To be fed up of renovations on a nearby house

I live in a very modest 4-bedroom terrace house on a quiet(ish) residential road. 3 identical houses to mine haves been converted into 6 bedsits (I’d love to see how the rooms are divided), but there isn’t enough room for 6 cars to park at each one. The road is now turning into a car park. Apparently you can convert houses into multi-occupancy provided they have no more than 6 bedrooms. It’s been hell whilst the work is being done, and still continues with random parking.

I have so much sympathy here, continual noise is distressing. We’ve had the “men” in recently and tried to get away from the noise (all inside) and couldn’t find a quiet spot in the house- it drove us crazy. Luckily the house is properly built with solid brick walls so didn’t disturb the neighbours.

The chap next door recently died - the house it totally original from the 1950s and is in a state. It looks like a car park in the garden as he never got rid of the derelict vehicles. I have been told the inside is horrendous. So we have lots of noise to come from the works to follow. I think it will go to a developer, no one could really live in it in that state, plus trades are so difficult to get round here that I doubt someone would take it on as a DIY job.

The up side is that someone will make it into a habitable and more attractive home.

I’m going to look into noise cancelling headphones.

I really hope the building work doesn’t go on for too much longer for you.

(A couple of builders have told me the demand is slowing as people start to worry about the cost of living increase.)

That's not rebuilding the house though and it's not going to mean a year of disruption.

One of my mother's carers is planning to do this. She'd love to buy a four bedroomed house with plenty of space but in this area she can't afford it. She can buy an older 3 bedroomed property and extend it so she has a fourth bedroom for her family for less than she can buy a ready made solution. Does she want to do this? Nope but she has little choice.
Both our neighbours have renovated and it has been a little noisy but you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs. I am not entirely appreciative of being woken up early in the mornings but I don't resent my neighbours because of it.

I met our new neighbour yesterday at a local event. They haven’t moved in yet. They have built a new drive that runs quite close to our hedge, about 20yards from our bedroom window.
The machinery used would have been suitable to build the M25 and they started at 7am.
Now this won’t be a problem when it’s finished but don’t you think they would have just knocked on our door to apologise for the inconvenience? Then we could have said ‘thank you for letting us know’ and all would be nice and friendly. Being polite and considerate costs nothing.
Now I hate them already!?

There's one locally that has had the builders in for 3 years and they a still going. They actually only have one neighbor but you do wonder why?

You've reminded me to tell all my neighbours of my work dates, I am having to have all of the floors here replaced in August. The loud just off the station radio drove me mad when I was having the roof replaced, at least it will be playing inside the house.

I sold my listed building in March 2020, and now the new owner has put his planning permission on line, know my semi-detached neighbours are going to experience at least a year of very noisy disruption. As one of them works from home it is going to be very difficult.

There really should be much stricter limits to this kind of thing. It shouldn't be all about one person's right to have the perfect home over the rights of the people living on the Road who may have had to put up with major renovation after renovation.

Also I believe it's very difficult for older or disabled people to find bungalows to move into because so many people have converted them into 2 storey houses, again people wanting the dream home in the dream location.

I think all those property programmes on TV have a lot to answer for. When Kirsty is merrily telling a couple how all they have to do is build on here, and extend out there I'm thinking 'poor neighbours '.

Where I've just moved from, there was a lovely bungalow on the corner, I was friendly with the guy there as he looked after my little Westie a few times when I went away, he had a little Westie too, so good thing. He retired and moved to Portsmouth to live with his sister there, unfortunately died soon after, found in the woods with his little dog by he's side, heart attack!

Anyway, when he moved the property was put up for sale after having a new kitchen & bathroom fitted & all made good as new. When it was sold, it was knocked down to the ground and a massive five bed house put in it's place, such a shame as it was a lovely bungalow. From my garden I could see a single bloke knocking down the walls with a sledge hummer!!

Feel sorry for you Vintagejazz Fingers crossed it all get finished quickly and all the adverse things get sorted. Good luck.

And it is the heavy machinery being used that has cracked the pavement. My understanding is that the couple are obliged to pay for this.

What about other people's right to peaceful enjoyment of their home? Have you ever lived on a road where one house after another is going through lengthy and major renovations?

I think you are being unreasonable.

Obviously, the house was not in perfect condition when the present owner bought it, or if it was, does not serve the owner's needs.

It is their house, and subject to planning permission they can do as they please with it.

These days, we all buy a house we can afford and alter it to suit our needs, as we cannot either find one that ticks all the boxes on our wishing list at the price we can afford, or in the place we chose to live in.

You say you expected the renovations to take six months- where did you get this time-frame from? Have you asked your new neighbours how long they expect the work to take, and whether there have been delays?

You can feel inconvenienced if the work is being down outwith ordinary working-hours. If it is not, you have no grounds for complaint.

Perhaps you should discuss parking with your local police and the cracked pavement with the municipal council's dept. of works. Neither of these factors are the reponsibility of the new neighbours.

There was a large house opposite mine whch was already an HMO with several single men. Every resident had a car and this was causing parking problems. There were also problems with late night noise. When the owner wanted to extend it several households nearby (including me) worked together to co-ordinate our objections. I did some research as to what the LA considered "planning" grounds for refusal and we submitted more or less the same objections. Permission was refused.

The owner tried again a year later with the same result. The house has now sold to a family who are having to rip out all the single rom partitions to turn it back into a family house.

This is a diverse area and many of the parents do not want a lot of random single men with no connection to the community potentially socialising with their daughters.

It might be worth having a look at the planning application registered with your local council Vintagejazz. I would also be tempted to report the damaged pavement, that could be an accident waiting to happen.

Lots of people buy smaller houses than they want because they need/want to be in that location for work/schools/family, and if they can't get the house they want they convert what they can get.

When our neighbours were trying to move in this area they were looking for a four bedroom house. They are from this area, their families are here. Their children's schools are here. Their jobs are here. They ended up buying a three bedroom house and extending it because lots of the four bedroom houses round here (including ours and at least three others in our street) are inhabited by one or two older people who have stayed in their family home instead of downsizing. So there is a shortage of larger homes for people with children.

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.

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?

Spot on biglouis.

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.

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.

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!!

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.

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