Building work & neighbours roof... Please be kind 😔

GDB2222

” The OP needs to do nothing, except make it clear that 'no damage was caused, so no comp is justified'.”

What I don’t understand is how you can be so completely certain that is correct? 

How, for example, do you know that the builders or the scaffolders have at no point stepped on the roof? 

ThisIsWeird

GDB2222 said:

” The OP needs to do nothing, except make it clear that 'no damage was caused, so no comp is justified'.”

What I don’t understand is how you can be so completely certain that is correct? 

How, for example, do you know that the builders or the scaffolders have at no point stepped on the roof? 

They have stepped on the roof.

And I know nothing from this side of the screen - I can only go by what we are told. If we've been told porkies, then the poster will not get very far. In fact they'll likely end up in poo. Advice given on here is self-regulating; it'll only help if the info given is true :-)

twopenny

On a personal level, I'll reitertate, block their number!

You may be feeling anxious about what you can't see for a while but it will pass quickly. You need control of this.

You've said what you need to.

The young man may say he doesn't care about the racism remark but we all say that about things that shouldn't bother us but do. It's not the comment but the agressive meaning behind it that hurts a normal person. Please report it when you feel able.

And good for you to stand up to them that evening! Brilliant, yay you

GDB2222

ThisIsWeird said:

GDB2222 said:

” The OP needs to do nothing, except make it clear that 'no damage was caused, so no comp is justified'.”

What I don’t understand is how you can be so completely certain that is correct? 

How, for example, do you know that the builders or the scaffolders have at no point stepped on the roof? 

They have stepped on the roof.

And I know nothing from this side of the screen - I can only go by what we are told. If we've been told porkies, then the poster will not get very far. In fact they'll likely end up in poo. Advice given on here is self-regulating; it'll only help if the info given is true :-)

So, can you explain your understanding of the law in the situation that you step on a somewhat rotten roof and damage it, please. 

ThisIsWeird

GDB2222 said:

ThisIsWeird said:

GDB2222 said:

” The OP needs to do nothing, except make it clear that 'no damage was caused, so no comp is justified'.”

What I don’t understand is how you can be so completely certain that is correct? 

How, for example, do you know that the builders or the scaffolders have at no point stepped on the roof? 

They have stepped on the roof.

And I know nothing from this side of the screen - I can only go by what we are told. If we've been told porkies, then the poster will not get very far. In fact they'll likely end up in poo. Advice given on here is self-regulating; it'll only help if the info given is true :-)

So, can you explain your understanding of the law in the situation that you step on a somewhat rotten roof and damage it, please. 

From what we've been told, the builder and the OP observed that the roof was in poor condition at the start. Flashing was unsealed, and the roof felt a bit 'spongy'. Even the neighbour said the roof wasn't very good. The OP understood the roof was around 8 years old.

Photos and videos were taken by the cautious builder, and the OP/builder and neighb signed an agreement that any damage caused by the builder would be made good. Knowing that the roof was in poor condition, the OP used cantilevered scaffolding in order to prevent any damage to the roof. The builder did stand on the roof on occasion, but used crawling boards. The builder is confident that no damage was caused by his actions.

At the end of the job, the roof was in effectively the same condition as it was at the start.

The neighbour, however, wants them to pay for a new roof, and claims it was only 2 years old.

Where in their account does it say that anyone stepped on a somewhat rotten roof and damaged it?

For the neighbour to have a valid claim, they'd need to demonstrate - on the balance of probabilities - that the builder caused damage to their roof. I'd say their chances of doing this are very slight indeed, and their difficulty will be compounded by their patent disregard for factual accounts.

The potential harassment is a separate issue, as is the seemingly racist remark. These can be acted on, if required, in order to stop the neighbour from continuing to make these aggravated claims and causing the OP what appears to be genuine stress, and I would suggest to the OP that they do consider doing this unless they can simply ignore the neighbour and block all contact. The neighbour's claims can be ignored, up to the very unlikely point that they try and make a civil or legal claim against the OP/builder. Should that occur, then the adjudicator (or likely the mediator to begin with) will have the task of trying to determine the veracity of both party's accounts. One side will have photographic and video evidence to demonstrate that the already-poor condition of the roof was unchanged, along with a comprehensive log of the neighbour's increasingly deceitful accounts and claims. I really don't see it going any further.

funkyfifi

ThisIsWeird said:

GDB2222 said:

ThisIsWeird said:

GDB2222 said:

” The OP needs to do nothing, except make it clear that 'no damage was caused, so no comp is justified'.”

What I don’t understand is how you can be so completely certain that is correct? 

How, for example, do you know that the builders or the scaffolders have at no point stepped on the roof? 

They have stepped on the roof.

And I know nothing from this side of the screen - I can only go by what we are told. If we've been told porkies, then the poster will not get very far. In fact they'll likely end up in poo. Advice given on here is self-regulating; it'll only help if the info given is true :-)

So, can you explain your understanding of the law in the situation that you step on a somewhat rotten roof and damage it, please. 

From what we've been told, the builder and the OP observed that the roof was in poor condition at the start. Flashing was unsealed, and the roof felt a bit 'spongy'. Even the neighbour said the roof wasn't very good. The OP understood the roof was around 8 years old.

Photos and videos were taken by the cautious builder, and the OP/builder and neighb signed an agreement that any damage caused by the builder would be made good. Knowing that the roof was in poor condition, the OP used cantilevered scaffolding in order to prevent any damage to the roof. The builder did stand on the roof on occasion, but used crawling boards. The builder is confident that no damage was caused by his actions.

At the end of the job, the roof was in effectively the same condition as it was at the start.

The neighbour, however, wants them to pay for a new roof, and claims it was only 2 years old.

Where in their account does it say that anyone stepped on a somewhat rotten roof and damaged it?

For the neighbour to have a valid claim, they'd need to demonstrate - on the balance of probabilities - that the builder caused damage to their roof. I'd say their chances of doing this are very slight indeed, and their difficulty will be compounded by their patent disregard for factual accounts.

The potential harassment is a separate issue, as is the seemingly racist remark. These can be acted on, if required, in order to stop the neighbour from continuing to make these aggravated claims and causing the OP what appears to be genuine stress, and I would suggest to the OP that they do consider doing this unless they can simply ignore the neighbour and block all contact. The neighbour's claims can be ignored, up to the very unlikely point that they try and make a civil or legal claim against the OP/builder. Should that occur, then the adjudicator (or likely the mediator to begin with) will have the task of trying to determine the veracity of both party's accounts. One side will have photographic and video evidence to demonstrate that the already-poor condition of the roof was unchanged, along with a comprehensive log of the neighbour's increasingly deceitful accounts and claims. I really don't see it going any further.

Exactly this I guess.... Youve summed it up so so well.... The builders have been on the roof at points, but he was nervous so took videos and spread the load with planks and other precautions to protect himself
The harassment /racist thing, I'm not even contemplating at the moment, I just want to live in my house without any conflict 

funkyfifi

ThisIsWeird said:

GDB2222 said:

” The OP needs to do nothing, except make it clear that 'no damage was caused, so no comp is justified'.”

What I don’t understand is how you can be so completely certain that is correct? 

How, for example, do you know that the builders or the scaffolders have at no point stepped on the roof? 

They have stepped on the roof.

And I know nothing from this side of the screen - I can only go by what we are told. If we've been told porkies, then the poster will not get very far. In fact they'll likely end up in poo. Advice given on here is self-regulating; it'll only help if the info given is true :-)

This is true sadly, they have stepped on the roof, and brushed the rubbish/dust etc off and I wish they hadn't at all..... The scaffold people had to briefly use the roof to install the cantilever scaffolding.... But that was all previously agreed in writing 

ThisIsWeird

They would have to prove, on balance of probabilities, that damage was caused by these actions. Brushing dust and debris off the surface was a reasonable thing to do - it's what your builder would have done with any roof. They weren't going to leave it messy - that would have been a cause for complaint.

GDB2222

funkyfifi said:

ThisIsWeird said:

GDB2222 said:

” The OP needs to do nothing, except make it clear that 'no damage was caused, so no comp is justified'.”

What I don’t understand is how you can be so completely certain that is correct? 

How, for example, do you know that the builders or the scaffolders have at no point stepped on the roof? 

They have stepped on the roof.

And I know nothing from this side of the screen - I can only go by what we are told. If we've been told porkies, then the poster will not get very far. In fact they'll likely end up in poo. Advice given on here is self-regulating; it'll only help if the info given is true :-)

This is true sadly, they have stepped on the roof, and brushed the rubbish/dust etc off and I wish they hadn't at all..... The scaffold people had to briefly use the roof to install the cantilever scaffolding.... But that was all previously agreed in writing 

Did you see whether the scaffold people used boards to spread the load?  Were you supervising them the whole time?

I am not surprised the builder thinks the external appearance of the roof looks the same. They may be correct on that, but it doesn’t mean that no damage was done inside.  And, let’s face it, your builder is hardly independent. If damage has been done, either by him or his scaffolding contractor, he may worry that he is liable. 

 I am just concerned that people on this forum tend to view things very black and white, whereas life is full of shades of grey. Some have been harassed by neighbours, and their responses are coloured by that. 

I have seen an awful lot of litigation in my work, and few litigants are happy. It’s highly stressful, and what it would do to someone with PTSD is hard to imagine. You might find that you start off defending the action, but end up caving in because the stress is too high. 

What usually happens is that you only see a bit of the evidence initially. Later on, as the action proceeds, further information is revealed, and you realise that what you thought was a very strong defence is actually rather weak. But, by then, both sides have spent thousands on legal fees and expert witnesses. 

For example, you are 100% confident that the neighbours are telling porkies about when the roof was constructed. What will you do when, six months into the litigation, they provide invoices and bank statements to prove that they are telling the truth? 

In short, unless you are convinced the neighbours are going to back down over this, you are far better off reaching a settlement now, rather than waiting for them to sue you.

plumb1_2

The builder and scaffolder are not going to own up to any damage which the might have caused.
oh ya Mrs we’ve dropped and scaffold bracket or a brick here’s £2k to give your neighbour 
99%. sure both of them would have walked on the roof, most will take the easiest route to the job.
Unless someone actually supervised them all the time you can’t be 100% sure.

that’s my devils advocate.