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

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  • antonia1
    antonia1 Posts: 596
    First Post
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    The work that you are having done is having a negative impact on his property. If (for instance) I had just paid for a professional valet (which can easily cost £20) and then my car got covered in dust because of someone else's building work I would be a bit annoyed. You should probably have told him first so that he could park his car elsewhere. As it is, I'd appologise and offer to pay to clean the car.

    Being a considerate neighbour costs nothing, and saves plenty of hassle later on. A bit like warning your neighbours that you will be lighting a fire so they can take their washing in.
    :A If saving money is wrong, I don't want to be right. William Shatner

    CC1 [STRIKE] £9400 [/STRIKE] £9300
    CC2 [STRIKE] £800 [/STRIKE] £750
    OD [STRIKE] £1350 [/STRIKE] £1150
  • cazpost
    cazpost Posts: 109 Forumite
    I'd wait and see what he does next before offering anything.If he is taking pictures because he is going to try to sue,or make an insurance claim,I don't really think he has much chance. Once the work is finished,you could just go over and let him know it's done,and see what he says. A bucket of water over the car is sufficient,dont touch the car or rub it ,so he cant say you scratched it !!
  • ChuckCash
    ChuckCash Posts: 65 Forumite
    Once it was all over, I delivered nice wine, hand-selected chocolates, fruit baskets (according to the degree of inconvenience suffered) to 3 sets of neighbours who were all stunned by the gifts and assured me there had been little disruption anyway. This added cost was peanuts compared with the cost of work done.

    Pls let me know if any of your neighbours are moving. I think I'd like to come live next to you? :D
  • savercol
    savercol Posts: 85 Forumite
    Should have gone next door and informed him that you were going to have some work done. From there you offer to erect sheeting etc at which point everyone would laugh and say 'that's OK thanks, no need for all that' and he would ensure his car was moved and all windows shut.
  • lee-uk
    lee-uk Posts: 11 Forumite
    I think the health and safety executive now say that when using a hand held grinder it should use water to suppress the dust.
  • I'm a bit surprised you said you didn't know what to do. Surely the immediate response would be to offer to clean up the mess which was clearly caused by your building works? I imagine your neighbour then over reacted. Much better to try to keep the peace, though, reading between the lines, it may be that you already have a bad relationship with this neighbour.
  • Pellyman
    Pellyman Posts: 53 Forumite
    I suppose it could be suggested you have a moral obligation, but I'm glad he is your neighbour and not mine. Taking a photograph suggests that he thinks you will deny it happened i.e. thinks you are a liar.

    Unfortunately, if you pay for him to run his car through a car wash and word gets around, you could have a queue of neighbours with their hands out. Someone else's car must have been affected, washing must have been affected, windows will need cleaning, housewives may have had to do an extra hoovering - the list is endless. This type of thing must be going on all over the country every day of every week.

    I suspect your best course of action is to express sincere regret for the UNFORESEEN inconvenience as politely as possible and wait for the neighbour to suggest what he believes you should do about it. Then you will have to make your mind up if you think he is being reasonable or not. If it is just a fiver for a car wash he's hardly being reasonable but it's probably worth paying up and thereby regaining the 'moral high ground'. If you are really lucky rain will pour down tonight and there will be nothing more to complain about!
  • I'm with MsMoneyPenny.
    Quite frankly, what a lot of people are saying on here is rubbish. The work that you had carried out got the dust on his car, therefore it's your responsibility.

    Ignore the idiots telling you to further aggravate this guy - I would imagine he's annoyed because there's a very real possibility his paintwork could get scratched.
    While it may be excessive and little of him to start taking photos of it, just offer to clean it yourself in the methods mentioned earlier, or pay for it to be done by someone else if you're uncertain.
  • I don't think I would have realised in advance that reflagging the driveway would involve a lot of dust being raised so it's understandable you wouldn't have mentioned it to your neighbour(s). However, once your neighbour brought the dust on his car to your attention, I think it would have been a gracious action on your part to offer to have the car exterior valeted at your expense. I agree he is over-reacting -- after all, the next shower of rain will take care of the problem -- but you will be neighbours with this person for possibly quite some years, so it certainly wouldn't hurt to keep on his right side. You shouldn't wash it yourself -- if he is the pernickety type, as sounds the case -- he might claim you have scratched his car while washing the dust particles off.
  • trejoy
    trejoy Posts: 74 Forumite
    We had our drive done last year, the dust was horrendous. I apologised to neighbour as soon as I saw the clouds of dust and insisted on cleaning his car and drive.
    I suggest speak to neighbour to pre-empt any probs. Our neighbour has old car, if yours has new one, they may be trying to get re-spray.
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