Next door neighbour asking my builder to do some work in his house :/

[EmbarrassingMother]

We are getting some renovations done in our house including a new bathroom.
today my husband was walking our child back from school and saw our neighbour chatting to our builder/plumber and asking him to come inside his house and check out his broken toilet. our lovely builder declined and told him he won’t check his house until he’s finished our job.

Isn’t this cheeky fucker territory? Husband thinks it’s not a big deal, but CFN was thinking he’d take our builder on our time and ask him to diagnose a problem… without having to pay a call out charge or anything. The fact my builder declined shows it was wrong. No?

Were you paying him per minute or was the job priced as a complete job? I honestly cannot believe you’ve posted and a few people actually agree you.

I’m guessing because of the nature of neighbours problem - a broken toilet - they’re ask was more can you come and fix it today, not quote for a future job. Hence why it sounds cheeky as they’re clearly working for @EmbarrassingMother

If a neighbour won big an op would post 'my neighbour won millions and won't give me half' there would be people agreeing 'I'd be raging you need to report them'

No matter how odd or unreasonable there would always be people agreeing it's weird

This.

I think you're being precious.

Every builder, plumber, landscaper, roofer, gutter cleaner, window cleaner, concrete layer, drain guy, and house painter around here puts business cards in neighbourhood mailboxes when they're working on a street.

They would welcome being approached by potential busnesss.

But it could have been done as soon as he knocked off for the day at the OP's site.

She's talking as if she has the exclusive right to this builder's time and attention as long as he's working "for her", but actually he's working for himself att her house, and his time and attention are his own.

Honestly, many builders, painters, handymen, and other trades where I live put up a little sign in front of houses they're working on (as well as dropping off business cards or leaflets up and down the street they're working on).

You are being utterly ridiculous I can't believe you have posted this.

My DH is a builder and gets this a lot.

He would usually nip in after he’s finished for the day to have a look/ quote and is how he gets a lot of his work.

Eh? Honestly don't understand the problem. Builders don't look for new work only when they've finished their current job. They need to have stuff lined up. I think it's weird behaviour if he didn't look at the work. Totally normal for a neighbour to ask. In fact - we always share work men recommendations on our street for people who are currently doing work. Our roofer has likely chatted to about 3 of our neighbours over the last month about possible work (we've all got the same roofing issues).

Really can't see what was wrong with this or why you would take such offence.

Totally fine to ask. Wouldn't be fine if your builder broke off working to go and do the job. Fine for him to have a look on his break/home time. Ridiculous thing to get annoyed about.

There must be history between you and your neighbour for you to take such offence. I can't see anything wrong with this and in a way is a compliment that they would trust whoever you are using. Your workman would also charge them for any work done and not you.

This reminds me of when my DS locked himself in the toilet, panicked, and was so distressed he couldn't flip the lock to get out. Neighbours were renovating and I raced next door. A lovely guy came immediately and removed the toilet door handles, and then switched them over so the lock was now on the outside. Took him about 10 minutes, and he refused payment.

It was funny, because I had been complaining to DH about the endless noise and banging through our shared wall. That stopped sharpish!

My dad was a builder and he got the majority of his work this way. People would see him working on/in a neighbours house and ask him to take a quick look.

He never stayed more than 5-10 mins, just checked it was something he had the skills to do and got a phone number from them to talk to them later. He'd stay until the job was done on the original house and charged by the job not per hour so it didn't affect his main clients at all.

His record was repointing the front of 11 houses on the same street one summer - all from seeing him do the others and stopping to ask.

We asked our neighbour's roofer to fix small bits on our roof. He came to have a look and give us a quote after his work day, told us he would be able to work on it when he was done with the neighbours roof, and ended up coming one morning when stuff were delayed next door. Took 2h and didn't impact the neighbour at all.

Someone else did similar with the painter we hired to repaint our house, it didn't disrupt our work at all. It's really up to workers to manage this properly.

How does this even bother you!!!

Not a problem

Fuss over nothing!

You don't own your builder/cleaner/gardener/aupair. Imo the neighbour did not mean for him to come on his working time with you. He could have popped in after to have a look. Sometimes it's 5 minutes work and if bigger problem he could have scheduled him in for another day. I don't see how this is any of your business OP🤷‍♀️ neither why you would feel offended..

If NDN was expecting a freebie repair or not having to pay a call out charge, yes it is unreasonable.

Perfectly reasonable for your plumber to have a look after hours though.

YABU

This is how my DP gets the majority of his work.

I genuinely can’t fathom why this is an issue. It would have taken a few mins, and would not have impacted you in the slightest.

Happens all the time round here, one person has a job done and is asked to nip to neighbours in a free moment to scope for a job. Not an issue at all.

this is a completely normal thing to do! My neighbours builder got work at my house sorting out a small section of my roof and is set to do the kitchen extension across the road next year - we both approached because they were working on the street and doing a good job - word of mouth is priceless

you are being ridiculous - you r not in an exclusive relationship with your tradesman!

This happens all the time, not CF at all. The builder could have popped across during lunch or tea break or after work. Gosh, some people are seriously uptight.

Yeah agree with the majority, this is absolutely normal. I've just hired a painter to do a load of work that I found this way.

In particular a small job like a broken loo can be hard to get someone out to. Your plumber pops around for a few minutes at the end of the day, your neighbour gets their loo fixed with minimum hassle and the plumber gets a bonus few quid. Everyone wins.