A few weeks ago I was working in my office at home when my neighbours called by to ask a favour which was to allow some contractors access to my land as scaffolding was needed to reach their roof. What started as a problem up in their loft – a whacking great hole seemed to just arrive where their chimney came through the roof. The contractors first came out in November and started their survey of the roof and the chimney problem. Then after the scaffolding was erected, the contractor found the neighbour had big gaps in the concrete holding the edge tiles on the roof. So after their roofing guy had completed his first day’s work on their much more complicated job, he came round to quote me for lost mortar in the valleys of my roofing down the side of the house.
What can you say when confronted, or rather ambushed on your own front door step by a chap with pics on his phone camera. Fortunately I was able to ask my neighbour to glance at them from an engineer’s point of view and assess whether I was being pulled in to a convenience trap – where it is obvious that as the scaffolding is already up for one job, it’s to my benefit to have any remedial work done at the same time as the neigbour. Sometimes there is no work to be done but clever use of the camera can make it look as though you have a problem. Anyway, my neighbour was suitably invested in my situation to ensure I wasnt being ripped off. I agreed to have the work carried out as I would have been uninsured if another massive storm hit us this year and disturbed what remained of the mortar.