CF Neighbour? It's a skip one...

newbie202020 · 2023-09-16T19:01:24+00:00

Hi all, seeking advice to calibrate my reaction. We moved into a street 18 months ago which is very well established eg most people have lived here for 30+ years so we've been very keen to settle in a sensitive way as we renovate the probate property we bought (the previously owner had lived here for 9+ decades!). We currently have a skip on our driveway as we are renovating our basement. A neighbour from a few doors down who I've said hello to once or twice knocked on this evening to ask if she can deposit all of the rubble/bricks/garden waste from her extensive garden works into our skip as they apparently have loads to get rid of. I was caught off guard but said that we're still using it as work is ongoing but will of course let her know if we have space once ours work have finished. She seemed quite surprised and put out by this and I'm actually quite annoyed that she even asked! Wish I'd given her the name of the skips company we're using and although prices have gone up significantly recently, £300 for a skip is still quite competitive where we live! Should I have been more neighbourly?

Nochoiceleft · 16/09/2023 20:02

No

KievLoverTwo · 16/09/2023 20:03

No. Your response was more than reasonable and she's a CF.

People on FB Marketplace will often take this stuff away for free for their own garden/I need rubble projects, by the way.

muddyford · 16/09/2023 20:04

No. She can hire one herself.

dementedpixie · 16/09/2023 20:04

Cheeky cow!
If she wants rid of her stuff she can pay for her own skip

Twiglets1 · 16/09/2023 20:06

No she was being really cheeky!

mondaytosunday · 16/09/2023 20:09

There are regulations about what can be disposed of in a skip, and domestic waste is different from garden waste. Plus, if she has 'loads' to get rid of she needs to pay for her own!

FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 16/09/2023 20:10

No, YANBU at all. She was well cheeky for asking.

Why would somebody have hired a skip if they didn't need a skip for their own rubbish? And they come in different sizes, so you would surely have got a smaller and cheaper one if you didn't expect to need the whole capacity of yours?

If, for some reason, you had overestimated and she somehow knew that your job was all finished with the lorry coming very soon for the skip, with it only three quarters full, it would be fair enough for her to ask then.

However, even then, it depends on what waste goes into the skip. People think it just magically disappears, but it does have to be processed at some point. She could have anything that she wants to get rid of that isn't allowed or costs extra. What if you signed a statement that you didn't put X in the skip, but then they find that it does have X in it, thanks to Ms Freebie-Blagger.

Alphabet1spaghetti2 · 16/09/2023 20:10

No and she is a massive cf - probably related to our cf neighbours who’ve drilled straight through our party wall 🤬🤬🤬and no apology/offer to fix or pay
damages.

actually - I have two useless items needing disposal……

mrsbyers · 16/09/2023 20:11

Cheeky cow !

paradoxically2 · 16/09/2023 20:11

Maybe she is really clueless and doesn't realise you have to pay by the skipload?

FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 16/09/2023 20:15

Plus, if she has 'loads' to get rid of she needs to pay for her own!

Yes, that makes it even more astonishing. If she had one item that was slightly too bulky to fit in her bin, it might not seem as bad; but from the sounds of it, she could quite cheerfully fill the whole thing herself. In which case, she has a very obvious solution to that: phone the number on the side of your skip and book her own!

johnd2 · 16/09/2023 20:18

Yeah we had that the neighbour clearly thought I was being awkward, they were like oh it's only 6 bags of rubble, I was like put it in your black bin, half a bag a week.
He just didn't seem to get that if he put 6 bags in our skip that was 6 bags less that we'd be able to put in, so we'd end up loading our wheelie bin every week instead.
Skips just look huge when they're on the drive so people assume they can put unlimited stuff in.

MsFogi · 16/09/2023 20:21

I have always found it amazing that people think that they should be allowed to use neighbours' skips even if it means the neighbour will effectively be paying for their rubbish disposal (sometimes to the tune of hundreds of pounds if it means the need for extra skips over the course of work). CFs the lot of them.

SisterMichaelsHabit · 16/09/2023 20:22

No she's a CF! Think of it this way- if she had a skip and you hadn't hired one, would YOU have asked her if you could fill it with everything you've hired a skip for?
No. You would hire your own skip. As should she.

Beckafett · 16/09/2023 20:25

Deffo a CF but I think your response was perfect and very neighbourly

tara66 · 16/09/2023 20:29

Chalk name and number for skip hire all over on your skip in big letters/numerals.

FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 16/09/2023 20:34

I suppose, at least she did ask - not that it makes it any less cheeky. A lot of people will just come around at 2am and quietly put their stuff in; if you have a skip, mornings are always a concern as to how much new stuff you might find in there.

Depending on the circumstances and how much you need to get rid of, it might be easier to get a skip bag or two. They sell them at B&Q/Home Base and you pay one fee upfront to take the bag home and then another fee when it's full and ready to collect.

One massive advantage of them is that you can pile up your rubbish until you have a bagful, then open up the bag and fill it, so there's never any room for other people's waste. Also, because they're more compact, people don't have the 'skips are enormous with virtually unlimited capacity' mentality.

FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 16/09/2023 20:36

Are lockable skip covers a thing? To block any unauthorised depositing of rubbish - especially overnight - maybe ones that you could hire along with the skip? If not, maybe there's one for Dragons' Den?!

Atethehalloweenchocs · 16/09/2023 20:37

I think you were spot on - I would have said the same - 'of course you can put stuff in our skip, as soon as we are finished we will let you know and you can see how much space is left'.

BlueMongoose · 16/09/2023 21:03

If she had just a few bricks to get rid of, and just asked if you could let her know if there was any space when you'd finished, that would have been fair enough. As it is, it's not, she's a CF, and you did the right thing.

BlueMongoose · 16/09/2023 21:04

MsFogi · 16/09/2023 20:21

I have always found it amazing that people think that they should be allowed to use neighbours' skips even if it means the neighbour will effectively be paying for their rubbish disposal (sometimes to the tune of hundreds of pounds if it means the need for extra skips over the course of work). CFs the lot of them.

When I lived in London in the 80s when lots of places were bring 'done up' and lots of others would skip-surf looking for furniture and materials, there was a joke that if you filled your skip, it would still be full in the morning, just not with the same stuff................

Ikeepmybumcheekshidden · 16/09/2023 22:00

OP you're going to wake up tomorrow morning to a Skip full of unknown rubbish! I guarantee it. If you've got CCTV, get it aimed right at the Skip!

katmarie · 16/09/2023 22:35

Ive worked for skip companies and in the waste industry for about 6 years. I have some thoughts on this.

Firstly, yes lockable skips are a thing, and they are essential on some construction projects to stop people getting into skips filled with waste which can be dangerous to the public. They are often mandated on projects where you have a lot of general public in the area such as big inner city projects. If you want to order one, ask your skip company for an enclosed lockable skip. They will know what you are on about.

Secondly, garden waste and rubble is a separate waste stream to general waste, because it tends to be much heavier, especially when wet, as it is likely to be at the moment. As a skip lorry can only lift so much weight, a garden waste or rubble pickup will be limited to a smaller size skip than a general waste skip, so as to make sure the skip lorry can lift it safely when they collect it. So allowing your neighbour to put their huge pile of garden waste and rubble in your skip could leave your skip well over the allowed weight. This would mean you would have to partly empty it before the skip company can take it away, and you will then have to pay for an extra skip to take the excess. Its not about whether the skip is full or not, it's about the weight.

Finally when you put waste in a skip you are agreeing that you are the waste producer and that what has gone in the skip is compliant with the waste stream you have said it will be, that there is nothing hazardous in there etc and that its all your waste. So if your neighbours sneak in a couple of chunks of asbestos they've been trying to get rid of for weeks, and that causes the skip company to have to do a yard wide decontamination after they tip the load and find it, then that's on you, and they'll probably invoice you for that. (Yes I have seen this happen.) So I wouldn't feel bad about saying no, and I agree, they shouldn't have asked.

OneMoreCookieMonster · 16/09/2023 22:49

katmarie · 16/09/2023 22:35

Ive worked for skip companies and in the waste industry for about 6 years. I have some thoughts on this.

Firstly, yes lockable skips are a thing, and they are essential on some construction projects to stop people getting into skips filled with waste which can be dangerous to the public. They are often mandated on projects where you have a lot of general public in the area such as big inner city projects. If you want to order one, ask your skip company for an enclosed lockable skip. They will know what you are on about.

Secondly, garden waste and rubble is a separate waste stream to general waste, because it tends to be much heavier, especially when wet, as it is likely to be at the moment. As a skip lorry can only lift so much weight, a garden waste or rubble pickup will be limited to a smaller size skip than a general waste skip, so as to make sure the skip lorry can lift it safely when they collect it. So allowing your neighbour to put their huge pile of garden waste and rubble in your skip could leave your skip well over the allowed weight. This would mean you would have to partly empty it before the skip company can take it away, and you will then have to pay for an extra skip to take the excess. Its not about whether the skip is full or not, it's about the weight.

Finally when you put waste in a skip you are agreeing that you are the waste producer and that what has gone in the skip is compliant with the waste stream you have said it will be, that there is nothing hazardous in there etc and that its all your waste. So if your neighbours sneak in a couple of chunks of asbestos they've been trying to get rid of for weeks, and that causes the skip company to have to do a yard wide decontamination after they tip the load and find it, then that's on you, and they'll probably invoice you for that. (Yes I have seen this happen.) So I wouldn't feel bad about saying no, and I agree, they shouldn't have asked.

Thank you! This is one of the most informative posts I've read in a long time and has helped for when we order one.

Original poster

newbie202020 · 16/09/2023 22:51

Thanks all - good to hear that I've not been unreasonable/unneighbourly and the first thing I check in the morning is to see if anything has been dumped in our skip. The last skip we had an unknown person dropped their free standing basketball hoop next to it overnight- not the worst thing in the world but still!

We do seem to have loads of bagged dog poop in it which people seem to think is perfectly OK to lob in as they wall past...

OP posts: