Neighbour has complained about Portaloo

[Helenwalker2]

We are having some work done on our house which has required a portaloo to be placed at the front. This was a requirement of both parties who quoted if we weren’t to allow access to a toilet indoors for the various trades who will be on site (absolutely no chance with the horror stories I’ve read on here and from a couple of friends).

Our property is at the end of our street so we have only one direct neighbour. When it was first delivered the woman who lives next door made a comment about it being unsightly and hoping it won’t be there for too long - I confirmed the works are going to take up to 3-4 weeks but would keep her updated.

We are 2 weeks on, and this morning our neighbours husband knocked. He said they are unhappy with the smell and want us to move it to the back of our house in the garden. I confirmed we had previously asked and this wasn’t possible. Note we don’t believe there to be any smell albeit were away this weekend.

The woman then knocked this afternoon. Moaning about how bad it smelt at the weekend and how we are unreasonable to have placed it outside the front of our house and so close to their windows.

I said the work is still on plan and it will be gone in the next week or two. She then said she is going to complain to the council as they’ve had ‘advice’ that it isn’t permissible to place portaloos at the front of houses where there’s an attached house (as both ours is being semi detached).

AIBU to stand firm? We don’t believe there’s any truth in what she’s said and by the time the council get round to doing anything, it should be gone.

Perhaps she would allow the builders to use hers? 🫤

It wouldn’t bother me workmen using our downstairs toilet but that’s beside the point.

The point is your neighbour has said there is a smell.
It’s been there 2 weeks, unemptied of wee etc … a warm day, a bit of wind in the right direction and I’m sure there must be a bit of a smell.

Ask yourself, why would they lie?

If they knock again are you going to say ‘well my DSIS says there isn’t a smell.’?

Why can’t it go out the back garden?

I’m not sure if you are in the UK or not but there is certainly no warm days in November - especially where we are in a rural area in the North.

We can pay extra to get it emptied sooner but given the work is on track to finish soon we don’t see the extra expense to be necessary. We would have considered the wine/chocolates idea prior to the woman making a show of herself about the council. As it is, we will remain polite but won’t be spending a penny on them.

I would still request the loo to be emptied before the works have finished

If it smelt then we would - thankfully it doesn’t.

I'm afraid YABU then, op. Have a google to check what's normal re emptying. It really isn't normal to leave it for 4 weeks and my sympathies are now with your neighbour.

Except it does. You know this because your neighbour has told you. A quick google suggests they should be emptied once a week at minimum.

So are you saying its not been emptied since the start of the job as will only be emptied when job is finished ? Thats gross and be very surprised if no smell if been in use for 2-3 weeks and not emptied ? The neighbour is entitled to talk to you about it if she can smell it and as you were not there at weekend , you can’t say for certain it didn’t smell.
sod being poor workmen using it as well. If not been emptied for a few weeks.
personally would rather they used a toilet in my house that flushed that have a plastic container of crap in my garden. But reality is neighbour doesn’t like it, you want it so neighbourly relations will change and chances are in future they won’t consider you either in something they do . Actions have consequences but sometimes you just have to accept that.

According to you and your contact (who obviously has skin in the game to say it doesn’t smell and your neighbours are just trying it on). But for good neighbourly relations (and for the benefit of those who use the portaloo) why wouldn’t you ask for it to be emptied after a couple of weeks? We all have different strength senses and maybe your neighbours can genuinely smell something - why not make life nicer by getting the portaloo emptied and give your neighbours a bunch of flowers?

But you could have just asked him to tidy up after himself. It’s not that difficult. I always ask that my contractors tidy the site at the end of every day. Decent ones don’t even need to be asked.

Forgive me if this is written already and I missed it, but you say the portaloo is where it is because of a work van and a skip. These things may be able to be manoeuvred so the work van is by the wall, then skip, then portaloo.

Also, does the portaloo need emptying?

you’re not unreasonable to have a portaloo. We had for our building works. We too have a wall between house but also huge hedges and the portaloo was towards the end of the driveway so as far away as possible from our neighbour’s home/windows. You can imagine a few weeks worth of sewage is going to smell.

decorate it with bunting and fairy lights... and one of them battery-operated air freshners that poof when you walk past.

He did tidy the general rubbish after himself (e.g. packaging etc) but it's not realistic to have asked him to mop the floor in the toilet for example. And to be honest I wasn't that keen on asking him to open the window after his number 2. Yes, I can be judged for that but I am just not comfortable having the conversation, and I can see why others just would feel the same about asking adult s to clean the toilet after themselves etc. Especially, if there isn't an established habit to do that and you may have to repeat yourself more than once. It would have been worse if there are multiple people working on your house.

As if.

Would you have been ok with a portaloo outside your house for a month without getting emptied? I fully understand why people don’t want numerous tradespeople to use their inside toilet for a month but the consequence of that is making sure the portaloo is emptied regularly. I don’t know why that is an issue? The homeowner and their main contact says the portaloo doesn’t smell yet the neighbours say it does. Who is to know who is right in this situation? I can smell farm land being fertilised from miles away yet my neighbour can’t 🤷🏽‍♀️
Just get the portaloo emptied, offer neighbour flowers and enjoy the work once it has been completed. Really not hard.

Even just 1 workman having a shit in the portaloo daily - does it really need to be left there for a month? 🤮

I don't know if I would be ok with it or not. I've never had used one and never had one outside my house, so can't comment on the issue by imagining the problem. If my neighbour complained, I'd value the relationship more than winning the argument and would definitely do what was suggested above, i.e. a bottle wine, chocolates, cup of tea, apologies etc.

Yes I would make nice with my neighbour too with flowers etc, emptying the portaloo regularly if it wasn’t possible to move it.

I doubt it smells, the neighbour just doesn’t want it there 🙄

They can jog on. Portaloos never smell IME, even banks of them at things like festivals and fetes in the summer.
You're right: even if the council were bothered, nothing would be done until after it's gone.
If they say anything again I'd just assume a bored expression and say, 'Take it to the council.'

The neighbour might be lying about the smell (or might not be) and they probably don’t want a portaloo near their house but for the sake of neighbour relations wouldn’t you try and find a compromise?
Lets be honest, an unemptied portaloo after a 2-3 weeks is going to smell a little bit (wouldn’t bother me but I have good relations with my neighbours and would accept it was a means to an end)

Team Neighbour.

You've never smelt a gross portaloo?!! I used to go to festivals every summer and by day 2 wouldn't use the portaloos, I'd take squatting in a bush for a wee over using them 🤮 (this was many moons ago in my 20's!)

I do think one portaloo would not smell like festival portaloos (I'd hope!) however I do think even clean ones have a certain chemical/plasticy smell to them and I think not having it emptied for a month is pretty grim.

Outrageous homophobia 😉