Page 3 | Next door neighbour asking my builder to do some work in his house :/

MabelMora · 05/10/2024 07:46

mothra · 05/10/2024 05:25

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!

I might be being really thick, but how did he manage to get the handle from the inside of the door to put the lock on the outside when you couldn't open the door?

redtrain123 · 05/10/2024 07:47

Depends what they meant. If they meant ‘take a look to get a quote’, that’s fine (it would take 5-10 minutes at most?).

However, your builder declined, so what’s the issue?

Maggiethecat · 05/10/2024 08:24

EmbarrassingMother · 05/10/2024 00:22

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?

You do realise that ‘your’ lovely builder earns a living from his trade?
He can decide if he’d like the neighbour’s business and when is appropriate to pop in to assess the job.

Didimum · 05/10/2024 08:29

I had my garden landscaped last year and my neighbour asked one of the men to pop over as he was interested in a quote for his garden. I didn’t care a at all. It’s good that he was drumming up more business and it’s good that my neighbour could find someone reputable.

You’re being unreasonable and petty.

BoundaryGirl3939 · 05/10/2024 08:32

Don't think it's cheeky to ask builder to have a look. He might ask builder to repair it when hes finished in yours. My mother often did this when she spotted workmen on the street.

If you're on bad terms with this neighbour, then it might be weird.

littlejo67 · 05/10/2024 09:24

He isn't your employee. He needs work after your job. Your neighbour is not being cheeky and probably trusts your judgement in getting a good builder.

Cobblersorchard · 05/10/2024 09:29

That’s a perfectly normal thing to do. Good trades get a lot of work that way, popping around to quote for a job is fine. Obviously not doing it on your time, but just having a look. You don’t pay “call out” for a quote.

Willowgirls · 05/10/2024 09:30

In may we had our driveway replaced.
Ndn asked our workman if he could sort out 10 of his stone flags.
When workman told him he will give him a price after finishing our
job. Ndn couldn't believe it as he was already there albeit next door and
he was sure there would be stone flags left over.
His driveway is still not sorted.

doodleygirl · 05/10/2024 09:32

Don’t be ridiculous.

Catza · 05/10/2024 09:43

Tellysavelas · 05/10/2024 01:46

YANBU, polite thing to do is get their number to approach them to have a look AFTER your work is complete.

That’s not really a thing. A builder is likely to be working on multiple projects at a time. My partner has about 5 on his books at the moment. He doesn’t charge per day, he quotes for scope of work. One day he may have a subcontractor (chippy or sparky) working on an object and he has to wait for them to finish before doing his bit. So he will go off and do a plastering job elsewhere. This needs time to dry, so he goes off to another job for a day. It’s perfectly normal. Your build would be a lot more expensive if you wanted to contract him exclusively and pay for him sitting around waiting for paint to dry.
It’s perfectly fine to chat with a builder for 5 minutes and arrange a time for them to pop in and do the quote after they clocked off for the day.

YorkshirePuddingsGreatestFan · 05/10/2024 09:45

This happened to me. I saw the workman talking to my neighbour from further up the street when he was getting something out of his van. He finished my job and asked if it was ok to leave his van outside mine as he was going over to look at a problem in the neighbours house. He was happy as he'd picked up another job to do.

Neighbour later said thanks as they'd been meaning to ring round and find someone and then when they noticed the van outside mine, they figured it would be someone reliable and trustworthy so I saved them the legwork!

newnamethanks · 05/10/2024 09:53

1 million thanks that I am not your builder or neighbour. YAB massively petty and U.

TheFormidableMrsC · 05/10/2024 10:01

I approached the guy doing my next door neighbour's new bathroom as they said he'd done a great job at a reasonable price and I had some jobs to be done. However, I asked him to come and see me when he was finished there or indeed when he had time. I think that's ok? My ex husband was a tradie and often got other work this way. Nothing wrong with asking.

Onelifeonly · 05/10/2024 10:05

Its not cheeky at all. . Builders are allowed to set up new jobs after they've finished yours. It doesn't mean the neighbour expected him to either look at it straight away or get it for free. Good builders are hard to find - if you see one apparently doing a good job for a neighbour, it's a great opportunity to try to get them to do a job for you. The neighbours can vouch for their work.

Notreat · 05/10/2024 10:09

I don't see the issue if he just said can you quote for some work. It makes sense if they are already in the area. I wouldn't pay a call out charge for a quote anyway.
We often use builders that we have seen doing work for other people.

SabreIsMyFave · 05/10/2024 10:10

LOL yeah, super cheeky. Good for the builder for saying no! Are the posters saying it was OK not reading the OP's first post properly? The neighbour asked the builder to come in and look at his broken loo whilst he was working for the OP (and being paid for working for the OP!)

I mean we were having a new roof aerial fitted last year, and our neighbour opposite shouted over to the chap (when he was on the lawn not on the roof!) 'can you come and give us a price for a new aerial when you're done please?' And that was OK IMO. But asking someone to do a fix on something when they are doing a job for you .. Noooo. 😆

.

Fluufer · 05/10/2024 10:26

I don't see the issue. Asking him to have a look when he's got time is fine. Why do you care?

kittylion2 · 05/10/2024 10:35

My neighbour seems to ask nearly every tradesperson I have doing work to look at something of hers. It is slightly irritating (I know this is unreasonable) because it takes them away from my job for a while, but after all, I'm paying them for the job, not by the hour. I think I am irritated because we haven't always got on. Once she had someone do a job for her and I thought they seemed really good and had loads of equipment, so I asked her for their name and contacted them myself. Somehow I didn't feel comfortable going round and talking to them at the time.

Fountofwisdom · 05/10/2024 10:41

Have no problem with this and it has happened several times when I have had various workmen in. No problem if neighbour is asking him to pop in and give him a quote, which I’d expect builder to do at the end of his working day or on his break. As long as he’s not going in there for a protracted consultation about something complicated when he’s working at my house.

ImustLearn2Cook · 05/10/2024 10:42

fallenbranches · 05/10/2024 00:31

Depends if he just meant 'take a look' or actually fix it. Depends what the relationship is like with your neighbour as we are really close with ours so I'd have no issue with a builder taking out 10 mins to just have a look in our time - but not to actually start fixing it. My DH is a builder and gets this a lot. In one way it's a good thing for him as this is how he gets more work and obviously people are seeing he is doing a good job elsewhere which is why they ask. However, common courtesy would be to wait outside of your building schedule.

Op, this is exactly how I would see it. It really wouldn’t bother me. Because, I would probably think that neighbours could see that my builder was good and I would give them the benefit of the doubt that they were not trying to take my builder away from the work that they were doing on my house or trying to get a free service, but were interested in getting a quote for additional work for the builder after they were finished with mine and at a time that was convenient for the builder.

ImustLearn2Cook · 05/10/2024 10:46

Also, don’t builders or maintenance people usually give you a quote for the job that you need done? Rather than an hourly fee? So, it wouldn’t cost you anything for a neighbour to ask your builder for a consultation or a quote. Therefore, not cf territory.

ZenNudist · 05/10/2024 10:50

You don't own "your" builder and he's allowed to line up work whenever. You are presumably paying him for the job and not by the day? If you were paying for his time that does not preclude him quoting for work in his own time. Builders work pretty flexibly. It's fairly standard that people will stop and ask tradespeople in the street. Its just how it's done.

LonelyInDville · 05/10/2024 10:53

I have a neighbor that does this all the time. It used to annoy me but now I realize it shouldn’t so I don’t let it get to me anymore

PinkiOcelot · 05/10/2024 11:00

TwattyMcFuckFace · 05/10/2024 00:45

Plus 'your' builder could've just said 'Yeah, I'll pop in before I go home mate' 🤷‍♂️

Honestly, the things some people get princessy about on Mumsnet.

This!

I honestly don’t understand your knicker twisting.

BustingBaoBun · 05/10/2024 11:04

I would be wary if it was my neighbour because they are CFs

We had a tree surgeon in to prune some trees and unbeknown to me she asked him to climb over the wall and lob a couple of branches off one of her trees 'as he was there anyway'
He told me about this afterwards.
He said to her ' No, I'm here to do a job for Mrs B, here's my card if you want to contact me to come and quote'

She has form for this on all sorts of ways