Inconvenience or disturbance allowance

Tuppence65

This is my first post, so hope I am doing this right!
We are trying to find out some more info re disturbance allowance and I can't seem to find anything.
I own a house which is surrounded by private land. The land owner has decided we need new paths an lighting which is costing me personally £1800. The work will take 6 weeks. They have taken up half of the paths in last 2 weeks with no intention on replaying them until nearer the end of the project. We have major noise from 8-4 daily, dust, dirt and having trouble accessing premises and walking over uneven surfaces. We are trying to find out if we are entitled to anything, how much and how to claim. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks

iamcornholio

Have you been watching too many "where there's blame, there's a claim" adverts?

You are not entitled to anything - that's why you can't find any information.

You can certainly ask them, and see what happens. Otherwise if you have suffered any actual losses, then you can sue for those. Or if there is any sort of contract between you which may have been breached, then again you can sue on that basis

Tr1pp

The paths you speak of - are they on your land or your neighbours land. if it is on his land then you have no right to demand he gives you access. Do you not have your own access to your property? is it possibly shared access? is that why your are paying £1800 - if you are paying towards some of the costs have you signed or seen a contract of works or did you just hand over cash? you should have made up a contract so you knew what to expect and what rights you had if things werent done.

as far as dust and noise - you cant claim anything for that. they are working in the times they are allowed and dust is an unavoidable byproduct of the works.

keystone

iamcornholio wrote: »

Have you been watching too many "where there's blame, there's a claim" adverts?

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Debt_Free_Chick

Everyone needs to do some sort of maintenance - or improvement - works now and then. Others are usually affected, but it's just part of life!

If you will benefit from the improvement (you say your house is surrounded, so I guess you will use the new paths?), then surely you can tolerate a bit of inconvenience?

Gra76

If you're cheeky enough to ask for something you might get lucky....but I doubt it. You're certainly not entitled to anything, but you could do what my neighbour did when houses were built onto the end of our street.

Her car was getting covered in dirt/muck as the lorries would drive past though the week. She had a moan to the site foreman who made sure someone came round every Friday afternoon while the site was still being finished to wash her car for her. Took the guy 20 mins tops but it kept my neighbour quiet... I thought she was cheeky asking, but if you don't ask you never know for sure!

Tuppence65

I havent thought of going down the no blame route - thanks for the tip tho! My concern was for the elderly people who can't afford the works. The housing association who own the land say that they will collect their £1800 share by any means necessary. Thought if we could get some sort of allowance it may help them by going towards the payment. We haven't signed a contract for these works as such, we have been served something called a section 20. My deeds do say I am liable for a service charge which part of it goes towards a major repair, which this is.

iamcornholio

It would have been helpful if you mentioned that a tenancy or leaseholder agreement was in place

If the tenancy agreement is involved, then yes you should be served a
Section 20 notice under of the Landlord & Tenant Act, 1985 (as amended by the Commonhold & Leasehold Reform Act 2002) before work starts

Works over £100 or £250 depending on the lease are notifiable and should be consulted upon.

If the procedure is not followed, then payment can be disputed. But it does seem that you have been served a notice and so payment is due

But this has nothing to do with dust or disturbance payments - which are still not an entitlement

27col

Notice to all Newbies. Try and give the full story when you post. It annoys people when they take the trouble to frame a reply and then some new detail arises which would have altered the nature of their reply, had they known about it before they replied. If you see what I mean!