Moving into a new house comes with a lot of glitches to figure out. One might be the services previous owners used.
Redditor Ajdutiekidijsnsh encountered this very issue with their lawn service. So they turned to the “Am I The A**hole” (AITA) subReddit for moral judgment.
They asked:
“AITA for not paying for a lawn service I didn’t hire?”
The Original Poster (OP) explained:
“Me (30F) and my husband (31M) recently bought our first house. At the closing, the previous owner mentioned that he had a lawn service he really liked, but we planned on cutting our own grass so didn’t look into it any further.”
“For the first six weeks or so that we owned the house, we didn’t live in it as it was being renovated.”
“We noticed that the grass had been cut, but we never saw a service and no one ever spoke to us so we assumed the previous owner still had some time left on his contract or something like that.”
“I bet you can guess where this is going…. the previous owner forgot to cancel the lawn service and is now demanding we pay for the past six weeks.”
“I don’t want to because we literally never hired a lawn service and I don’t want to pay for his mistake. He was also a pain throughout the process which might be coloring my judgment here (examples include pushing the closing date by 30 days at the last minute, leaving us scrambling to find housing, not disclosing a roof leak that he definitely knew about, etc).”
“I might be the asshole because I could’ve checked with him if the lawn service was still supposed to be working.”
“I also feel bad for the lawn service who has been ringing my doorbell at all hours trying to collect.”
Redditors gave their opinions on the situation by declaring:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- NAH – No A**holes Here
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
Redditors agreed everyone sucked in this situation.
“NTA. His fault he forgot to cancel, it’s also the lawn services fault for not checking to see if the new owners wanted them. I’m sure the house had a for sale sign at some point, and when you moved in that sign went away.”
“Plus, who just provides a service for 6 WEEKS without getting paid at some point?? (Better option for them would have been to collect weekly after the service).”
“Tell that lawn service to go harass the previous owner, not you, and let them know if they continue to harass you, you’ll call the cops for trespassing. You have no contract with that company, the previous owner does!” ~ yukidaviji
“Could be a small town. I kept missing my lawn guy and he kept coming anyway. I finally saw his truck at my neighbors and I managed to finally pay him and that was for 3 months of biweekly service.”
“But he was my lawn guy. That I hired.” ~ ingodwetryst
“I know some places will take a lump sum for the whole summer, even offer discounts for paying this way. Like my parents don’t use a landscaper in the summer, but it’s the local landscaping companies that do snow removal in the winter.”
“My parents pay the lump sum, specifically to get the discount.”
“(tho, this is pre-paid in our case)” ~ boogers19
“I don’t even really live in a small town and have this happen. The lawn service is a cash business ran by one guy who speaks English, and none of the others do.”
“They come when they come, and when I see them, I ask for how many times I owe them. I give them cash, they cut my lawn well, everyone is happy.” ~ Linzabee
Getting your lawn mowed seems to be an issue everywhere.
“My lawn care service went an entire year without payment. They just never asked for money. I would contact them and try to pay them and they guy would always say next week. Dude would come, cut the lawn and leave refusing payment.
I finally felt so uncomfortable with the non payment, I cancelled the service and got someone else. The dude still never sent me an invoice or asked for payment. Bizarre business model lol” ~ Korona123
“NTA. It is his contract, he should pay. Moving house means a million phone calls; water, electric, gas, cable, garbage etc. The fact that he forgot one is not your issue. Presumably the lawn care company has his cell number.” ~ BBMcBeadle
“NTA. You never did business with that service, and you have no ethical or legal responsibility for any contracts the previous owner made with anyone, including his lawn service.”
“As someone else pointed out, his mistakes are his responsibility. Whether he forgot to cancel, or to switch the service to his new home, or anything else, that’s his business, not yours.” ~ Dangerous_Beans74
“NTA. I think the biggest thing is he was being an asshole to you so why would you do him a favor? If he treated you fairly and asked for help then maybe but he didn’t so what goes around comes around.” ~ PragmaticPortland
“This! I’m all for helping out (by cancelling not paying) if the previous owner had been polite/nice. But since they’re being an asshole? Yeah no.”
“Not gonna help out someone like that especially since the previous owner mentioned the contract. Seems he didn’t forget it, probably hoping you’d just pay it anyway to avoid making waves.”
“NTA OP.” ~ SeigePhoenix
“NTA. You didn’t hire them. It also shouldn’t be your responsibility to actively seek out and contact these people to cancel it. And I also don’t know who performs a service 6 times without collecting payment.”
“They mowed the lawn 6 times and were calling / texting this guy after the 2nd time wanting money but now he’s ringing / knocking you at odd hours to shake you down? No.” ~ Melanie-Littleman
“NTA his contract, his problem. I’d get in touch with the lawn service people just to clarify you have zero obligation to pay them just so they back off.”
“Personally, I’d probably send them a little tip gift type thing or leave them some good reviews if you actually thought they did a good job just as a gesture of good will- AFTER checking to make sure doing so wouldn’t somehow come back to bite me.” ~ MoneyBackground5513
OP did not hire this service. Period.