To think this woman can't blame her neighbours

Yes but is always a case of give & take. People are within their right to renovate or alter a property, subject to planning regs. It can be a nuisance but live & let live. Too many people quick to grumble!

PECS

The position of our old house is unusual and vehicle access is via a small ' private' cul de sac of new houses. When we moved here we had a small extension built & some landscaping to the garden. I popped a letter through my new neighbours ' doors to warn of the work & potential disruption with delivery of essential building items. When all was done I took flowers to nearest neighbours as way of apology for any disruption. We are all on good terms! #doasyouwouldbedoneby

Yes I think that's the way to handle these situations. I have also known people give car wash or window cleaning vouchers to immediate neighbours who have been badly affected by the dust.
Small gestures can make such a difference to neighbourly relations.

Yes that's often the case as well. But it's very interesting to hear both sides of a story and how they can differ.

I’ve always believed there are three- his, hers and the truth.

Of course Maw. It was about there being 2 sides to every story.

Can anybody remind me of the point of this thread?

The position of our old house is unusual and vehicle access is via a small ' private' cul de sac of new houses. When we moved here we had a small extension built & some landscaping to the garden. I popped a letter through my new neighbours ' doors to warn of the work & potential disruption with delivery of essential building items. When all was done I took flowers to nearest neighbours as way of apology for any disruption. We are all on good terms! #doasyouwouldbedoneby

Yes I don't remember these large intrusive renovation projects going on years ago. People might convert the garage, extend the kitchen or add on a conservatory. A few weeks of disruption once in a blue moon.

Now some unfortunate people have one large renovation project after another undertaken on properties being sold on their road, resulting in years of loud noise, dust, trucks and lorries parked on the road, damaged pavements etc.

Everyone thinks their renovation will only take a few months/a year and fáil to understand how the whole nature of a residential area is ruined by these ongoing projects.

I dread houses in our road going up for sale. Because it is in a desirable location, people buy three bedroomed houses and proceed to turn them into five bedroomed, three bathroom houses which takes anything from a year to 18 months. In the last five years there have been five such "renovations" and the parking, dust, noise and disruption have been a nightmare. I also wonder why they don't just buy something to suit in the first place if they have so much money to throw at a "project"!

To be fair, our immediate neighbours always come and tell us when they are having work done and apologise in advance for any disruption we may suffer. Their builders have always been very good about not parking across our driveway, clearing and sweeping up before they go and so on. We have done likewise. We are moving our fences on the far side of our property so that our garage will be inside our boundary and have included our neighbours in all the discussions we have had with our builder in order to keep them in the loop and give them an opportunity to raise any concerns. To me it's a simple matter of politeness and respect.

I now try to have as little to do with neighbours as possible.

I was renting this house when I first moved in to it. After a time the LL decided to move abroad and wanted a quick sale. So there were obviously no for sale notices and NDN had no idea the house had been sold to me. She had several times tried snitching on me to my former LL and she must have tried to do so and got a disconnected number.

Several times she had made snitty remarks about my being "only a tenant" or "why should a single person live in a family house."

Subsequently she hijacked me in the garden and said the she needed to get in touch with LL urgently and did I have her number. I told her no, because LL now lives in Abu Dhabi. She asked me who now managed the house and I told her I did because I had bought it from LL. I reminded her that she wouold not longer be able to snitch to my LL if she was unhappy about something and that she would have to "apply for an appointment" to discuss it with me.

You should have seen the look on her face. I know I spoiled her weekend.

I don't think anyone wanted a nose around the house. Just a gesture of thanks for all the inconvenience they'd put up with for a year, or at least not further disruption by a series of loud parties.
No man is an Island etc

The neighbours sound like moaning old busy bodies to me They wouldn't have been invited in to nose round my home either

Thank you poshpaws

Good Lord mummer calm down.

I am quoting my friend on the pavement situation. The pavement is now fixed and, as far as she's aware, the couple had to pay for it.
Likewise no one complained until the loud parties started so I reckon people just gritted their teeth over the renovation but the parties were the final straw.
Honestly, no need to post in such an I'll mannered way.

There is a story, from long ago, when towns had walls round them, of a traveller who turned up at the gate of a town and asked the man at the gate "What are the people of this town like?" and received in turn a question "What were the people like in the last town you were in?" The newcomer replies "They were friendly and helpful!" "Well!"says the man at the gate "I think you will find the people in this town are much the same."
Soon another traveller turns up and asks the same question, with the same conversation to follow. This traveller says that the people in the last town he visited were "mean, unhelpful and unfriendly" The man at the gate replies "I think you will find the people in this town are much the same".

Mummer what got up your nose this morning? Your reply to Beswitched was rude, almost aggressive and totally uncalled for.

This is fairly typical behaviour for what I call the ME generation, by which I mean young adults who have either forgotten what consideration means, or have never been taught it.

To be fair however: Did any of the neighbours ring the door-bell and introduce themselves when your friend's daughter moved in? Or attempt to discuss politely the inconvenience being caused by their builders?

They do seem to have got off on the wrong foot, but I wouldn't like to say whose fault that is.

I found the best way was to buy a house with no near neighbours, & have lived here very happily for 38 years. That way, there has been no one to complain about any [permitted] building work we had done, or anything else, noisy cars, motorbikes, parties etc.

I have had to put up with loud noise from flat next door during lockdown and then when it was completed it was let out to a musician who thinks it’s alright to practice for hours at a time.

Where we live we're not allowed to start work before 9am and not allowed to have work done at the weekend.
I have a lot of sympathy with the neighbours, our old neighbours had a lot of noisy, dusty, disruptive work done and never had a housewarming. Instead they had their "old" friends in for noisy parties that went on until 3. Never any apology.
They really didn't care about anyone else and were awful neighbours. We did eventually move.

Beswitched

Oh I'm not getting involved. Just think it's interesting to hear the 2 sides. I think the couple did have to pay to get the pavement repaired but not for many months until the renovation work was done.

I think people's just gritted their teeth and put up with things as they didn't want to fall out with a new neighbou. But the late parties brought things to a head.

You "think" they paid for pavements repair? Council repair and recharge so did they or not?
You "think" everyone gritted teeth to avoid conflict? You're just guessing and making up the bits you don't know aren't you?
Guesswork and conjecture basically is gossip in my experience. How does it affect you? I'd keep my snout out of others' issues. No good will come of second guessing when you know nothing first hand.

Whenever we have been having work done we have always told the near neighbours to expect some noise/disruption/inconvenience and they all said 'no problem'. Put the boot on the other foot, none of our near neighbours have ever pre-warned us about potential work and the possibility of disruption. I don't bother telling anyone now. Parking is always an issue too and how some people have managed to actually pass a driving test is beyond me, they have NO consideration when parking on our road!

There are some people that buy a house and then seem to think that no one exists outside their boundary!
They have their own place, so they can do what they like, right???
Fair enough that they wanted to renovate their new home, but it a courtesy either to pre-warn about the noise etc or at the very least, pop a card or note through doors apologising for the disruption.
Suggest that the friend's daughter drops a note through every door in the street or leaves a bunch of daffs on each doorstep with a note to apologise and her neighbours may well be a lot more friendlier !

Sometimes I wish that I too gave large noisy parties, had a barking dog, or several cars to take up parking spaces. Just to annoy my whining NDN.

The only thing I do is to test the burglar alarm every 4 weeks for a few seconds - just to annoy my neighbours. Always during reasonable hours.

My nephews came to work on it during the first lockdown. Of course workpeople were allowed to do essential jobs. They were sitting in the garden with their children and grandchildren (breaking the lockdown) when I warned them politely that we were going to have to test the alarm. Their son had the cheek to tell my nephews they "shouldnt be here".

We only needed to test the alarm twice but we tested it 10 times over a 2 hour period.

I'm having some work done in April, while it's internal only and won't impact on my neighbours directly, I've explained it to both and apologised in advance for any noise that may occur.

When it's over, I'll drop in a small 'thank you' ie cake / wine.

For me it's simply a case of good manners, relevant communication and common sense.