Q&A: Cleaning in a Shared Building
Cleaning in a Shared Building
Question
Hello Rabbi,
The question is a bit petty, because I tend to be petty. In our building there is a house committee, and he himself (that is, someone from his family) cleans the building, for pay of course. He is supposed to clean on Thursday night. A few weeks ago they didn’t clean; he apologized, and of course he wasn’t going to take payment for that week. Last Friday too, by 1:00 PM, they still hadn’t cleaned, and guests of mine (my father-in-law and mother-in-law) were supposed to arrive, and I wasn’t comfortable with the building not looking clean. So my wife and I cleaned it ourselves (the entire building!). I complained to the house committee and also demanded the proportional payment, and he told me indifferently that his son had planned to clean later, and since the job is in his possession, that’s my problem. Truthfully, I don’t care about the money, but I do want to stick it to him and at least take the money from him. Do I have a basis in Jewish law to sue this annoying guy for a few shekels, and if so, is it permissible to deduct it from the next payment to the house committee and let him blow up? Thank you very much.
Answer
Apparently, you fall under the category of one who goes down to work in another person’s field, and the rule is that such a person is paid for his labor. But when the job has already been given to a specific person, in my opinion the law of one who goes down does not apply (although I haven’t checked this in depth right now). It seems that he should pay you whatever it is worth to him to receive the money without working. In other words, how much he would have been willing to forgo in order to get paid without doing the work. I don’t know how to assess that.