Party Wall issue with new neighbour Please help!

Aylesbury_Duck

bigootang wrote: »

tolerance yes doozergirl....and O infer if you would feel sorry for my neighbours if you could listen to the sound clips i have had to record for the environmental health or if you would feel sorry for them if it was you?
Anyway, i!!!8217;m not here to start an argument Doozergirl, just wanted advice on what to do.l and if you think my taking photos for evidence is wrong wrll again, tell that to the environmental health officer who has placed listening devices in our home and asked for photos!

Ah, the old "you would think differently if it was you" riposte. Predictable.

I'm sure the EHO didn't ask you to peer through your neighbour's windows to take photos of the inside of their house.

stator

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

Ah, the old "you would think differently if it was you" riposte. Predictable.

Ah the old "belittle other people's problems because it's over the internet" approach.

Davesnave

If it's a wall between two houses, it's most likely not to have any cavity at all. Cavity walls are typically constructed on external parts of the house to prevent the transmission of dampness from the exterior to interior surfaces. Party walls are generally solid, except where there's a chimney.

Drilling to bury cables is a loud, perfectly normal activity, which doesn't affect the integrity of the wall. It's impossible for this alone to make a significant difference to sound transmission.

As environmental health are now supposedly involved, why did you feel the need for advice from people here?

It normally takes a fair amount of time and several stages of investigation/intervention before an EHO installs sound measuring equipment, so did this drilling happen some time ago?

Further, given that the EHO has no data regarding the sound transmission before the drilling took place, what is he/she now hoping to measure? Why could they not visit the neighbour in person, instead of asking you to take photos surreptitiously? This is what you imply, and it doesn't seem likely.

Overall, the way this thread has developed raises many questions, but the answer is plain; drilling a few channels in a party wall is a normal activity which doesn't need neighbour consent if done at a reasonable time.

ss53

stator wrote: »

Ah the old "belittle other people's problems because it's over the internet" approach.

So far, the only illegal activity on this thread has been your photography through his window. I'd be careful who you mention that to and certainly wouldn't publish the fact on the internet.

molerat

Surely, depending on the age of the property, the wall would be quite thick. Mine is blocks laid flat so is an 8" thick wall and that is between the garage / utility of our linked detached.

stator

ss53 wrote: »

So far, the only illegal activity on this thread has been your photography through his window. I'd be careful who you mention that to and certainly wouldn't publish the fact on the internet.

You need to start reading usernames

Davesnave

bigootang wrote: »

we are at our wits end!

At your wits' end last week.

Where are you now?

A few relevant questions are asked and you disappear,


At least you havent deleted your posts yet, but in case you do:


Party Wall issue with new neighbour Please help!
I really hope someone could offer advice here as we are at our wits end!

We own a semi detached house.
We have recently had a new neighbour move in and for the past 2 months building works have undergone which have involved what we consider to be major work to the party wall such that noise penetration has drastically increased in our house.
The building works have been so severe that our dogs who we come home at lunch to walk have been extremely distressed.

The previous owner had 2 new children and as such we could hardly hear their noise of crying and so on.
However, the new owner has had work undertaken by what looked like cow boys that has involved a great deal of cutting into the party wall to route and hide tv cables, power cables and so on so they could hang the TV on the wall in the living room so no cables can be seen.
One of my visits next door to ask a builder to stop was because in my living room the noise changed from muffled and loud to very loud- a pop was heard l, crumbling could be heard as in you could heard it landing on the ground and the noise was suddenly louder-it was the sound of him breaking through the wall with a power chisel and from then on all noise had been louder in our house.
The same power chiselling was heard in the upstairs bedrooms also.
I believe this is the main reason for the increase in noise in our house.
They did not serve a Party wall notice
I have a photo taken through the window where you can see holes in the party wall and where they have plastered over it.
What can we do?
Steve

armchaireconomist

Glad you aren't my neighbour.


Good luck asking them re: insulating the cavity when they find out you've been in their window taking pictures inside their house (illegal, by the way, and a horrendous breach of privacy)