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I have a rant about various contractors that have worked in my neighborhood. I wondered if anyone else has experienced similar issues. This will be a long post, so skip it if you're not interested.
I live in a townhouse with adjacent front and back yards. I often work remotely, so I am often home during the day when contractors come to do their jobs. I've seen them do lots of annoying and inconsiderate things.
A few months ago, my next door neighbors had their back driveway repaved. The workers put a bunch of their concrete mixing tools and supplies on my driveway, which is connected to the neighbor's. I don't happen to use my driveway most of the time; I usually park in the front. But no one knocked on my door to ask if this was OK. For all they knew, I could've been out and needed to park there when I returned. I thought that was extremely nervy.
These same contractors were there for a few days since they had to let the driveway cure and return to remove the forms and finish up. They also were hired to put sealant on the neighbor's back porch, which is on the second story of the back of the townhouse and is connected to my back porch. Since the concrete was apparently still soft, a worker put a ladder up to my porch, and proceeded to climb up and step over the iron railing that divides our porches to seal the neighbor's. I happened to be in my kitchen at the time (which opens onto my porch) and saw this. I was surprised, and thought that took a lot of nerve, since again no one bothered to knock on my door and ask permission to come on my property. I went out on the porch and was like "what's up?" and the worker was dismissive, acting as if he had all the right in the world to do this. He said "I'll just be a minute sealing this." I have a bunch of flowers and plants on my porch, some up against the railing. I asked the guy to be careful of them, and mentioned that he might not like some worker coming up on his porch without even having the basic decency to ask if it was OK. He just kind of shrugged it off. He wasn't outright rude, or you can bet that I would've called the company to complain, but I was still PO'd.
Another time, a neighbor two doors down was getting new carpets. The guys who came to do that parked their van in front of my house, and proceeded to unload the new rolls of carpet and padding onto my front yard. They didn't ask permission to do so. I didn't really like that, but they didn't leave them there too long. I went out for a while, and when I came back I saw that they now had the old torn-out carpet and padding on my lawn. So I waited until one of the workers came back outside and told him that I didn't want this on my lawn. He didn't say a word, but then moved it onto the sidewalk.
Another time, my next door neighbor on the opposite side of the one mentioned above was having her roof replaced. The contractors saw fit to pile various items on my lawn because they were throwing the old roofing down into my neighbor's yard. As usual, they did not knock on my door to see if I minded them using my yard. These guys, at least, did ask if I was OK with it when I came outside to walk my dog, but it still seemed nervy to me to just start putting stuff there without asking first.
I don't know if this is standard practice for a variety of contractors, but from my experience it seems to be. They are lucky that I'm pretty laid back, because I know some people who would flip out if random contractors just started using their yard as a staging area without permission.
Has anyone else had rude, clueless contractors just use their property without permission while doing work for a neighbor, or am I just singularly "lucky?"
Last edited by Gfab1; 07-22-2016 at 09:07 AM..
Reason: punctuation
Has anyone else had rude, clueless contractors just use their property without permission while doing work for a neighbor, or am I just singularly "lucky?"
So sorry you had that happen to you.
I can honestly say that nothing like that even happened to us.
They did it because they thought you were at work and wouldn't know. It's not right to not at least knock on the door and ask. Takes all of a minute, right?
We have a common grassy area adjacent to our yard. We also back up to the golf course. We get the golf course workers driving their gardening equipment, carts, tractors, etc from the common area over our driveway into the street. There is no need to use our driveway to access the street, there is plenty of room (50') of open space for them to use. I hate to be the "get off my lawn" type, but they leave grass stains on the newly pressure-washed concrete, some of the tractors are heavy and the concrete has some small cracks we don't want to be made worse. In addition the driveway is right under the master bedroom window and they go through there with loud machines at 6:30 to 7:30 am, while we are trying to sleep.
Some contractors in our area are also litter jerks. We find their fast food wrappers, cups etc, all over the sides of the small, private roads in our neighborhood. I guarantee that the homeowners in our neighborhood are not throwing trash onto their own streets. It's the workers that come in from the outlying areas and they have no respect for the homeowners who are paying them to build or remodel their homes. It's disgusting.
Most contractors are just trying to get the job done, and they will spread out wherever they can in order to do that. That means they often believe it's better to beg forgiveness than ask permission.
So rather than spending the time it might take to interact with you and ASK, they choose go ahead and do it UNTIL you come out to complain.
It's a side effect of being in such close proximity to other homes.
We live in a townhouse community also. Last fall we had a bonus space finished. I hired all the contractors and was very specific with them as to where to park and where to set up tools etc. IMO, it was up to your neighbor to instruct and monitor the contractors. They're the ones responsible to make sure their projects don't impact others.
Most contractors are just trying to get the job done, and they will spread out wherever they can in order to do that. That means they often believe it's better to beg forgiveness than ask permission.
So rather than spending the time it might take to interact with you and ASK, they choose go ahead and do it UNTIL you come out to complain.
It's a side effect of being in such close proximity to other homes.
My neighborhood is mixed non-rental and rental, about 60/40 from what I can tell. I own my home, as does one of my next door neighbors. The other next door neighbor rents, and the lady two doors down owns her home.
I realize that they thought I wasn't home, and that they may avoid asking for the sake of expediency, but it still irks me. I've also wondered about the potential for liability on my part if a contractor was to injure himself on my property.
ETA: Also, I agree with UNC4me that my neighbors should have monitored the workers better and laid out clear expectations. I know that two of the three I mentioned weren't home when the work was being done, though.
We had a neighbor getting a felled tree cut up and removed. She doesn't have a driveway but does have plenty of space in the front of her house to park. The guys doing the tree removal had a pickup with a open trailer attached. They parked on the road but the trailer was blocking our driveway (don't know why - plenty of space in front of her house). We had two vehicles parked in our driveway. Very obvious we were home. They didn't ask if it was okay and we didn't confront them because at that time we had no plans on needing to get out of the driveway. However, a couple hours later I needed to run out. I asked them if they could move the truck and they said yes but give us a few minutes to finish up here. Ten minutes later and they are still there. Again, "can you move?" We'll be done in a minute they say. At this point, I don't ask - I tell them to move their truck now. Man, the dirty looks I got but they did pull it up further in front of her house. They were still there when I got back 45 minutes later.
Liability is the main problem. If they trip over something in your yard and hurt themselves then they could possibly come after you for damages.
OP this situation seems to be the norm for this era. It's a me me me world and no regards for the next person.
And yes, we live/own a single family home, and have had similar instances in the past where contractors on neighboring yards tried to use our yard/driveway for storage of items because they thought it was more convenient.
If it happens again tell them that you're charging them rent on that space.
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