AIBU to stop a villager using our skip and interrupting builders?

[Nousernameideaaga]

Having an extension built on our house. Will likely be ongoing until September.
Have a skip outside our house which , when neighbours have asked , we have allowed them to put stuff in our skip. No problem.

A man from elsewhere in the village is working on his own house.

Five times now he was wandered up our garden (long garden) to find our builder and to try and poach him onto his site. He has not asked permission to come into our garden. We are paying our builder on a day rate so each interruption costs us money.

Last night he put a load of waste from his own house (loads of bathroom tiles , a sink and a bath panel) into our skip. Without asking.

Live in a very small village , word of any neighbour dispute quickly makes it round the village.

Do I put up with it for the sake of keeping the peace.

Or do I ask him to leave next time I see him in our garden and ask him to contribute to the cost of the skip?

ETA Builder also lives in the village , is a brilliant builder

YABU Keep the peace

YANBU Kick him out and send a bill

To add to this - you can ask the skip company for an enclosed skip that you can add a padlock too, which will of course stop this.

As mentioned by another PP above, the rules & regulations around waste disposal have changed alot in the last year or two, meaning certain items (POPS Items, so anything soft material based, old chairs, foam etc) have to be disposed of separately and a further charge will incur!

That made me chuckle ☺️

It isn’t ‘confrontational’ to politely say “we can’t accommodate your waste in our skip. Please stop using it, unless you would like to go halves on the cost? Happy to arrange that.”

It is essentially theft, he has no right to use space in a skip paid for by you, and no business to be on your property dumping stuff.

Just protect your boundary with the same energy and front that he is using.

That messsge would imply that you might allow people to put stuff in it.

Well we might.

We have had people ask, and tell us what they are putting in, and we’ve agreed. Only once have we had to say no as we weren’t sure if what they wanted to throw away was allowed in the skip.

We do want to be good neighbours and as the skip is an eyesore and the building work is disruptive we have wanted to help out where we can.

We probably would have said yes to him also. If he hadn’t kept wandering into our property, distracting our builder, setting the dog off and if he hadn’t done it without asking.

ETA he is not even an immediate neighbour , lives several streets away

Its just manners I think 🤷🏻‍♀️

My husband is more of a peacekeeper (and he is a wonderful human being and doesn’t need to be more confrontational etc etc, he is also entitled to his own opinion)

'Wonderful human beings' don't have to be wet and will very often still speak to people who are taking the piss, so I think this is a poor excuse.

No-one has to be 'confrontational' either.

The man just needs to be told by either you or your DH to stop using your skip.

Sod that - skips aint cheap.

If there was loads of space left in the skip and I'd finished with it and HE ASKED then fair enough.

If he dumped stuff in there and skip filled up and I had to get another one I'd be fuming!

I've done it before some cheeky dog dumped 2 interior doors in my skip. It was already full as well so it was overloaded and they had to come out anyway.

Took them out dumped at the end of their driveway. I'm sure some people see a skip and think its a free for all.

That's bang out of order. I mean I get him speaking briefly once to your builder if he has a job for him. But then you take his number and conduct business that way. Not hounding him daily on site.

And no way should he be dumping his shit in your skip.
I guess he got wind of the fact others put stuff in there and thought he could chance it. It needs to be secured shut tightly with a thick tarp so nothing much can get through. But you'd hope that wouldn't be necessary when it's in your back garden!

We had people chucking stuff in our skip when we were renovating- it is very annoying. The worst actually were dog walkers who chucked their poo bags in. Skip companies around here hand sort the rubbish and could have refused to take the skip away- quite apart from the fact that we did not want a couple of weeks worth of random dog shit outside our house- filthy.

Talking to the builder a little is not so bad. Builders have to find business somehow. Dumping stuff in your skip without permission is out of order and he is being a CF.

But it is always worth asking yourself the question whether it is worth the upset it will cause.

People on here are always quick to shout confront the CF. What they don't have to do is live with the CF afterwards.

So maybe if the guy is well known as a CF and everyone locally hates him then by all means.

If however he is head of the 20 person village clan, then maybe worth considering whether it is actually worth the hassle you might get as a result for the sake of a bit of stuff which may well not really affect the amount of skips you need.

And maybe find a way of securing your skip or garden better.

Yeah this does make a lot of sense hence my dilemma

We’ve had the back gate taken down to fit the ground workers diggers in, but hopefully they will go back up in a week or so which will help with the wandering down the garden. He will have to come to the front door to ask to speak to the builder. At which point I could decide how inconvenient it is at that particular time.
for eg we had rain here for two weeks solid and builder needed to get a bit of oak up. We had a break in the rain for about an hour and builder was working so hard to sort it , but the neighbour turned up during that time also.

If builder was short of business I wouldn’t object so much as he really is lovely , but he’s in constant demand, we waited 18months for him.

Thanks for your reply ☺️

Very likely that you’ll be charged for each skip delivery as part of your build cost. The more you let people put their stuff in it, the more it will cost you.

Ask him to come and remove his stuff asap, what an absolute cheek.

Give back all the stuff he has dumped in your skip, give him the number of the skip hire company, and instruct your builders to NOT engage in conversation with him whilst they are working on your project. Sorted!

Yes, this. And also if the skip provider doesn't have the appropriate waste carrier licence - or if any waste is subsequently fly-tipped (though unlikely in this case) and can be traced - the skip hirer/householder will be held equally liable alongside the tipper. Colleagues at work have just had this with some fly-tipped waste; it came from an unsuspecting person, but their address was on some of the stuff found after the unlicenced third-party "contractor" left it in one of our car parks. Legal consequences for both.

Have you got a community FB page? I'd be inclined to post a pic with wording like "We are happy to accommodate any reasonable requests, but please do not place unannounced fly-tipping in our skip. Thank you."

Best wishes to you.

if the builder has now booked him in for work, he may not visit again

Why should you keep the peace when he isn't?

Have words.

Discuss it with your builder and get him to sort it.

We had this when we had builders in, they were brilliant at dodging cheeky requests from neighbours

Fine to get his number and a brief chat for future work. But no to skip use, that is bad.

Sorry but you’re stupid to say you might let people use your skip.

I don’t know the law but wouldn’t coming onto your land and putting stuff in the skip be considered Fly-Tipping ? Perhaps a note to the CF to advise him that you have CCTV and let him know the Fly-Tipping laws ?

Dumping stuff in a neighbours skip without permission is fly tipping, illegal and cheeky fxxker behaviour.

Getting a video bell is one of the first things you should do before you hire a skip!

People in my neighbourhood put up the very clear pictures of people using theirs, clearly identifying them.
They asked for information as to who they were so they could return their belongings fly tipped into their expensive skip and to report it.

It didn't happen again

I think I disagree. If you have to live with the CF after you have stood up to them and don't stand up from the beginning you are signing up for a lifetime of putting up with the CF. If he is the head of the clan, then you potentially have a whole clan of CF's just waiting for open season on the newcomer. I think talking to the builder and asking him to pop along at some point to look at potential work is not too bad but making the dog kick off and expecting the builder to leave the job then and there is just not on. Wandering onto somebodys garden is not on. Its good manners to go to the front door and ask the house owner if they can talk to the builder.
It does make me grind my teeth a bit when people say "oh but its a village and you have to be careful" All my life I have lived in villages or small community situations and apart from the place I was born, I have always been the offcomer. Of course you don't start in by laying down the law and generally being unpleasant but in my experience, doormats get walked on.

Isn't putting your waste in someone elses skip technically, and legally, fly tipping?

I will ensure to put a sign on it saying it’s monitored so please ask if they wish to use it What!!!

We had similar and I put a sign 'SMILE, you are on camera' Your wording implies you are inviting people to A) dump their crap or B) ask to dump their crap. Why are you paying for that??? A close friend/neighbour with a tiny box fine, but anything else would be no from me. The can get their own skip or take it to the dump. At the time we were renovating and I bought cheap, fake cameras from amazon. They had a flashing light and did the trick till be could install proper cameras.

I also had the issue of random 'workmen' wandering around our garden. We lived onsite so I'd go to ask who they were. They could call my workman if needed- NO reason to be on my property at all! Our tiler thought it was fine to give a random a tour of our house and showed him our bathrooms! I told him my thoughts on this and requested they keep the heras fencing closed in the day. And no house tours! WTF.

Edited to say, yes, send the CF an invoice for the skip. He won't pay but makes it clear that you are aware and wont put up with it. Get a lockable skip and if possible, move it behind heras fencing or further up your drive.