To be fed up of renovations on a nearby house

You have my sympathies. Our neighbours did the same thing before and after the lockdowns . The noise of the music and the constant bad language as well as the machinery was most disturbing and because we live on a corner their vehicles blocked our view when coming out of our drive. Their scaffolding was partly in our garden and they demolished part of our wall . The house they now have is huge and the extra bedrooms overlook our kitchen. Unfortunately it is very easy to get planning permission these days.

It’s like as one neighbour finishes another one starts here, buy a bigger house to start with rather than turn ordinary semi’s into ‘mansions’ with 5 beds with 3 bathrooms and minuscule gardens that must cost tens of thousands.
I know it’s just progress but it’s always new buyers that seem to do this as I say buy a bigger house with all the money you are going to spend on doubling/tripling the size.

I agree. If you're going to completely change a house, why buy it in the first place and make life difficult for months on end for your new neighbours.

I've just seen my next door neighbour have to get one of the workmen to move their vans so she could get onto her drive. Which of course meant other cars having to wait behind her. There was nowhere to.pull in because the workmen were in all the available spaces.

The house just around the corner was sold recently and planning permission is already in for major work. And another house a few doors down is going on the market soon so no doubt more major work. Not so long ago the house 3 doors down also took almost a year to be extended and changed around.

But hey ho as long as a couple get their dream house.

Isn’t that what we all want though Vintagejazz our dream home

We had months of necessary work on our house, both inside and outside four years ago, none of which was successful.

We are now looking at many months of exterior and interior work, it will be noisy. The alternative would be to demolish and rebuild which would be far noisier, involve more tradesmen, along with their vehicles and take as long if not longer.

Maybe have a word with your neighbour and coming to an agreement that no noisy work takes place at the weekend.

Necessary work is different. I'm talking about people who know, when they're buying, that the (perfectly fine) house is very far from what they require and will need a year or more of noisy and intrusive work to get it perfect.

Adding an extension, converting an attic or garage is fine. But practically rebuilding the house causes massive and lengthy disruption to everyone around. And then the house across the road is sold and it all starts all over again.
Many of these houses are very expensive to start with, so I'm not talking about a couple who buy the best they can afford but have to get it into better shape to make it liveable in.

If planning permission was needed you can look at it online (on planning authority’s website) and check conditions imposed as to working hours and parking of contractors’ vehicles.

As planning laws are more relaxed now and people can only afford to extend rather than buy bigger there will be much more of this building work than previously.

It is annoying though.

It must be awful VintageJazz but I’m not sure if there’s much you can do about it if they have permission.

Germanshepherdsmum

If planning permission was needed you can look at it online (on planning authority’s website) and check conditions imposed as to working hours and parking of contractors’ vehicles.

To be honest, if we went out everytime the contractors parked illegally we'd spend our lives out on the pavement. They caused major inconvenience this afternoon, causing a traffic hold up on the main road because no cars could turn the corner. A police car sailed happily past in the opposite direction, ignoring the chaos

We have had building work going on next door for the last 18 months.
The family are lovely and have kept us informed about what is going on and have done their hardest to minimise disruption for us.
Covid caused delays with lack of supplies and illness.
We will still be glad when it’s all finished.

I so relate to you Vintagejazz. The Victorian terrace next door has been totally gutted and the new owners, who live out of town, have had it turned into an eco house, everything's been ripped out, nothing is left of the original interior.

The builders are still coming in after 1 year 9 months, the skip and portaloo have only just gone and there's always at least three large vans, mostly parked on the pavement, down a small, narrow Victorian Street.

You need to tell the planning authority if planning conditions aren’t being adhered to vintagejazz. The police are unlikely to be interested in the parked vehicles.

Their scaffolding was partly in our garden and they demolished part of our wall

For a new project like an extention they have to enter into a private contract to site scaffolding etc in your garden. You should have got your solicitor draw up the contract and charged them for the legal work, hire of your land, lack of amenity for your garden, H&S concerns, etc.

A relative of mine scared the living daylights out of a "hey mate" type NDN who thought he could do it on the cheap for "a few quid" and quoted him ££££ off the top of his head, even before he had consulted his lawyer. It scared the guy so much that he completely revised the plans in order to build the extension on the other side. Unfortunately the other neighbour was equally clued up. He ended up selling the house undeveloped and moving out.

I had my whole bungalow repainted last October and several cracks in the plaster were filled in - caused when I had a new roof. Witching three months, more cracks had appeared which concerned me so I got a surveyor in the check for subsidence.

He said that they were not caused by subsidence but as some of the plaster is old and a bit loose, the cracks were probable caused by building work on a bungalow opposite me who were drilling foundations for an extension. So, once the work is finished, I’ll have to get the decorator in again and decide to
(a) fill and repaint
(b) replace some plaster in four rooms
(c) have lining paper put on in four rooms

I don’t want to do any of these things, it took me ages to empty each room ready to be decorated and put everything back again as I struggle with mobility.

Why would anyone just allow scaffolding to be put on their garden other than by an agreement prepared by their solicitor at the neighbour’s expense and in return for £££?

We were actually trying to be good neighbours and saw it as an act of friendship. These were neighbours who were helpful and we had no wish to fall out with them. Perhaps we were naive but monetary gain did not come into it.

Even if you don’t charge, there should be an agreement to cover access and making good damage.

We had an extension built which almost doubled the size of the house and every room in the house had major work done. The job took 10 weeks from start to finish so they must be poor builders to spend a year on site.
I do sympathise, we have an estate here in the NE where every average house that goes on sale gets demolished and rebuilt as a footballers mansion.

Maybe the silver lining of the recession will mean fewer extensions and "home improvements"?
I don't get it either. People we know had their house on the Phil and Kirsty "Love it or List it" TV show. There was an extension which took half the garden and blocked the neighbour's view/light.
They chose to stay in their house but have since sold it.

We once had a neighbour we all called Bob the builder. He was only happy when doing things in his house or garden involving machinery and hammers - always at weekends.
I feel for you VintageJazz
My latest grouse is that next door have put up solar panels on their roof and now want my trees cut down as they block the sun!!

What amazes us is that the owners rarely, if ever, live in the house which is being renovated.
The noise (scaffolders at ultra-early start times, skip drop offs and collections etc) and general inconvenience is experienced only by those living nearby.
The owners visit in the evenings to survey the day's progress.

The posters upthread who advised a legal agreement are correct.

Even if you dont charge the other party a rental for access etc a contract sets out the rights and responsibilities of each party. For example are the builders properly insured? Who pays for any damage. What about restrictions on working hours/days? What about loss of enjoyment of your garden? Safety of children playing there? And so forth. Im a great believer in written agreements. And someone has to pay for the legal work.

My relative who was quoting ££££ for access is an accountant so he had a very transactional way of thinking. He didnt like the other man's cavalier attitude of "hey mate you dont mind do you". If someone is requesting access to your property its not for your benefit and a bottle of wine and a bunch of flowers does not cut it. They are approaching you with a business transaction and its only right that you should get something out of it as well.

Even if your relationship with a "lovely" neighbour is good at the start of the build its probably going to be pretty strained by completion. So better to do it the legal route from the onset. Thats my two cents.

Spot on biglouis.

harrigran

We had an extension built which almost doubled the size of the house and every room in the house had major work done. The job took 10 weeks from start to finish so they must be poor builders to spend a year on site.
I do sympathise, we have an estate here in the NE where every average house that goes on sale gets demolished and rebuilt as a footballers mansion.

Same around here.

And don't start me on the people who buy a period house and then rip out beautiful fireplaces, stained glass and coving, install a contemporary front door and replace the old wrought iron railings with a fence and a wooden gate with a security pad.

Why not just buy a modern house?

Germanshepherdsmum

If planning permission was needed you can look at it online (on planning authority’s website) and check conditions imposed as to working hours and parking of contractors’ vehicles.

That's all very well, but it depends whether the local council will enforce anything. Some years ago, four houses were built on land to the rear of my house and there were all sorts of restrictions. However, most of the restrictions were broken and the local authority did absolutely nothing.