next door and their ******* builders

before_hollywood

next door neighbours wanted an extension- so we thought we would be nice and agree to planning consent (to keep the peace) but it has been 3 months of hell.
i'm not naming the firm cos they are a local firm, but they are awful!!! every morning at 8am, they appear with (minimum) 2 vans, and about 2 or 3 cars, making all kinds of noise and mess, they used our path till we got onto them about it (about 4 times), knocked one of our fence posts down, the 3 month job is way behind schedule and the extension looks hideous.
They regularly block the road off, we have to park accross the front of our drive so we can get out of our own house- and what have next door done about it???
nothing!!!!
i am so mad i would post the name of the firm but i would probably be banned- its ********** construction
the stars denote where a letter would go in the name
(plus i fear they would damage our property/cars)
:mad: :mad: :mad:

lush_walrus

With regards to starting work at 8am, Im afraid this is a totally acceptable time to start work in construction legally work can start at this time. Also on another negative note (or might be positive now that its beyond that point of time) even if you had objected to the planning application, the application would not necessarily have been rejected. Objections are taken into account, but are not the final decider.

With regards to blocking your path and parking on your drive, this is of course not acceptable and is in effect trespass, as they are on your property without permission. Have you tried talking to your neighbour about this? As although they have not approached you, there is nothing stopping you from approaching them as it is your inconvienience that it is happening and it is obviously not acceptable.

Your other option is to talk to the company direct, rather than the labourers that are on site about them parking on your property, however if you do feel that they are not very savoury people then maybe you are right not to.

With regards to the quality of the work, your only real point of complaint is to check if what they are building is what they have got permission for. If you go to your local authority's planning department, the full planning file for the property will be available for you to view and to take copies. A duty planner is generally on hand in the mornings, although it can vary so call and check with your council. If the plans are obviously not being followed then alert the planner who has passed the permission and they will come and make a site visit.

Bossyboots

Some plans are also on the UK Planning website, depending on which borough you are in.

You might be able to get your local environmental health department involved in relation to the noise and mess. Although you have to expect some disruption, there are limits to what you are expected to endure.

However, I think for the most part you are going to have to put up with the disruption but you really do need to speak to your neighbours about the problems the builders are causing you with their vehicles and ultimately it is the householder's responsibility to ensure that anyone on their premises is not doing anything to cause difficulties to their neighbours.

Becles

Be thankful! When the people opposite had an extension put on, their builders started at 7am :eek:

SnowyOwl_2

My dipstick of an ex-neighbour spent about two months fitting a kitchen in his flat. He worked full time so his favoured times to do the work were weekends...start at about 7.00 am on a Saturday, still drilling away at 1.00 am on Sunday. He was clueless about how to do jobs quickly and properly. I ended up having a right slanging match with him when he blocked exit/entry to my back door. Sorry, not really advice on how to sort out your problem - a slanging match is great fun, gets things out in the open BUT I don't recommend it. The work your neighbours are doing won't take forever, and the builders will eventually go away. Grit your teeth, try not to fall out with anyone, don't shout, be nice, ask politely and be firm not angry; make an effegy of them and their builders and beat that up - in the long term the people next door will still be your neighbours.

Joints

I think the problem in this country is that people don't f'ing communicate. When someone dies, you hear about it a year later. When someone is selling their house, you find out when they're gone. In the same way if people at least talk to each other these problems wouldn't happen in the first place. Moral of the story- communicate bi@tches!

Poppycat

I agree is always best wherever possible to communicate, most people are either not aware that there is a problem or when there is one, will be resonable if asked nicely.

I have a quiet word with the builders and or there office, and aks nicely if they wouldnt mind not parking on your property.

If you concerned about hwo the construction of the extension is going as said check with local council planning application office. I thought that building extensions had to be checke out by the council, they did when we had a very small extension built to comply with the building regulations.