Legal advice - situation with neighbors

[MalibuCoCo79]

We are in a pretty unpleasant situation with our neighbors. We live in North London semi detached house. We've been here for just over 10 yrs. Just over a year ago neighbours sold the house. Spoke to people who bought it. Nice enough, had to do some work on the house, which was no surprise. Gave us warning that will be delayed getting the works in the house started which again we saw no problem with.

However, fast forward they been doing renovations on off for the past 9 months now. And late into the evening and during weekend . Tried to engage nicely to keep noise down and our requests were ignored. The behavior was hostile from their end. Our son got involved which made them stop to some extent but he did say things to them he should not have done.

We ended up contacting lawyers. Because it is unbearable. However, at the end of the day they can carry their renovations as long as they want to as long as it's within acceptable hours.

What can the lawyers do? What questions we should ask them and what can we realistically achieve in this situation. I am not used to dealing with people like that. So don't want to pay them money and them not helping us very much

Sure Lawyers love disputes as they’ll make money from it.. can you see what’s left? They’ll have to finish sometime..

Yes, that's my worry that they just want to milk us. There's no interest for them to ensure that we agree onto something.

I peeked through their front window. I think they have lots of decorating to do, bathroom should be nearly done. So overall I don't think they haveuch left. But they didn't have much to do in the first place

What are the neighbours actually doing wrong?

Check your council's guidance for appropriate working hours. If your neighbours are working outside those hours, then follow the local authority guidance for reporting the builders.

Stop looking through their windows!

I'm not clear why your consulted solicitors.

However, at the end of the day they can carry their renovations as long as they want to as long as it's within acceptable hours.

You said it. What on earth do you think lawyers can do?

I'm f they are working within the rules regarding noise and times, apart from causing bad relationships before they move in by complaining, legally there is no recourse surely.

@Littlefish - work outside acceptable hours is my main issue. And them completely ignoring our requests. I have been trying to contact council with no luck. I was told they are under staffed and keep diary. So don't expect much from council.

@Clymene - to send the message across and get some answers off them. That's my only hope

If they're doing it in working hours there is no point complaining - they're allowed to renovate

If it's evenings, early starts before 7am and also weekends it's more of a problem

@LaurieFairyCake - yes, that's the main issue. They shut the door in front of our face and laughed when we asked them to keep work within council hours. Feel very helpless in this situation. Not nice place to be

Who is doing the work?

If it's diy there is very, very little you can do.

@VeniVidiWeeWee - some of it is them (less complicated tasks from what I gathered) and have builder type people come and do it things too

I doubt the builders would work outside acceptable hours.

It's difficult enough to find any who want to work in normal hours.

So it sounds like diy in which case there is probably nothing you can do.

Like previous posters have said rules on "building work" do not always apply to DIY I think as legally a Third party is not being employed to do it. As such noise should be restricted to statutory hours in law which is b fire 7 am and later than 11pm.

I am hink your only recourse is to complain about reasonable enjoyment of property so making a diary of when noises start and end. The council might install noise monitoring de vices and if they find there is a pattern of unreasonable noise over an extended period they may take action

What do you mean by "outside acceptable limits"? Because there are strict rules for builders, but the rules for DIYers are more flexible.