Cleaner invited friends over AIBU

[Nestingbirds]

We have an arrangement with our cleaner that she takes care of our animals when we are away for a few days. She usually stays in the annexe but this time stayed in our house due to refurbishment.

We had an agreement when this started that we would prefer she didn’t have visitors apart from her long term boyfriend. He is away atm. She was totally on board, and said she would feel the same if it was her house.

We pay her really really well, and leave her lots of treats including fresh flowers. She told me she likes the time she has to herself, and all is well.

Only our neighbour texted me to say there are people coming and going from our house and sent me her ring doorbell footage. Not only is she having friends over, she isn’t actually spending time with the animals or cleaning (we pay her separately for both) as the rest of the time she has been out. We never leave our dog all day. Whilst we obviously don’t mind her going out, and want her to be happy, I just feel taken for a ride as she is clearly not there doing either.

I have messaged her to see how she is, hoping she would be honest about her friend coming over and staying for hours in our house, but she has continued to lie to me.

I feel like I can’t trust her now. Wwyd?

She had her own room, silly. I left them there

Stealing your clothes from a charity shop bag is pretty low—that’s missing money that would’ve gone into the hands of the charity.

Where in the world is it £30/hour for a cleaner?

Lighten up. It’s a joke. Like much of this thread.

First you say . ‘I think maybe my dog has been crying’, then later you say you ‘imagine that the dog crying must have alerted the neighbour’ and now you say ‘I am not happy, my dog is left along crying all day’

surely if the dog was crying all day then your neighbour would have told you this along with sending days and nights worth of doorbell cam footage?

I can’t for a minute imagine why you would have someone house sitting who you say has clearly shown you 101 reasons not to trust her prior to making the housesitting arrangements .

Presumably you jumped in car and en route as you were on this thread Op, to get back to your home and, more importantly, your poor dog?

In which case, are you back yet and what happened?

She doesn't have children, though. They're her partner's.

Yanbu ,I cat sit and i would never lie to my customers under no circumstances, camera or no camera .
I know how precious these pets are to my customers as much as i know how precious my dogs are to me and how i would feel if they weren't looked after properly.
She is obviously untrustworthy.

I don't think you should have told her you were coming home early.
If she was supposed to be at the house during the day (or at least at certain times of the day) then you would have arrived and been able to clearly prove she wasn't there. Now she's had a heads-up and will of course be there, telling you about all the things she's done.

You could present her with the footage from the cameras and ask her to explain, but it looks as though the trust is gone, so you are going to have to let her go.

We pay ours £18.

‘I don’t think she would react well - I need to deal with this quietly and pref without a scene’

Hope your hard working neighbour can get this on the door cam too and you can share the footage here.

So to recap @Nestingbirds

You have a cleaner who 'runs her own clients', but only actually has one other client who happened to be on holiday when you went away.

This cleaner, who cleans when you are there, also answers the door when you are there - and presumably capable of going to the door yourself. Poses as you to delivery drivers and orders workmen around.

She also steals your clothes to wear (which you've seen. Is she wearing them to work?) and has your home in her WA profile. In addition it turns out she has deliveries sent to your home because she is never in. Not to her other clients, and presumably they only come when she is there. Or do you 'pose' as her. Nevertheless you decided to trust her with your dog.

She's looked after your dog before - who is very nervous so presumably they would need to be very careful walking him around other dogs - but you haven't noticed any problems before, because she was in the annex. Was the dog also in the annex? Questions, questions.

You are now hot footing it home to your poor nervous dog, who you left with the woman from Single White Female, as your lovely neighbour has alerted you. Possibly because they were worried about your dog/maybe because they heard your dog/definitely because your dog has been whining all day.

Have I missed anything?

You don't think that the neighbour and OP has discussed this? Just because it would annoy you doesn't mean other people are as bothered. My neighbour asked me if I wanted her to move her camera as it was covering my garden, I told her it was fine and just leave it. It's extra security for me. I don't give a hoot if she sees me coming and going, what is there to see? It's boring.

Insane isn’t it

So substantially less

ODFOD

Hope you get all the trouble sorted without too much stress.

If I was your neighbour I would be careful about routinely sharing recordings of people outside their property boundary. It's quite likely they'd be viewed as the Data Controller of this info for these purposes, which carries certain legal responsibilities.

Depending on what is being captured/recorded (it seemed from some of your posts that quite a lot was), then without a strong and proportionate justification for doing so, this could constitute the unlawful processing and disclosure of personal data.

This is the same as the TV series The Guest. Cleaner, showered with gifts, given free reign, invites people over, and the rest is....!!

How weird!

The neighbour's CCTV is only supposed to cover their plot - not a street, or anyone else's property.

Data protection and all that.

@JosephineBoneApart Yes, I assumed this went without saying in my message. Though my issue was more connected to the point that, if a camera unavoidably captures a small part of their neighbour’s property, there are steps which must be taken to minimise and justify that capture and to treat any footage as personal data (with the duties that brings including regarding onward sharing).

These steps turn the neighbour, whether they are aware or not, into a Data Controller for the information shared, which carries legal responsibilities and penalties for non compliance/breaches.

Yes, I asked earlier if OP had seen the show ... 🤔😏

If you think the post is fake just report it Sherlock.

I can assure you it isn’t fake! Feel free to check. I haven’t actually seen the show the guest, but I might now you have suggested it.

We are just en route home. Cleaners, good cleaners are so hard to find around here. It would take a lot for me to let her go, and nothing she has done before has been anywhere near serious enough to now. I am just reflecting on everything, after this.

My cleaning lady has many clients, we have her at the end of the week, and her other client also happened to be away the day before. For longer holidays we have used a local dog walker to come whilst she was working and swap days around to maximise her time with our dog. Sadly the dog walker doesn’t do overnights. I asked her ages ago.

£25 ph is on the generous side of normal here. She is def not being underpaid. We are very kind to her at Christmas and birthdays etc.

This is ridiculous! She shouldn’t be inviting anyone to your house, not even her boyfriend. Unfortunately you have been too accommodating and she’s taking the piss as a result.

So what you going to say when you walk in op?