new nextdoor and now new noise.

xythus

Hi, having a problem with our nextdoors recent renovations, lived in our semi for 20 years nextdoor to a really ok albeit stone deaf guy who passed away 2 years ago, house was bought through auction, met the new owner (seemed ok a bit cocky and forward) who said he was going to renovate it.

they started renovation, christmas day at 12:30pm, always working christmas ourselves, seemed like the sooner you start the quicker you'll be done, but after listening to 3 and a half months of banging( every single day), which was deafeningly loud and like the intimidation knock of a debt collector, I bit and screamed through the wall that someone was going to be ending up with a hammer handle sticking out from their downstairs bits.

Peace for 13 days only out of almost every single day for a year, didn't know what exactly he was doing, did think he was knocking out fake statues of david?

Started going out off the house, the banging noise was horrific, we also had words about late night hammering going up to ten and just passed midnight, with words of a strong nature, anyway building work finished and we thought we were going to finally get some peace and quiet, the property was let to tenants in november 2017,

Then came the noise, having only heard faintly the guys dog barking and his old steam train videos( we used to hear the toot toots, tv on full blast so he could hear it bless him).

Tt was quite strange one night before christmas, where after falling asleep watching tv, I am awoken and am now in nextdoors christmas party, I don't just mean the music, I mean the conversation the jokes (which were crap) and every thing else, do you want some crisps?, all perfectly audible, I complained to the letting agency about this and asked what has been done to our seperating wall?

We used to hear almost nothing but now we hear everything and with clarity, they came back with our wall has not been touched by the owner, constant noise continues, complaints continue to letting agents always same answer nothing has been done, started wearing noise cancelling headphones I like music too but didn't want to be blasting nextdoor, one night I am unable to listen to the music through headphones all i hear is the music nightclub volume in our house coming from next door, that was the last straw

Solicitor was engaged, solicitor demanded an account of work carried out, the property has only been decorated was the response included in a rather rude flip off letter from his solicitors, after solictor asked why the need for so many skips, if you only decorated?, then came back allsorts of work has been carried out major structural and major renovation, damp proof and underpinning everything but our party wall basically ( all without party wall agreement or structural engineer for the underpinning).

I have asked for a surveyor to go into the property to accertain why we are now getting noise, this has been refused point blank we can go look but a surveyor not a chance, the noise is so bad after nextdoors renovation it is affecting our health not looking for comp or anything just peace and quiet back again like we had before any advice would be so appreciated don't know who to complain to

Mutton_Geoff

You might want to break your question up into paragraphs to make it easier to read and therefore people to help you. I gave up after I ran out of breath reading it approx. 1/4 the way through.

xythus

sorry very stressed should I repost ?

Sibz

Not sure if I can offer much help.... but I'll try a couple of suggestions (apologies if they're too obvious, or irrelevant)
- Would a surveyor be able to check the wall status from your side? - even if it meant affecting your decor at a point on the wall?
- If there was structural work done - surely this would require planning permission of some sort? - Perhaps the council would be able to intervene if this has not been requested.

xythus

thank you for your replies, solicitor suggested surveyor having a look from our side. I assured him our walls look the same nothing has hapened to our side.
planning permission was granted, we only knew after a copy of work done was sent to our solicitor.
I have also spoken to building regs and they say work has been certified.

Sibz

xythus wrote: »

thank you for your replies, solicitor suggested surveyor having a look from our side. I assured him our walls look the same nothing has hapened to our side.
planning permission was granted, we only knew after a copy of work done was sent to our solicitor.
I have also spoken to building regs and they say work has been certified.

Your walls may well look the same, so long as nothing has punched right through.... that does not mean the walls have not been thinned...

Mossfarr

It sounds like the chimney breasts might have been removed.
We live in a semi-detached and all our chimney breasts were removed many many years ago (before we purchased). Our neighbours on our "non-adjoined side" don't experience anything like the same level of noise from their "adjoined" neighbours as we do.
It might be worth checking your local authority planning / building control departments to see if this has happened next door to you. If they have removed the chimney breasts it might have been done without approval.

Cakeguts

I would suggest a look at the wall from your side under your plaster and decorations to see if there are holes in the brickwork or if it has been damaged.

Marvel1

xythus wrote: »

Hi, having a problem with our nextdoors recent renovations, lived in our semi for 20 years nextdoor to a really ok albeit stone deaf guy who passed away 2 years ago, house was bought through auction, met the new owner (seemed ok a bit cocky and forward) who said he was going to renovate it.

they started renovation, christmas day at 12:30pm, always working christmas ourselves, seemed like the sooner you start the quicker you'll be done, but after listening to 3 and a half months of banging( every single day), which was deafeningly loud and like the intimidation knock of a debt collector, I bit and screamed through the wall that someone was going to be ending up with a hammer handle sticking out from their downstairs bits.

Peace for 13 days only out of almost every single day for a year, didn't know what exactly he was doing, did think he was knocking out fake statues of david?

Started going out off the house, the banging noise was horrific, we also had words about late night hammering going up to ten and just passed midnight, with words of a strong nature, anyway building work finished and we thought we were going to finally get some peace and quiet, the property was let to tenants in november 2017,

Then came the noise, having only heard faintly the guys dog barking and his old steam train videos( we used to hear the toot toots, tv on full blast so he could hear it bless him).

Tt was quite strange one night before christmas, where after falling asleep watching tv, I am awoken and am now in nextdoors christmas party, I don't just mean the music, I mean the conversation the jokes (which were crap) and every thing else, do you want some crisps?, all perfectly audible, I complained to the letting agency about this and asked what has been done to our seperating wall?

We used to hear almost nothing but now we hear everything and with clarity, they came back with our wall has not been touched by the owner, constant noise continues, complaints continue to letting agents always same answer nothing has been done, started wearing noise cancelling headphones I like music too but didn't want to be blasting nextdoor, one night I am unable to listen to the music through headphones all i hear is the music nightclub volume in our house coming from next door, that was the last straw

Solicitor was engaged, solicitor demanded an account of work carried out, the property has only been decorated was the response included in a rather rude flip off letter from his solicitors, after solictor asked why the need for so many skips, if you only decorated?, then came back allsorts of work has been carried out major structural and major renovation, damp proof and underpinning everything but our party wall basically ( all without party wall agreement or structural engineer for the underpinning).

I have asked for a surveyor to go into the property to accertain why we are now getting noise, this has been refused point blank we can go look but a surveyor not a chance, the noise is so bad after nextdoors renovation it is affecting our health not looking for comp or anything just peace and quiet back again like we had before any advice would be so appreciated don't know who to complain to

Should it make better to read.


It's possible the walls are thin and so used to quiet form next door as the previous owner lived alone? Made no noise. Now new tenets moved, visitors turn up and you can hear conversations.

This has happened to me, few people over next door, normal chat (not all the time), I can hear it. Quite scary as I wasn't aware and may have been making noises myself - TV.

xythus

I agree with the thinning comment, as it was my first thought, hence why I asked for a surveyor to go in and look, didn't think that could be accertained from our side. thanks for the advice.

elsien

The short version:

The owner of the house adjoining OP has had major renovation work done without any party wall agreement which appears to be letting a lot more noise through than previously.
Owner has declined to let OP have a surveyor to check the work.
OP wants to know what else he can do to check why the noise has got worse/who else he can complain to get this resolved.