Next door had work done - left my roof damaged

Kimbooley

Hi all. I’m wondering if anybody could give me any advice please? My next door neighbour had his roof tiles replaced last week. (His house is on the left) The company have since finished and left, but where they’ve met the “boundary line” of our houses (semi detached) they’ve left it looking extremely shoddy and unsecured on our side and unsecured felt and fascia hanging loose! I’m concerned that this will allow water to seep in and cause damage. It was all secured and near and tidy before this company touched it! Does anybody have any thoughts on this? I expect I’ll need to contact them to complain and threaten to go through their insurance if they won’t put it right but I’ve never had to do anything like this before as we haven’t been homeowners for too long so it’s new territory. Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thank you. 

marcia_

Kimbooley said:

Hi all. I’m wondering if anybody could give me any advice please? My next door neighbour had his roof tiles replaced last week. (His house is on the left) The company have since finished and left, but where they’ve met the “boundary line” of our houses (semi detached) they’ve left it looking extremely shoddy and unsecured on our side and unsecured felt and fascia hanging loose! I’m concerned that this will allow water to seep in and cause damage. It was all secured and near and tidy before this company touched it! Does anybody have any thoughts on this? I expect I’ll need to contact them to complain and threaten to go through their insurance if they won’t put it right but I’ve never had to do anything like this before as we haven’t been homeowners for too long so it’s new territory. Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thank you. 

 Have you spoken to your neighbours about to it yet? 

 They might get the workmen  to resolve 

Bendy_House

That's the first thing to try - have a nice chat to explain your concerns, whilst making it clear you do not consider the neighbour at all liable for this. Ask whether they'll get in touch with the roofer to sort what they agree is a not very neat looking finish, or - if they are reluctant - if they can tell you who the roofer was so that you can do this.

Rosa_Damascena

Shoddy is an understatement. A decent tradesman would be ashamed to leave their work looking like this!

Kimbooley

Hi guys. I’ve sent a text to my neighbour today to express my frustration and to see if he offers to contact them or give me their details. I’ve told him I’m concerned about water damage, and will be taking it further. I’ve also just been out into my back garden and found cigarette butts strewn across my garden, pieces of broken off plastic, plastic wrapping and 3x long metal screws discarded in my grass! Really unhappy with this but glad I got to them before my toddler did! 

theonlywayisup

Kimbooley said:

Hi guys. I’ve sent a text to my neighbour today to express my frustration and to see if he offers to contact them or give me their details. I’ve told him I’m concerned about water damage, and will be taking it further. I’ve also just been out into my back garden and found cigarette butts strewn across my garden, pieces of broken off plastic, plastic wrapping and 3x long metal screws discarded in my grass! Really unhappy with this but glad I got to them before my toddler did! 

I appreciate you are frustrated (and quite rightly so) but sending a text expressing your 'frustration' and saying you 'will be taking it further' aren't really the best ways to open dialogue. 

I hope your neighbour is understanding as you may well have scuppered any relations. 

Bendy_House

Seconded :-(

Kimbooley

Oh we are friendly it wasn’t a snotty text but having read my message back I can see how it came across that way. I asked him if his job was finished and if they’re coming back or not as it’s clear that that section of the roof has been left incomplete and that I was concerned that it may cause further damage and if the job is now complete if I can get their details to take it further. I have no beef with my neighbour at all. I haven’t mentioned the back garden stuff yet. Will show him in person when he comes over in a bit.

Kimbooley

I guess my worry is that if I contact the roofers and they don’t give a damn or respond to me or even come out to rectify - then what are my next steps? How would I go about resolving? It’s all new to me. 

Bendy_House

Kimbooley said:

Oh we are friendly it wasn’t a snotty text but having read my message back I can see how it came across that way. I asked him if his job was finished and if they’re coming back or not as it’s clear that that section of the roof has been left incomplete and that I was concerned that it may cause further damage and if the job is now complete if I can get their details to take it further. I have no beef with my neighbour at all. I haven’t mentioned the back garden stuff yet. Will show him in person when he comes over in a bit.

Cool. Please bear in mind that this has nothing to do with your neighbour at all, and they are surely not in the least part responsible for their builder's shoddiness.

And, from what you say, they are shoddy - completely unacceptable to leave cig butts and other debris lying around. Utterly disrespectful - of others and themselves.

Once sorted - again, no pressure on your neighb to get involved in tackling this - there is nothing to prevent you from leaving an honest review of this builder as an unfortunate 3rd party to their work...

Kimbooley

Absolutely. That’s why I posted on here tbh as I thought to myself well it’s nothing to do with next door, he just paid them to do a job and now they’ve gone it seems so it’s one of those. Not sure if the roofer guy is a friend of his or if he just got their number from a list but any action will of course be with the roofer not next door. I just want to check the job is complete before complaining to the roofers. If they have insurance, which I’m sure they will, I need to know how that works in my case just in case they have zero interest in coming to put things right for me.