Money Moral Dilemma: Should I pay for my excess dust?

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Comments

  • For the sake of good neighbourly relations offer to pay to have the car cleaned - it doe not cost much and, after all, you are the cause of his problem.
  • Money_saving_Martyn
    Money_saving_Martyn Posts: 220 Forumite
    edited 11 August 2010 at 3:38PM
    What?! I wouldn't pay - especially as I've not been asked to. The neighbour left the car parked outside and is now upset it got dirty? That's what happens outside! I'd like to see him/her try to sue the pigeons when they use his car for target practice and re-paint it white and spotty. Some people need to get a life.

    And what does the neighbour do when they stone chip the road outside - not go to work for 6 months?

    If I were that scared of my car getting dirty - I'd park it in a garage all the time. If I found my car covered in dust - I'd clean it when I felt like it. I wouldn't call round my neighbour's house demanding £2 for a car wash - cars get dirty.

    In the time s/he's spent photographing it and moaning about it s/he could have cleaned it. End of.

    I wouldn't fall out with a neighbour about it - I really can't see how anyway could make an argument about it. It's a car that got dirty. Your husband apologised for the inconvenience. That's polite and neighbourly. I think if you have any neighbour who would be so petty as to ask for £2 to clean their car - normal neighbourly relations are already out of the question. I mean, I would love to have a neighbour to pay to clean my car when I gets dirty.....


    jgriggle wrote: »
    I that's life, sh*t happens.

    Exactly!
    cassie42 wrote: »
    Let the contractors or you houseowners public liability insurers sort it out.

    Had a little problem recently about something about nothing and I said "ok you feel like that my insurers can sort it out" and he shut up.

    Sorry to keep re-posting (I can't edit all the time). Go to Citizen's Advice if anything more is said, and tell the builders who did it about the complaint.
    f4phixeruk wrote: »
    Surely it is up to the contractor doing the driveway to ensure that no one is inconvenienced by the work in progress. Including dust on cars.

    Still wouldnt pay for car being hosed down.

    This is certainly an interesting point - Look into this real dilemma person!!
    dinosaur7 wrote: »
    The dust from your driveway may be sufficient to amount to an actionable nuisance, for which the neighbour could sue, so you should be careful, as he might not be laughed out of court as some posters have suggested, especially if the dust is the sort that can cause scratches or corrosion.

    If you pay someone to work on your property, do you have to do all the leg work for them ie. risk assessment etc. I think not. After all, it wasn't you who caused the "actionable nuisance", or "dust" as normal people would call it.
    Please note: I am NOT Martin Lewis, just somebody else called Martyn that likes money saving!
  • You caused a nuisance, for which you are liable under the law of torts.
    You are asking if you should pay to have your neighbours car cleaned, but the very fact that you are thinking this action might remedy the nuisance means that you admit to being in the wrong somehow.
    You know what the answer is - just do it.
  • janey_uk
    janey_uk Posts: 204 Forumite
    I am surprised how many people responding to this would rather cause an argument on a minor point than be neighbourly and seek to resolve things. I know who I would rather live next to!

    I am not surprised however that someone would take pictures if they were concerned that damage had been done. Car paintwork can be extremely costly to fix, and many people would not be able to afford it, and certainly no-one should have to be out of pocket. Look at how many of us on these forums are working hard to look after the pennies - if this was an MSE-er posting about £400 of damage done to their car because their neighbour forgot to warn them to move it, I know what the advice would be!!

    If any damage at all may have been caused I would think the neighbour would be well within their rights to be annoyed about it.
    For everything else, there's MSE :T
  • Fujiko
    Fujiko Posts: 150 Forumite
    LesD wrote: »
    Whatever you do, I wouldn't wash it for him! He sounds as if he's the sort that would then accuse you of making the scratches that have probably been there for some time!
    My own thoughts exactly! As this man is a new neighbour I assume you haven't yet had the chance to get properly acquainted, but he sounds me like the sort who could be a real pain in the proverbial, and ready to complain about anything, however trivial. This is one case where I would definitely not do the neighbourly thing and offer to do anything about cleaning the car - which you might do for a friend. He sounds a rather sad character to be so obsessed with something so petty but give him an inch and I fear he will take a mile!
  • I
    For those critical of the neighbour's attitude, let's take a hypothetical example of a different problem for them all to consider. Say the OP or their partner had been out and bought/hired a very expensive outfit for a special night out. Then they went to the hairdressers, the manicurist, the beauty parlour, to make themselves look and feel really good. Over the top perhaps? Maybe its a birthday. An anniversary. A wedding. Whatever... they have got themselves all ready, go outside, and are covered in building dust due to a freak accident next door. Perhaps some dust got in their eye...and they wear contact lenses, and the dust is irritating and scratching the surface of the eyeball. They take a picture of their ruined state then go to you complaining about what has happened. Do you tell them to go away, stop bleating about a little itty bit of dust? ;-)

    Now I say to those people...imagine it wasn't the OP. Imagine instead that it was YOU.

    ;-)

    You post reminds me of a famous film when a lawyer says something like "now imagine the girl was white". A touching story.

    I still wouldn't mind. If I got covered in dust. I'd dust myself off. I wouldn't try to sue for eyeball damage. I'd spent the time sorting myself out instead of taking pictures and moaning. I'd probably even laugh about it. A pigeon pooed on me once when I was all dressed up for a wedding. I tried to sue but the pigeon didn't show up at court....:rotfl:

    Accidents happen. We have to deal with them and move on.
    Please note: I am NOT Martin Lewis, just somebody else called Martyn that likes money saving!
  • Whats the different between this in driving down the motorway and going past the road works? I'm sure he's not taking pictures in the expectations of getting his car cleaned or axpecting them to pay for any scratches that may or maynot have been there afterwards!
    He just sounds a bit lonely and maybe just has far too much time on his hands!?
  • I was not pleased as my car was parked on my drive right next to his digger. I thought it would have been courtesy to tell me what was happening and to give me the opportunity to move my car which was brand new. Incidently he moved his car right outside my house.
    If he had told me i would have moved it but its not worth falling out over some dust. It just peed me off for a few days. I personally do not think you should pay for it. Does he sue every bird that craps on his car? No because he can't. He should get a life and live with it.
    :eek: sprouts
  • BigMummaF
    BigMummaF Posts: 4,281 Forumite
    MSE_Lee wrote: »
    ....
    Should I pay for my excess dust?

    We are in the process of having our driveway reflagged and recently a new neighbour from across the road came over to complain about the dust from the flagging that had fallen on his car. My husband apologised and said we didn't know what we could do. We then saw the neighbours taking pictures of the dust on his car before driving off. I am a bit taken aback by this and wondering what the neighbour hopes to achieve. Should I pay to have his car cleaned?....
    The way I have read this is:-
    a) a NEW neighbour, so probably wasn't living there when the original process was or was not discussed.
    b) lives ACROSS the road, so not immediate neighbours. How big an area of potentially at-risk households are we supposed to notify of impending, possibly dusty/ noisy work to take place to our property, that could be affected if the wind is in the wrong direction?
    c) Hubby APOLOGISED & offered suggested solutions, if in a roundabout kind of way.
    So..:think:..I think the OP has covered the niceties of neighbourliness, & leave it at that.
    In my opinion Amanda here is spot on. The OP needs to be VERY careful how they handle this lest they be on the receiving end of an expensive civil action. I agree!

    I can't believe the attitude of some of the respondents on here saying how petty the neigbour is being. It may well appear to be a potential complaint about nothing, but obviously there are far too many people out there ignorant of the actual effects that concrete dust can cause to car paintwork, and even more so a poorly thought-out attempt at washing the dust off....That's as may be, but whose to say the dust came from the work the OP is having done! We get an awful pong that we used to think came from a piggery about 4 miles away to the west, when in fact it was the seaweed on a beach 7 miles to the east!
    Plus we have had no details of the neighbour's circumstances - as someone has previously suggested, what if the guy had just had his car (we haven't been told what make/model of car it is - it could be quite expensive, maybe a classic car with an original paint finish or one very difficult to replicate using modern methods) professionally cleaned and detailed at a cost of several hundred pounds, left the car on the driveway for a couple of hours not knowing about the work next door then came out and found the finish totally ruined, wasting all that money? How could you leave your car outside for a couple of hours & NO know what was happening, as the noise would surely give it away? Again, some on here might question who would waste that kind of money cleaning a car, how petty and egocentric that neighbour must be. But he's allowed to do with his property what he wants. Agreed, & I haven't seen anyone dispute that theory. The OP, however, is not, and is legally responsible for putting their neighbour back in the position he was in prior to the car being covered in dust...eehhhmm--how did the neighbour get the car home--a time machine? and a bucket of water will not be sufficient restitution.

    For those critical of the neighbour's attitude, let's take a hypothetical example of a different problem for them all to consider. Say the OP or their partner had been out and bought/hired a very expensive outfit for a special night out. Then they went to the hairdressers, the manicurist, the beauty parlour, to make themselves look and feel really good. Over the top perhaps? Maybe its a birthday. An anniversary. A wedding. Whatever... they have got themselves all ready, go outside, and are covered in building dust due to a freak accident next door. How do you prevent freak accidents? Perhaps some dust got in their eye...and they wear contact lenses, and the dust is irritating and scratching the surface of the eyeball. They take a picture of their ruined state then go to you complaining about what has happened. Do you tell them to go away, stop bleating about a little itty bit of dust? ;-)

    Now I say to those people...imagine it wasn't the OP. Imagine instead that it was YOU.

    ;-)
    I can kind of see what you're getting at, but it doesn't really alter the fact that the car is out in the elements & as such, liable to all manner of substances that fall from the sky.
    Full time Carer for Mum; harassed mother of three;
    loving & loved by two 4-legged babies.

  • Francis63
    Francis63 Posts: 214
    First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    Well you can't expect a bird to warn you that it's about to poop on your car, and if you drive past roadworks there will be a warning first and you have the choice, so these comparisons are just silly.

    The chap didn't know the work was going to be done and so stood no chance to move his car.

    It would have been a common courtesy to let him know, even if just on a note through his door. He is probably having a dig at you for not giving him that respect, it wouldn't have taken much would it?

    If you're not friendly to your neighbours in the first place, don't expect them to be happy when you potentially cause damage to their property.
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