Neighbours Wall - please help at this difficult time

wendb69

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

1. Presumably they've seen it from somewhere like another neighbour's garden or from your back fence? Does the letter state it's a camera or just that they know you've drilled into their wall? Ultimately it doesn't matter and I wouldn't worry about it, unless you suspect they've been trespassing. Is there any chance that your fixings have gone through to their interior or caused a visible crack inside, and that's how they know?

2. If you follow the advice given, you shouldn't be ripped off. Ask for an estimate, keep it civil and agree or dispute it as you see fit. If there are no builders on site, the cost will have to cover calling someone out, so it won't be as straightforward as a few pence-worth of mortar/filler. Remember there's a difference between a rip-off and a genuine cost of the job and the latter isn't necessarily the former, even if it's more than you expect it to be. If your relationship were better, you could probably do it yourself but that seems out of the question.

Thank you.


They cant see the camera so I dont know how they know. Other neighbours so dont talk to them - so not them. The screws just arent long enough to have penetrated anything their side. They are very short as its a tiny camera. The walls are breeze blocks.


I think we will move the camera and measure the holes. Ask them to quote, but we have family who are builders, so wonder why I should pay their bill when my brother in law could make good.


I dont want to get in to any nastiness with them. They have already put chicken wire on our fence to keep out cats. We were polite about this and said ok keep there but please pull down a little so we dont see it, but yet they kick off at us over this.


Lifes too short.

Aylesbury_Duck

wendb69 wrote: »

I think we will move the camera and measure the holes. Ask them to quote, but we have family who are builders, so wonder why I should pay their bill when my brother in law could make good.

Unfortunately, they have the upper hand here. You have damaged their property so they have the right to have it repaired in a manner acceptable to them and to be put back in the position they were in before you fitted the camera. They may agree to your choice of contractor, but they don't have to.

I dont want to get in to any nastiness with them. They have already put chicken wire on our fence to keep out cats. We were polite about this and said ok keep there but please pull down a little so we dont see it, but yet they kick off at us over this.

If it is your fence (and I mean, you paid for it, not just that marks on deeds suggest the boundary is your responsibility), they had no right to affix things to it. It's entirely up to you about how far you want to push it, but if you do genuinely own the fence, you could, as part of the negotiations over the holes in the wall, insist that the wire is removed and any damage to the fence is repaired by a contractor of your choice and at their cost. Perhaps a general handyman could do both jobs on the same visit?

Life it too short for these sorts of disputes, but it might be a rather neat way of closing the matter. They'll either back down and accept the equivalence of the two matters, or you both end up paying for things that are trivial. Either way, it's "fair".

prosaver

I thought it would be your job to get the builders in , if the price is ok just pay it, or get your own.
cant you do it ?
you can buy coloured brick sealant? It seems a bit of a hoo har to get builders in for 2 tiny holes. There probably put scaffolding up

Davesnave

I would wait till they were out or not around, fill the holes appropriately and then pop a note through their door saying something to the effect of: holes filled, problem resolved.

If it's on your side, they can't know how deep the holes are, and even if you were in the wrong, provided you have done a decent job rectifying the situation, they should be content.

That's it. All this silliness about getting someone in should be stopped in its tracks, or they will find something else to beat you with soon enough.

J_B

If Bro-in-Law is builder, maybe ask him to 'check the damage over'

kev25v6

Refuse them access from your side to fix the holes. 2 screws in a wall is hardly going to cause a problem.

DRP

We are talking about several screw holes in a (?rendered) brick wall, right?

Remove your camera, fill the holes. It will take 2 minutes.

Drop a letter in to next door saying problem solved.