Party Wall issue with new neighbour Please help!
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bigootang
Posts: 9 Forumite
I really hope someone could offer advice here as we are at our wits end!
We own a semi detached house.
We have recently had a new neighbour move in and for the past 2 months building works have undergone which have involved what we consider to be major work to the party wall such that noise penetration has drastically increased in our house.
The building works have been so severe that our dogs who we come home at lunch to walk have been extremely distressed.
The previous owner had 2 new children and as such we could hardly hear their noise of crying and so on.
However, the new owner has had work undertaken by what looked like cow boys that has involved a great deal of cutting into the party wall to route and hide tv cables, power cables and so on so they could hang the TV on the wall in the living room so no cables can be seen.
One of my visits next door to ask a builder to stop was because in my living room the noise changed from muffled and loud to very loud- a pop was heard l, crumbling could be heard as in you could heard it landing on the ground and the noise was suddenly louder-it was the sound of him breaking through the wall with a power chisel and from then on all noise had been louder in our house.
The same power chiselling was heard in the upstairs bedrooms also.
I believe this is the main reason for the increase in noise in our house.
They did not serve a Party wall notice
I have a photo taken through the window where you can see holes in the party wall and where they have plastered over it.
What can we do?
Steve
We own a semi detached house.
We have recently had a new neighbour move in and for the past 2 months building works have undergone which have involved what we consider to be major work to the party wall such that noise penetration has drastically increased in our house.
The building works have been so severe that our dogs who we come home at lunch to walk have been extremely distressed.
The previous owner had 2 new children and as such we could hardly hear their noise of crying and so on.
However, the new owner has had work undertaken by what looked like cow boys that has involved a great deal of cutting into the party wall to route and hide tv cables, power cables and so on so they could hang the TV on the wall in the living room so no cables can be seen.
One of my visits next door to ask a builder to stop was because in my living room the noise changed from muffled and loud to very loud- a pop was heard l, crumbling could be heard as in you could heard it landing on the ground and the noise was suddenly louder-it was the sound of him breaking through the wall with a power chisel and from then on all noise had been louder in our house.
The same power chiselling was heard in the upstairs bedrooms also.
I believe this is the main reason for the increase in noise in our house.
They did not serve a Party wall notice
I have a photo taken through the window where you can see holes in the party wall and where they have plastered over it.
What can we do?
Steve
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Comments
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Nothing.
Cutting into the party wall for electric cables is not something that requires a party wall agreement.
The party wall agreement is to agree a method for structural alteration to the wall. Once the work is done, it's over. It has nothing to do with noise.
The breaking through of the wall is presumably them making their own downstairs open plan. Not breaking through your wall. When people do that they almost always leave nibs in to place steels onto. Again, not a party wall issue.Everything that is supposed to be in heaven is already here on earth.
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Cheers for the reply. What they have done is cut a slit completely through between the breeze blocks on their side to route all the cable from the tv and sky box so they are between their side and ours and so their side to cover the cable is just plaster-when before it was solid block - hence the noise increase I guess?0
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plus cut out new plug socket holes in the lower wall for plug sockets0
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Again, cutting holes in the wall for cable chases and sockets is not a party wall act issue. It!!!8217;s very unlikely they!!!8217;ve cut right through to the cavity and routed cables in there.0
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I think they may have as i heard the chisel go through and the sound penetration has now increased.
So is there a way forward?
The answers have been assumptions- if you go on what i!!!8217;ve said as i have to put up with the increase in noise what can i do if i potentially think they have damaged the party wall?0 -
Even if they have cut right through their side of the wall to thread cables in the cavity, I don't think there's anything illegal there. A massive concrete wall doesn't become unsound because of a few holes in it.
If they have been knocking down walls and replacing them with Steel Joists, then you should contact building control at the council and they will hopefully follow up and check that it's been done legally.
But I don't think they will care about your noise issues.
I think you may have to look into insulating the wall against noise. You could potentially fill the cavity with insulation, which would help if the cavity has been breached from the other side.Changing the world, one sarcastic comment at a time.0 -
i guess you could be right. typical we get the noisy oik living next door !!!9785;!!!65039;0
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i guess you could be right. typical we get the noisy oik living next door !!!9785;!!!65039;
Hmm.
They've had building work done. That doesn't make your neighbour an "oik".
I feel a bit sorry for the neighbours. Taking pictures of their house through the windows and working out how to raise a party wall complaint when it appears you haven't researched the first clue about the Act.
Talk to your neighbours nicely or move to a detached house. This is the nature of living in an attached house. Tolerance is expected.Everything that is supposed to be in heaven is already here on earth.
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tolerance yes doozergirl....and O infer if you would feel sorry for my neighbours if you could listen to the sound clips i have had to record for the environmental health or if you would feel sorry for them if it was you?
Anyway, i!!!8217;m not here to start an argument Doozergirl, just wanted advice on what to do.l and if you think my taking photos for evidence is wrong wrll again, tell that to the environmental health officer who has placed listening devices in our home and asked for photos!0 -
apologies for bad grammar, on phone typing0
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