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

Daisy_Bell

He should be grateful it was only his car got a bit of dust on it! When my neighbours had their driveway 'Done', it was quite a windy day; the small top window of our bedroom was open and all the dust from cutting the bricks blew in and ruined our decorating! It was a fine grey dust and the light coloured matte paint on the walls just absorbed it! No amount of cleaning would shift it and in the end we had to re-paint it. Did we complain to our neighbours? Of course not! Is it worth causing bad relations with otherwise fairly good neighbours over something like this?

MissLizzie

I totally agree with Daisy Bell. We all have work done like this at some point or have parties or lots of visitors with cars parked on the road but its about give and take! Sure it would have been a nice idea to inform the neighbours beforehand but this wasn't done so its not nice for either side to get narky about it. You have to live together so there is no point getting on your high horse about the smallest of things.

BTW - I am speaking from the point of view from someone who has awful neighbours and is currently in the middle of a legal dispute brought on by them!

credithater_2

He sounds like a very uptight neighbour.

We had our drive done a while a go and it covered both of next doors cars completely. (including a lovely Jaguar convertible)
All they did was comment how good the drive looked and then washed the cars after it was finished.

At the most, I would fill a bucket with water and pour it over his car. Job done !!!

whizzocki

I live in a semi, and in a similar vein, last year my neighbour came to me and complained that one of my trees was blocking sunlight from his garden. Live and let live, I paid a tree surgeon £300 to come and prune it. Said neighbour was chuffed to bits. Good job done, I thought.

This year, a serious damp problem emerged in my bedroom and was tracked down to problems with the same neighbour's roof. I asked him very politely if he would address it, and he just laughed, saying, 'That's your tough ****. Take me to court.'

Some people do not have it in them to be good neighbours.

coys_2

My neighbour has had the same problem this week with the people next door to him.
They parked a skip in their front garden, next to the fence, and on the other side of the fence, (about 3 feet away) was the neighbours car.
While filling the skip with hardcore and debris, a lot of dust had settled onto his car.
The 2 problems which i noticed was, neither party done anything until the car owner complained, in a very aggressive manner, to the builders, and by then, it was too late!
And....he still left his car in the same place....go figure that one out!!
ALWAYS inform your neighbours about any work you are going to do which may involve some inconvenience to your neighbours, it is unprofessional and above all not a neighbourly to do.
At the end of the day it is dust on a car, which will come of when you next wash the car....

mathsman

I doubt if a "party" across the road is a "neighbour" in the context of the "Party Wall Act". Existing legislation intended for resolving/avoiding conflicts such as you are worrying about. Go to your councils' Planning Dept and pick up a couple of copies. Having read one, and put your mind at rest, you know where to stick the other one!!
The Act is there not just for the protection of your neighbours when you are "working" but also to empower you to work , in spite of unhelpful residents.

djw0208

I can see both sides.

My car is my pride and joy and I keep it clean, so when my neighbour's cat walks all over it with muddy paw prints I am pretty upset. My car has been made dirty through no fault of my own. I guess this is what the neighbour feels like in this case. If he had been warned in advance, fair enough, but he still has a right to park on his own property.

Provided he has been warned it his choice to park close and have a dirty car or park away. He could have been more polite and come to some sort of arrangement with you. It seems strange that if you have a good relationship with him normally, that it would come to this point, so it makes me think that something else has gone on before to heighten the issue? All that said, taking photos is pretty extreme behaviour and is designed to wrangle.

Dave420uk

if your doing it yourself then you MUST either clean it or pay for it to be cleaned, end of! your dust you created it.

if however you have a contractor in...

tell your neighbour while you sympathize with him and his issue, he must take it up with the contractors, and tell your contractor he's upsetting your nieghbour.

tradesmen normally clean up after themselfs right?, if i had a joiner come and fit a new door would he leave wood shavings on the floor for me to clean up?

if say my window cleaner dropped his ladder and it hit next doors car... would i have to pay for it?

if my decorator dropped a can of paint in the street and it spilt on his drive or splashed his car... would i have to pay or remove it myself?

i would say not!

savingGrace

just wrote a post, and then had it ignored, saying not logged in! i did ! so trying again, before waste more time.

Now I am upset because of that.

I think some of you might have been interested in my ,sadly lost , posting, but I just haven't got the energy, time to do it over again. So frustrating. And not the first time on this site.

Dave_Montford

Ignore the idiot, let him complain he will get nowhere, it is him who will die of stress, if all he has to worry about is a bit of dust, he is a very sad man.