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

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

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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?

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Best answers:

• I'd be interested too to see what he hopes to achieve!! i can think of a few choice words i'd like to say to him, if i were you. Surely, it will make his house look better by having a neighbour with a smart new driveway. I would start by apologising nicely, explain how long is left until completion of the work and if you dont like confrontation, offer to sponge it down yourself. Personally I'd tell him to stop being such a **** and 'do one'. I'm pretty sure he couldnt put any sort of claim in for dust on his car, he'd surely be laughed out of the courtroom.
• Let him know how long the work will take and suggest he parks elsewhere if he has a problem! What does he do if a bird does its business on the car-take a picture and send it to him!?
  I wouldnt even offer to clean the car for the neighbour-if he mentions the dust again ask him exactly what he is hoping to achieve from making an issue out of it.
• 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.
• Tesco value car wash = Ј2 if you really want to be generous and "fix the problem"
• Do you have a hose? No problem.
• I would offer to hose his car off for him, not wash it - just hose the dust off. Thats fair enough if you ask me. Secretly though I would be thinking how pathetic the neighbour is and just doing it for the sake of a quiet life
• has he bothered to sue the icelandic government for volcanic dust? or farmers when the wind gets up and lifts dust off the dry fields? probably not - it's just you're an easy target for him to vent his spleen and feel better about his sad little life. Don't pay anything, he's a bully and if you give in now he'll be hassling you for every little thing. If he says anything just smile sweetly and say something like 'there's always something isn't there' or 'we need someone with your motivation on the neighbourhood watch scheme'. Don't get into an argument, that's what he wants - don't give him the satisfaction. Life's too short to worry about people like this - let him get on with his sad life, just enjoy yours and you're nice new drive (but seal it before you get oil stains on it!!)
• If you have a hose, hose off the dust - no reason you should have to pay for the full service on your neighbour's car when it can't be a huge amount of dust if he lives across the road from you anyway! Passive-aggressive people make me sick.
• Dust on neighbour's car today, some corrosive acid could spill on your new flag stones later in the year.
  Be a good neighbour and do the decent thing, be big.
• Like others have said, if he makes a fuss about it, just offer to hose it off or swill it off with a bucket of water. He's being petty, but you can be the 'bigger' person :-)
• If I'm reading correctly, he hasn't actually asked you to clean his car (yet)?
  If he does, a quick swill with a bucket of water will do the job, and it won't cost you anything. If he doesn't mention it again I'd let it go.
  The photos are intriguing. Perhaps he's just someone who likes to take photos of things that have annoyed him for when he fancies feeling indignant about something and needs a visual aid.
• Frankly, I think he's just trying it on, to see what he can get out of you.
  If the thought of a potential argument worries you though, then you could do as previous posters have said - fill up a bucket, knock on his door and say you're going to wash his car. Chances are he will decline (most people don't want strangers washing their car)!
• Maybe he's expecting the dust to cause scratches? May be possible, so he's photographing it to proove the dust caused damage. Either way, I'd just offer to pay for him to get his car wahsed once the work is done.
• Offer to chuck a bucket of water over it. (Just plain water, note - no detergent, no scrubbing with a sponge or any form of elbow grease!)
  The only reason I can think of for taking photos is for "evidential purposes"
  Well, OK, LET HIM SUE!
  It'd be worth it just to see him get a verbal slapping from the court - and on top of that it'll cost him about 20 quid in court fees.
  By offering a bucketful of water ("mitigation") to swill over it, it's pretty certain he'd lose.
  Not knowing the pedantic gumblebunny in question though, it does suggest you've got a problematic neighbour, which implies there may be more problems in store for the future
  (Either that, or he's just got a particularly odd sense of humour...)
• I'd go over and take some pictures of his car too, that'll fox him, If he asks what you're doing just tell him you're collecting evidence for the dirt police, then laugh in his face and tell him to get real.
  Then next time he washes his car take pictures of your driveway when he asks what you're doing there tell him he's managed to get water vapour on you're drive (just as ridiculous).
  Do you know what I can't be doing with people like this, just you be equally stupid about forget being big that's for sensible people.
• Had pretty much the same thing happen to me whilst laying some paving. Neighbour complained that dust from cutting flagstones had covered their car in dust. I rinsed it off for them. If I'd wanted to be unhelpful I could have pointed out that the car shouldn't have been parked where it was. They had no legal means of getting it from the road into their front garden because there is a pavement between the two which the Highway Code says they are not allowed to drive on.
• Would need more specifics: was he warned you were building and when he was, was there ample time and space for him to move his car?
  Did he ask you for a sheild or dust cover or some sort?
  Do he and you normally not get on?
  I would say yes, you should pay as I doubt the above have been followed. But if they have and he chose to chance his luck then no, its his problem.
  If you came home to find your garden covered in dust, you'd be mad, you'd want compensation, this is not that different, the only real difference is its repairable and easy to fix.
  At the end of the day though, your neighbours, you may need each other some time in the future and its a good idea to keep your neighbours on your good side. Both of you should be compromising. You need to apologise, he needs to stop being so uptight I mean if he is short on cash to pay for the car being washed or needs it in top condition for work or worse, its a rental, it is understandable but taking pictures just sounds like he has too much time and too short a fuse.
• 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!
• 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.