[Danielle G.]

'My neighbour's rubbish spills over to my driveway... so I kicked it back to their side'​

AIBU, which stands for 'Am I Being Unreasonable', is the perfect platform for sharing your thoughts and opinions! So, for today's AIBU discussion, we have this story from Reddit/tway324234234:

Am I being unreasonable for kicking our neighbours garbage bins out of the way whenever she leaves it in front of our driveway?

'My new neighbour moved in, she was nice enough at first- but she has a serious problem with how she handles garbage days. I'm not sure how one woman can create so much garbage, she will have her bins out but its always overfilling. Many times I've come out of my driveway to go to work to see a pile of spilled over fresh garbage sitting right in front of my driveway, or all her bins blocking my car from leaving.'

'I've spoken to her many times about this and she always says that she does and claims it must be getting moved around by the wind or knocked over by animals. There is no way all that garbage is getting blown around by the wind. Lately, even when I know she's home- she will ignore me at her door.'

'I've been waking up a bit earlier to move her garbage, and the other day I asked myself why I am going out of my way to help her. I took a good look at her bins and just kicked them as hard as I could over to her side and the garbage spilled over to her driveway instead of mine.'

'I've noticed now she is slowly learning to take proper care of her garbage and sometimes she even puts it on the other side of her driveway.'

'She has been alot better lately but not perfect- she sometimes now locks the bins hinges and keeps it on the other side of the street, but whenever I catch it in front of my driveway I will kick it back to her side.'

'I told my wife about it and she said this is so "pathetically low" of me. Am I being unreasonable?'

 

[Keswickian]

An appropriate response is to make a polite request to change her ways a couple of times. If that doesn't work I think you have every right to simply push the bin and any spilled contents across the boundary onto her property.

 

[ElizabethL]

You did the right thing by speaking to her about her bins first. Because she apparently doesn’t give a toss about what you said anything is fair game now. Just keep on kicking them back over her side.

 

[elaine41]

If her bins are always out, does that mean days other than those when the garbage truck comes to pick up? If so, I would raise the issue with council as in most areas, it is illegal to leave your bins outside your property for an extended period of time

 

[Catherines]

You are not being unreasonable if you have already made the request to her and she won’t co-operate. Just keep shoving her bin and dirt back onto her driveway or property. And if her bins are left even a foot out on council property on days that are not your collection day then a complaint to the relevant council should do the trick, perhaps with a fine for her. No point in a slanging match of words, some people have thick skins.

 

[darrellh]

She is clearly getting the message even if not always following it but you are making more progress with the way you are handling it so no you are not being unreasonable. Some people just don't know how to do the right thing and it's not rocket science or difficult.

 

[Towing]

We are allowed to put ours out the night before as they have to be out by a certain time in the morning.
In Winter the trucks often start before daylight and some areas are very foggy overnight and morning until about 9.00am

 

[novezar]

Go man Go.