Living Next Door to a Building Site for 4 years +

spokeslady

Our lovely neighbour went into a nursing home over five years' ago and subsequently his house was sold to a couple with 2 children.  They have a property elsewhere which they live in and they began extensive renovations on their newly bought house.  They employ 2 permanent builders, one being the site manager and they also have up to four or so other builders' coming in plus skips and all the other associated hardware and deliveries as would be expected.  The relationship between us all was very cordial.  

After the first two years' we were fed up with the constant dirt on our house, windows, doors and mentioned to Ivan (I shall call our neighbour that but it is not his real name) the difficulty in keeping our house clean with all this work going on but his attitude was a shrug of the shoulders and what could he do about it, it's building work after all!

We had been considering getting our fence re-panelled for some time but didn't want to do it until their building works were complete when Ivan sent us brochures of fence panelling as he had something specific in mind and gave us a strong impression that as a gesture of good will he would also pay for our side of the fencing (we are responsible for the fence between us and Ivan). We looked at the fencing and had a face to face meeting with Ivan but he made it clear he was only paying for the fencing up to the end of his garden; not that beyond his garden boundary ( his garden is shorter than ours'), so we declined this offer and went ahead with the wooden panelling and had that installed.  Ivan promptly bought composite panelling and had his entire property which included front, sides and back, panelled with the composite being about 30cm above our wooden panelling.  

This building nightmare has continued on an on until there was light at the end of the tunnel when he told my husband that they would be moving in this March.  No, March has been and gone and there are still more skips, more building works, more builders.  We've tried to pin Ivan down on a new date but he evades the issue and complains about planning applications and refusals. We can't see any current planning applications at our local council.

We had our house on the market for the past 6 months, we're in our 70's and looking for a retirement home, but the market is depressed, mortgages are too high and who wants to live next door to a building site anyway.

tacpot12

I doubt you will be able to force Ivan to make better progress than his already making. Better to drop your price to reflect that whoever buys the property will likely be living next to a building site for another couple of years.

You could offer Ivan first refusal on the property. You never know, he might be sitting on a large pot of money and want a new project. Don't reduce your price for him though.

If you have home insurance, check to see if you have legal expenses protection. If you do, you can call the legal helpline provided by your insurer to ask if there is any legal means to make Ivan pay to clen your house regularly. If his contractor's messiness starts to cost him money, he might impress on them the need to keep the site clean and tidy, and not to damage your house.  

ThisIsWeird

4 years is a long time for this, and it must be pretty frustrating for you. It does appear, tho', that an end is in sight, even tho' Ivan has missed his suggested March move-in date. The job couldn't possibly be a 4-year task, so these builders must surely be working on and off whilst they also balance other building jobs elsewhere. If so, that is pretty inconsiderate of Ivan, and I can only guess that the reason is to reduce the cost of the work - "Special rate, if you don't pressurise us to do it in one go..."

So, a potential wee warning sign there. But, the most important thing to keep in your mind - especially if you are planning to sell - is to not have a dispute with your new neighb

Ie, by all means discuss any issues, but keep them from escalating, however galling that may feel.

For instance, this fence... How tall is your fence? 6'? If so, that is the usual maximum, so his is almost certainly in breach of Planning. What to do? Two choices - you report it, or you hide this foot of the back of his fence using trellis above yours.

If his fence is only 6', and yours lower, then - sorry - the onus is fully on you to increase the height of yours if you wish.

If his is 7' high, then that's another warning bell - CLANG!

Do bear in mind, tho', that he is entitled to put up his own design of fence on his land.

Then there's the building work. What, exactly, is being done to his house - how extensive? Ie, is it in the realms of requiring Planning Permission? Even if not, it will almost certainly need Building Control oversight. But you say there's nothing on the LA's Planning Portal website? Again, your call - your choices are to enquire at the LA, or ignore it.

Reporting either of these issues does not lead to a 'dispute' - the matter is purely between Ivan and the LA. But if you were to take legal action against him over, say, the fence, then that would be.

When you come to sell, there are a couple of Qs, I understand, that could impact on what you do. One asks if there is a dispute going on, and the other is more open and asks if there's anything you are aware of that could lead to one. Reporting/enquiring about the Planning aspect of the build should be neither, as it just doesn't affect or involve you - as long as the impact of the build doesn't affect you? The height of the fence could, just about, be considered a 'potential' should it subsequently become an issue for your new owner, but if you handle it by adding a foot of trellis, then - as far as you are concerned - it's sorted. 

Ie. There's a very remote chance that your new owner would realise there's a 7' fence after moving in, take down your trellis, and then insist that Ivan do the same, and go off to Planning to try and enforce it. If Planning say, "Oh yes, we were told about this by the previous owner, but we didn't consider it worthy..." or whatevs, they might try and chase you for comp. But I really cannot see any realistic chance of this happening!

So, do any aspects of this work - I mean the actual finished building - negatively impact on you? And, is Ivan's fence too high (over 6') and - if so - can you cope/adapt to this?

If you can, try and see it as light at t'end of t'tunnel.

Meanwhile, be as friendly and neighbourly as you can be, but just have in the back of your mind that this fellow doesn't appear to be the most empathetic or considerate, so be wary before agreeing or compromising over anything else.

FreeBear

ThisIsWeird said: Then there's the building work. What, exactly, is being done to his house - how extensive? Ie, is it in the realms of requiring Planning Permission? Even if not, it will almost certainly need Building Control oversight. But you say there's nothing on the LA's Planning Portal website? Again, your call - your choices are to enquire at the LA, or ignore it.

If 'Ivan' is complaining about planning refusals four years in, it suggests that he has been forced to make a retrospective application. One which the council is considering refusing - If they do reject the application, an enforcement notice may b e on the way requiring the work to be undone. Ivan's pot of cash is going to be depleted very rapidly in that case.

ThisIsWeird

FreeBear said:

ThisIsWeird said: Then there's the building work. What, exactly, is being done to his house - how extensive? Ie, is it in the realms of requiring Planning Permission? Even if not, it will almost certainly need Building Control oversight. But you say there's nothing on the LA's Planning Portal website? Again, your call - your choices are to enquire at the LA, or ignore it.

If 'Ivan' is complaining about planning refusals four years in, it suggests that he has been forced to make a retrospective application. One which the council is considering refusing - If they do reject the application, an enforcement notice may b e on the way requiring the work to be undone. Ivan's pot of cash is going to be depleted very rapidly in that case.

I don't think Ivan - the neighbour - has said anything about PP; it's the OP who said they cannot find any reference to this work on the LA's Portal, PP or BC.

Bigphil1474

OP, I'd normally advise speaking to your local Environmental Health team when it comes to construction site issues - dust, dirt, noise can all be classes as statutory nuisance and the EH team can do something about it. However, as Thisisweird says, if you get into a dispute then you'd have to declare it and there'd be a record which could work against you. You could try reporting anonymously, depends on the layout of the land, might be a possibility if it's affecting other properties and not just yours. Personally, I'd try my best to bite my lip until I'd sold up.

GDB2222

ThisIsWeird said:

FreeBear said:

ThisIsWeird said: Then there's the building work. What, exactly, is being done to his house - how extensive? Ie, is it in the realms of requiring Planning Permission? Even if not, it will almost certainly need Building Control oversight. But you say there's nothing on the LA's Planning Portal website? Again, your call - your choices are to enquire at the LA, or ignore it.

If 'Ivan' is complaining about planning refusals four years in, it suggests that he has been forced to make a retrospective application. One which the council is considering refusing - If they do reject the application, an enforcement notice may b e on the way requiring the work to be undone. Ivan's pot of cash is going to be depleted very rapidly in that case.

I don't think Ivan - the neighbour - has said anything about PP; it's the OP who said they cannot find any reference to this work on the LA's Portal, PP or BC.

There's not much in the OP about the nature of the work, so it's not completely obvious PP is needed or BC needs to be involved. The OP refers to 'renovation', which might be like for like. 

It's peculiar that it's taking so long, though. Our next door neighbour has been doing major renovation for just under 2 years, and they seem to be finishing pretty soon. At least, the site hut was removed this morning.  Essentially, they have treated the building as a shell, and rebuilt the entire interior. They started off by taking the roof off, and letting it rain through the building for 6 months!

GDB2222

spokeslady said:

Our lovely neighbour went into a nursing home over five years' ago and subsequently his house was sold to a couple with 2 children.  They have a property elsewhere which they live in and they began extensive renovations on their newly bought house.  They employ 2 permanent builders, one being the site manager and they also have up to four or so other builders' coming in plus skips and all the other associated hardware and deliveries as would be expected.  The relationship between us all was very cordial.  

After the first two years' we were fed up with the constant dirt on our house, windows, doors and mentioned to Ivan (I shall call our neighbour that but it is not his real name) the difficulty in keeping our house clean with all this work going on but his attitude was a shrug of the shoulders and what could he do about it, it's building work after all!

We had been considering getting our fence re-panelled for some time but didn't want to do it until their building works were complete when Ivan sent us brochures of fence panelling as he had something specific in mind and gave us a strong impression that as a gesture of good will he would also pay for our side of the fencing (we are responsible for the fence between us and Ivan). We looked at the fencing and had a face to face meeting with Ivan but he made it clear he was only paying for the fencing up to the end of his garden; not that beyond his garden boundary ( his garden is shorter than ours'), so we declined this offer and went ahead with the wooden panelling and had that installed.  Ivan promptly bought composite panelling and had his entire property which included front, sides and back, panelled with the composite being about 30cm above our wooden panelling.  

This building nightmare has continued on an on until there was light at the end of the tunnel when he told my husband that they would be moving in this March.  No, March has been and gone and there are still more skips, more building works, more builders.  We've tried to pin Ivan down on a new date but he evades the issue and complains about planning applications and refusals. We can't see any current planning applications at our local council.

We had our house on the market for the past 6 months, we're in our 70's and looking for a retirement home, but the market is depressed, mortgages are too high and who wants to live next door to a building site anyway.

It is very, very important that, when you sell, you find buyers who can be relied upon to do building works lasting several years.  That's our game plan.

EssexExile

I feel the op's pain. The house opposite had a big extension built, then the same builders built a bigger extension next door to us. Then they moved to the other side and built an extension bigger than the house they were extending, then they went back to the other side to build some boundary walls and lay a big patio. It's quiet now, until next door gets permission for his new boundary wall and railings around his front garden, it will be the same builders.

At least they are nice builders and turn the radio down when asked.

jonnydeppiwish!

ThisIsWeird said:

4 years is a long time for this, and it must be pretty frustrating for you. It does appear, tho', that an end is in sight, even tho' Ivan has missed his suggested March move-in date. The job couldn't possibly be a 4-year task, so these builders must surely be working on and off whilst they also balance other building jobs elsewhere. If so, that is pretty inconsiderate of Ivan, and I can only guess that the reason is to reduce the cost of the work - "Special rate, if you don't pressurise us to do it in one go..."

So, a potential wee warning sign there. But, the most important thing to keep in your mind - especially if you are planning to sell - is to not have a dispute with your new neighb

Ie, by all means discuss any issues, but keep them from escalating, however galling that may feel.

For instance, this fence... How tall is your fence? 6'? If so, that is the usual maximum, so his is almost certainly in breach of Planning. What to do? Two choices - you report it, or you hide this foot of the back of his fence using trellis above yours.

If his fence is only 6', and yours lower, then - sorry - the onus is fully on you to increase the height of yours if you wish.

If his is 7' high, then that's another warning bell - CLANG!

Do bear in mind, tho', that he is entitled to put up his own design of fence on his land.

Then there's the building work. What, exactly, is being done to his house - how extensive? Ie, is it in the realms of requiring Planning Permission? Even if not, it will almost certainly need Building Control oversight. But you say there's nothing on the LA's Planning Portal website? Again, your call - your choices are to enquire at the LA, or ignore it.

Reporting either of these issues does not lead to a 'dispute' - the matter is purely between Ivan and the LA. But if you were to take legal action against him over, say, the fence, then that would be.

When you come to sell, there are a couple of Qs, I understand, that could impact on what you do. One asks if there is a dispute going on, and the other is more open and asks if there's anything you are aware of that could lead to one. Reporting/enquiring about the Planning aspect of the build should be neither, as it just doesn't affect or involve you - as long as the impact of the build doesn't affect you? The height of the fence could, just about, be considered a 'potential' should it subsequently become an issue for your new owner, but if you handle it by adding a foot of trellis, then - as far as you are concerned - it's sorted. 

Ie. There's a very remote chance that your new owner would realise there's a 7' fence after moving in, take down your trellis, and then insist that Ivan do the same, and go off to Planning to try and enforce it. If Planning say, "Oh yes, we were told about this by the previous owner, but we didn't consider it worthy..." or whatevs, they might try and chase you for comp. But I really cannot see any realistic chance of this happening!

So, do any aspects of this work - I mean the actual finished building - negatively impact on you? And, is Ivan's fence too high (over 6') and - if so - can you cope/adapt to this?

If you can, try and see it as light at t'end of t'tunnel.

Meanwhile, be as friendly and neighbourly as you can be, but just have in the back of your mind that this fellow doesn't appear to be the most empathetic or considerate, so be wary before agreeing or compromising over anything else.

Maximum is ‘normally’ 2m not 6’