specially for something that he would have done as part of the job before.

Ok, it looks like I’m being unreasonable. I have an invisible disability so I can’t empty it myself.

What’s in the bin that’s heavy?

Garden waste - grass, leaves, pruning is not heavy. If there is soil/turf in there, or stones that isn’t garden waste, but you should have been aware of that. Not the gardeners fault.

Yes there’s soil but surely the gardener should have been aware of that?

They always try and ram too much in. The best course of action is to use sacks to remove some and send in two loads. Those IKEA bag things are quite good for stowing extracted stuff. In my experience, gardening folk don’t understand about wood from any tree work and how only approx 1 small shrub is enough of that sort of thing in one bin filling. Also, I never met a gardener who took care not to put any tiny plastic detritus in the bin. You really do have to police it yourself

Mowed grass waste can pack down pretty tightly actually and weigh a lot. I got a warning that my bin was too heavy because of this.

No I wouldn’t expect a gardener to be more aware of your councils recycling rules than you as the householder. He is a gardener not waste disposal. When he asked if you wanted him to take the waste that was your opportunity to say soil is not allowed.

Oh yes soil, they know it but they are not as careful as you would be. Re stones, if it’s gravel you might be able to save yourself a small fortune in new gravel costs by sorting the bin out

Waste from a professional shouldn't be in your council bin anyway, as it is trade not domestic waste.

What's in it?
But also.....just empty it yourself?
What do you plan on doing with it if he does come back and tip it out for you?

He did what you asked....if its general green waste and its too heavy he must have compacted it down too much.
But if it was top soil or worse rocks, and you knew this and told him to put in green bin, then it's on you.

Of course you should pay him!

You are being extremely unreasonable.

Different councils have different rules. That’s why he showed you to waste and asked what you wanted done with it. It’s your job to know what can go in your own bins 😂. Honestly. Not his problem. You just didn’t want to pay for disposal so here you are.

It’s not trade waste when a Gardner is doing your own garden! Jesus. It’s clippings from
your own garden. It doesn’t matter who clipped the stuff! I had a gardener when I first moved into this house, just to get the garden under control. Clippings etc when into the garden waste bin. I took the soil/rubble up to the dump myself in my car. It was domestic waste from my garden.

Pay the gardener or each collection day decant a small amount into your household waste until it's gone.

100% this.

Soil shouldn't go in a garden waste bin, it's for plant material that will usually either be composted or used as bio fuel. He checked, this is on you unfortunately.

Yes, that annoys me. I think the divide should be between waste that you have only because you have had a professional in - old plaster, the kitchen units they took out, etc, and waste that's a normal part of living, eg grass cuttings, hedge trimmings. Take their rule to its logical conclusion and the emptying of the vacuum cleaner have to be taken to a trade waste centre because it was your cleaner not you.

It's yet another of the hidden costs of being elderly or disabled.

That's the common sense point of view. It's not what is stated on some Council's websites.