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

pinki

Since I currently live on a building site, I understand how frustrating the dust can be, in particular on the windows of the car. However, I chose to move to the area whereas this neighbour did not anticipate this being an issue. Given that it would only cost £5 to get cleaned, it wouldn't hurt to keep the peace on this occasion rather as they could potentially be living next door to each other for a long time.

BigFriendlyGiant

hardtime wrote: »

Absolutely you should pay! Just a fiver to run it through the local car wash. It would have been courteous to your neighbour to have told him beforehand that you were having the work done so he could expect the dust in the first place. I wish people would consider their neighbours more when they have any type of work done.

I'm sorry but what you've said is completely ridiculous! It's a car! It gets driven through the streets getting covered in all manner of dust. My car gets covered in pollen which aggravates my hayfever - should I sue the council and demand that they pay to wash it off?!

The guy is just being cantankerous and sounds like one of these people who lives to complain. If you park your car in the street, you have to expect it to get splattered by mud, rained on, the tyres peed on....

tallgirld

Oh please!!! Your neighbour is taking the mick. I wouldn't offer anything other than an apology.

Dust you know!!!

Cloudane

I guess if it's particularly large/bad dust it runs the risk of marking the paint so perhaps the pics were in case of an insurance claim.

He sounds like potentially a 'bit' of a jerk but unless he was totally nasty I'd just pay to get it washed and apologise. £5-6 and a bit of pride swallowed is probably worthwhile if you have to live with them, saves it escalating to a "neighbours from hell" scenario.

Julia4J

That's ridiculous, if the wind had been blowing the other way the other neighbour could have got it. You are not responsible for where the dust goes. Your neighbour is being most unreasonable and I think is just climbing upon the 'sue anything that moves' culture. Apologise and suggest to him that you are not responsible for the direction in which the dust has blown, obviously do it nicely but, personally, am not too impressed with your neighbours. Are you sure this is the only problem you have had with them? Crumbs you have my deepest sympathy.:(

dawsar

Don't even think of washing his car or paying for it...... what would he have done if it was just dust blown in from nowhere on the wind? You can not be responsible for where the wind carries the dust. People like that are just out for whatever they can get!

sportychick

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, its great to say now u should have told the neighbours, its not always the first thing that comes to mind when work is being done, but im sure the OP is aware of doing so for all future works. To everyone saying the dust is the OP's personal responsibility, its NOT, the work is being carried out by a contractor not the OP, so technically the contractor is responsible for the dust

I would follow other suggestions and speak to your neighbour from across the road and offer to hose down the car to remove the dust. Again do not wash his car and i would avoid paying for a car wash as dependant on where he takes his car this could actaully cause some scratches.

If the neighbour was taking pictures of his car to provide proof to his insurance or a court that this dust caused damage/scratches to his car, it is unlikely that this would be accepted as "proof" as there would have to be recent photos showing the car predust without scratches and those photos need to non digital, as digital can be tampered/altered/photoshopped. :eek:

Talent

What is all this about? Dust causing scratches? Was it travelling at 500mph when it hit the car? Of course not. It just settled there. It will scratch if it's rubbed hard though. Just smile and say 'sorry about that, best to throw some water on it'. If your hose is handy, next time it happens, tell him to drive his car over if you feel like being neighbourly and give it a quick swill. Don't rub it though. Don't pay for a car wash. Mind you it sounds like, from his attitude, that you will be presented with the bill for the super dooper triple hot wax double rinse and leathering....

Marisco

Ask the neighbour nicely that if he identifies "your" dust (as opposed to dust from elsewhere) that you will be happy to wipe it off for him:D

beemuzed

This beggars belief! My car gets terribly dusty when the field behind us is harvested - but so what? A shower of rain soon fixes it! I suspect you may find more problems building up in future from this particular neighbour!