Obligatory Throwaway
Some background:
We rent a small home built in the late 1940’s. Our home has a large back yard for the area, and after decades of being a rental it has become VERY overgrown. For quite a few reasons, I’ve made it my mission to clear out the yard and make it usable. This has involved taking out a lot of small trees, brush, and vines. Our city is very particular about how residents must put out yard debris for pick up, and they are notorious for leaving the yard debris if even one thing is off. The large oaks around our homes from a ton of leaves around this time, and most of our neighborhood just mulches them.. I have to do this before yard debris pick up day, or they will refuse pick up.
The neighbors to the right renovated their detached garage and turned it into an AirBnB. Most of the guests only stay the weekend, so it is almost always empty Sunday afternoons. Today it wasn’t.
Pick up is tomorrow, so I mulched the leaves in the front yard. It hasn’t rained in a few weeks, so the mulching process kicked up a bit of dust. It only took me a few minutes, and then I started moving debris to the curb.
By about my third trip, I look up to see a lady staring at me from the driveway of the AirBnB. I hadn’t seen a car before, so I’m thinking she just arrived and maybe had a question about the area. This is the conversation that occurred:
Lady: (Yelling) You got dust on my car
Me: I’m sorry?
L: You just dust on my car with your lawnmower
M: Oh I’m so sorry! I didn’t even see a car in the driveway!
L: You got dust on my car.
M. Again I’m so sorry. Can I do something to fix it.
L: Well most people when the mow the lawn don’t throw dust everywhere
M: Ma’am, again, I’m sorry. I was just doing yard work. It’s an Air BnB. They don’t give me an itinerary of when people will be there. I didn’t see your car and it wasn’t intentional.
L: Well when you pay thousands of dollars to work someplace you don’t expect…(I don’t remember what she said here)
M: Ma’am. I’ve apologized. If there is something you want me to do to rectify the situation, I will happily do it. Otherwise I’m not doing to keep arguing with you in my front yard.
L: (Effectively) Have the day you deserve.
After she went inside I got a little closer and didn’t see any dust, but the car was silver and I’m sure some traveled the 15ft to where she was parked.
So tell me Reddit, AITA?
NTA
Yeah, this lady has issues. Doesn’t sound like you did anything wrong.
…and cars get dusty. It happens.
Tell her she needs to report it to her rental agent. Maybe they will give her a discount. NTA.
Sounds like you dusted a snowflake
NTA needless to say. It’s not your job to accommodate the AirBnb guests. Live your life in your home.
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Seems like a Karennnnn to me
Jfc. At home her butler keeps her car dust free.
NTA
It’s… dust.
It’s not bird shit, or paint, or corrosive liquid, or rotten eggs.
It’s merely dust. She could remove it in a couple of minutes with a hose.
You are not the person renting out the AirBnB. You receive no income for any inconvenience caused by guests staying there. You are not even informed when guests stay there. You did not hurl garden refuse towards her car maliciously. You did not even see her car. You were on your own property, doing the gardening, which is a normal thing for people to do on their own property.
My next-door neighbors used to list their guest rooms on AirBnB. (I don’t think they do any more; I checked AirBnB recently, and the listing wasn’t there.)
I didn’t mind the arrangement. Not once was I ever required to alter my lifestyle in any way for the convenience of their guests.
If I had been, you can bet I’d have spoken to my neighbors and said “Since you and/or your guests are requiring me not to do X, Y or Z while they are here, and since that is going to cause me inconvenience, I think I should get a share of the rent you’re charging.” But I never had to. Most of the time, I didn’t even notice they had guests. They came and went and I never saw them.
Since your neighbor’s guests are affecting your right to do perfectly normal things on your property, you may wish to have a similar word with your neighbors. Make it clear that either their guests are to make NO demands of you, or if they do and you are required to adjust your lifestyle, you expect to be properly compensated for it.
Whether you decide to talk to your neighbors or not, you are NTA.
I’m pretty sure a damp paper towel would have done the trick. She’s also in for a rude surprise tomorrow morning, because there will be bird shit on her car. They’ve had no mercy this fall.
Unfortunately the owners of the property turned the main house into a long term rental. They didn’t live there very long and never got close with anyone in our little area so no one has their number. The handful of times the AirBnB has been problematic, my other neighbor has filed complaints with AirbnB directly.
NTA. They had a garage. They chose to get rid of it. Now they are finding out that there is a downside to parking your car outside. Not your problem. Dust exists. Bird poop exists. Leaves exist. Does she yell at the birds when they poop on the roof?
Now, if you had a sprinkler that was poorly placed and spraying water all over her car, that would be one thing. But dust…yeah, really no way to mitigate that. Again, NTA. What’s the alternative…you never mow?
Sounds like the lady is an Air BnB renter, not the owner.
I mean, she’s freaking out over nothing, but she’s not the owner.
My bad, I’m brain dead. The renter should probably make sure she rents a property with enclosed parking if it is that important to keep her precious 1967 classic car that is one of 300 made indoors. I wonder what happens when she passes a road construction zone and some dust blows into her lane from a Bobcat or whatnot…
She knows the car goes outside, right?
NTA