Neighbour's dodgy extension

[Deleted User]

 

 

 

Mutton_Geoff

[Deleted User] said:

Any advice gratefully received. 

You may get more response if you can abbreviate your story. No disrespect but I got bored by the second paragraph of "he said, she said".

FreeBear

Is Building Control involved at all ?

BC is a separate department to Planning at the council, and they don't really talk to each other... BC should have checked the foundations before the walls went up. They would then have done an inspection or two when the walls were constructed and the roof put on.

[Deleted User]

FreeBear said:

Is Building Control involved at all ?

BC is a separate department to Planning at the council, and they don't really talk to each other... BC should have checked the foundations before the walls went up. They would then have done an inspection or two when the walls were constructed and the roof put on.

no, we didn't know they existed. Is it too late to contact them?

swingaloo

Im not sure why you are so interested in what is going on with your neighbours extension. Unless it is being a problem because of it encroaching on your land which you don't state it is. Why would you pay to finish off his bad job if you were going to put up a fence so you could not see it.

There seems to be a lot of presumption about what Ned said to Owen and what Owen said to Ned. Why is it your concern? He moved in 3 years ago and you seem to have upset him straight away by contacting the planning department. 
Again no offence meant but you do come across as a Hyacinth Bucket, let him get on with it, you have your screen fence, if that gets damaged then is the time to complain. Anything else is really not your business. 

ThisIsWeird

No.

DO IT NOW.

[Deleted User]

swingaloo said:

Im not sure why you are so interested in what is going on with your neighbours extension. Unless it is being a problem because of it encroaching on your land which you don't state it is. Why would you pay to finish off his bad job if you were going to put up a fence so you could not see it.

There seems to be a lot of presumption about what Ned said to Owen and what Owen said to Ned. Why is it your concern? He moved in 3 years ago and you seem to have upset him straight away by contacting the planning department. 
Again no offence meant but you do come across as a Hyacinth Bucket, let him get on with it, you have your screen fence, if that gets damaged then is the time to complain. Anything else is really not your business. 

perhaps we should have let him build on top of his garage illegally. I do wonder if you would want him as a neighbour. I think you miss the point of this - his structure is falling down already. It could fall into our property. But hey, I'm just being Hyacinth Bucket!!

ElaniArtin

Talk to everyone that you think may have some official concern. Do it now. and do it later. Take photos. Use bullet points, leave out the opinions and guessing and just state the dates and the state of it. Then if something does happen you have before and after pictures, you have covered your backsides, the council has a record to go on.

twopenny

Bex I did read through the whole post.
While I have sympathy with annoying neighbours, as I had real aggressive and destructive of my property for 20yrs , i can't see how it's impacting more than annoying  from what you've put.
So far it hasn't impacted on you and you've achieved a higher fence which you wanted.
The wall may or may not collapse. From what info you've given that shouldn't do more than collapse inside the fence on his side so not a problem for you.
Even if it came through the fence would it damage your building? Or would it be a clean up job on his insurance?


If I'm wrong could you please precis where this impacts on your property?

HampshireH

The mistake here was getting your builder to finish his extension. Personally I would have stayed well out of it.

That's a contract you entered into with the builder. If there is any issues and Ned claims it was caused by your builder things could get really difficult. 

Obviously his argument would be with the builder but in reality he would start at your door.

Is your new fence fixed to this dodgy extension?

swingaloo

bexoxo60 said:

Sorry but this is a long tale.....I HAVE CHANGED THE NAMES OF ALL PEOPLE MENTIONED.

 

We live in a detached house next to another detached house, which is a different design to ours. The neighbour’s (Ned) garage runs alongside our side-gate, so that our path to our back garden is bordered by our house and the side of his garage. His garage roof slightly overhangs our property with a bargeboard/soffit facia board.

Ned moved in three years ago after splitting up with his wife. About three months after he moved in, he informed us that he was going to build an extension on his garage, with windows facing the front, and that he did not need planning permission. He also mentioned that it was urgent as his grown up children were living with him and he needed an extra bedroom. This extension would block our bathroom window as it overlooks his garage roof.  

 Unless your houses are not the correct width apart your window cannot be blocked, it may look out at a wall rather than the garage roof but I would assume being a window in a bathroom it wont be plain glass?

We got in touch with our planning department who sent us an email telling us he could not do that without planning permission. My husband took this email round to Ned and showed him. Ned was annoyed because he said we were stopping his extension. 

Presumably you had a conversation with Ned and voiced your concerns before doing this, otherwise I would imagine Ned would be upset.

This was February 2021. Ned eventually said he would build in his loft

We have a builder (Owen) living opposite us. He has been building for 40 years and has pretty much carried out work on all houses around this area, including ours.

Ned had said that he would get Owen to start the building in the loft, but Ned would finish it off, as he had done many extensions in his time. We have seen Owen’s ‘prowess’ with building work as he has built a shed on the other side of his house, next to his other neighbours, with a wonky window, unfinished and with gaps by the walls.

Which has nothing whatsoever to do with you.

I think Owen must have said he wouldn’t do half a job because Ned eventually told us that he would build at the back of his house behind his garage. That would border our fence border. We actually thought this would be okay because his kitchen door, which he has open all the time, faces our garden, so when they are in the kitchen (and they are a shouty sweary family), we can hear everything.

Because we have been in touch with the planning office, they told us that they had informed Ned what he could and couldn’t do.

That was October 2021.

Ned ordered bricks in November 2021 which were on his front garden, and they sat there until July 2023 (because it was an urgent extension). We had asked him a few times if he intended to build his extension and he kept changing his mind, whether he wanted to or not. Ned and his 22 year old daughter had dug out foundations back in September 2021, but we have no idea how deep they are.

Why were you constantly asking him when he was going to start, it was up to him to decide if and indeed when he would start and he would have no need to inform you about the depth of the foundations. You seem to be under the misapprehension that Ned must answer to you.

Over the two years, our relationship with Ned was a little strained, 

Not surprising really

but in July 2023, suddenly one day we heard Ned in his back garden start his extension. Ned has a tendency to do things very slowly. After one course of bricks he must have given up because a week or so later, without prior knowledge, Owen was there, overlooking our garden, building a course of bricks. Apparently Ned had asked him to do the outer walls, block up the garage wall, and that was it.

Has quickly or slowly he works is completely up to Ned. Without prior knowledge to who?

When Owen had finished his ‘walls’ we could see that they were unfinished, that there was a course of breezeblocks on the inside and bricks on the outside. Also Owen had taken two slates from Ned’s garage roof, on our side for the bricks to fit, so any noise in the garage (lots of drilling/motorbikes/etc) we could hear.

None of this is anything to with you.

Owen had not been asked to put the roof on, so there was an unfinished wall our side. Owen had told Ned that to do the roof, he would need to come on our property, as the outside wall of Ned’s ‘extension’ was nearly up to our border (I understand the 50mm rule I think).

The extension stayed like this for about six weeks then one day we saw Ned and his 20 year old son putting up a flat wooden roof, which has a slight incline towards their property. It overhung our property, but we agreed to that because it would align with the garage soffit facia board, which overhangs our property.

They covered this roof with plastic and it stayed like this for another month. On our side, we had an unfinished wall with a hole where the bricks did not meet the roof. We could see the course of breezeblocks underneath the roof. We kept asking Ned when he would like to come onto our property to finish wall and roof and he kept fobbing us off. He said he wanted to do the inside first. So he started to order and put up the insulation on the inside, even though there was a big hole on the outside (on our side).

Why is he 'Fobbing you off; you are not employing him.

Owen has told us many times that Ned has asked him what to do, as it was obvious he hasn’t got a clue.

Then Owen is out of order, if I employed someone I wouldnt expect them to going to discuss me or my ability or lack of with neighbours. Owen is not acting professionally.

Ned was pleased with himself as he said that so far the extension had only 

cost him £3000.

Sounds a little patronising and irrelevant to your complaint

In mid-October 2023, a black rubber topping appeared on the roof. Because there was no lip on his roof, we had to put plastic all over our fencing on our side as the water was gushing down. Eventually Ned did temporarily put up a lip but it looked awful and didn’t really do much.

We had been in touch with the Planning Office again, but they are not interested as apparently he can take forever to finish his extension, and as long as he sticks to building regulations, they are not interested in how it affects us.

Quite correct. why should they be.

Eventually my husband spoke to Ned and offered to pay for the finishing of the extension on our side. Ned being Ned agreed. He did say he would provide the materials. We asked Owen if he would do the work. He agreed and said ‘otherwise it will be like that this time next year’ (to quote him).

Again, vey unprofessional behaviour by a tradesman, he should not be discussing a client with anyone else.

However, Owen was extremely busy and couldn’t promise a time, so we had another builder whom we know, Harry who said he would do it for us. Of course he is finishing someone else’s work.

He did finish it but could not quite fit the bricks to the hole, as the roof had been put on before the brick wall had been finished, so he added cement and boxed round it. We then asked him to put up a lovely fence to the top of the extension, in a lovely colour, which we will make a feature wall with ironworks.

That was 10 days ago. Ned took my husband into the extension two days ago (it’s probably around 5x5 foot) and there is a large window with sliding door at the back. If you stand and look out, you can now see into our garden (our gardens slope downwards from our houses), so as we cannot build a tall fence, we will look to plant a tree/hedge. Bearing in mind Ned has said that this is going to be a bedroom, at present the floor is screed, there is no electricity or heating. If we had not finished it our side, there would be a large hole at the top.

Being able to see into next doors garden is not uncommon.

But more importantly is that three days ago, when my husband was back in the extension, Ned pointed out to him that the breezeblocks had bowed/buckled inwards. Ned didn’t seem too  concerned as he said he had a mate who would come round, take out the buckled breezeblocks and put them back again.

I’m not a builder, but either they were put up badly by Owen, builder of 40 years, or the foundations that Ned and his daughter built are not deep enough. From what my husband could gather, the bricks on the outside were okay. However we now have got this large fence in front of his extension wall on our side, so would not be able to see if any bricks were coming loose.

When our builder Harry was finishing the side, he did mention that the roof (put up by Ned and son), was bowed.

We are now unsure what to do. Ned has got his mate Andy in for four days to add the insulation. If there was an issue with the breezeblocks, we are quite aware that this buckling could happen again. If that was the case and his extension falls into his garden area, the roof would collapse and fall into our garden, causing our fences to fall and lots of mess.

If and when that happens you will  then have a genuine reason for complaint and presumable will claim from Neds insurance.

Would the planning office be interested? Perhaps we should just wait and see what happens. We have kept up with photos and videos of the building process and all the issues we have had to deal with.

Apart from building work going on next door what exact issues are you having to deal with?

 

 

Any advice gratefully received.

 

If I were his neighbour and he was doing something to harm my property then I would of course do something about it but this is not the case in your situation.
I think the line 'Perhaps we should have let him build illegally on top of his garage' is telling. It is not up to you to let him or deny him. 
He has been there 3 years and has been getting hassled since he moved in. You say he ordered bricks  and yet he didnt use them for 18 months so the building situation has only been during the last 4 months. 
 My advice would be to let him get on with it in his own time, he may well be digging his heels in now and deliberately taking time to annoy you.
If I had a neighbour who was speaking to planning behind my back, discussing me with other neighbours and tradesmen, keeping a diary of what I did and when I would not put myself out to be accommodating. 
Sorry if I have the wrong end if the stick here but I feel for your neighbour.