Neighbours building plans

[Pippippip2024]

we have new neighbours. Haven’t met them yet (they’ve not moved in but we’ve seen them visiting for an hour or so and didn’t want to bother them. We just received plans from the council for extensive building works, demolitions and extensions and new outside buildings. All this is fine, but I suppose I’m a bit sad that they haven’t come around and introduced themselves and let us know about the planned work. It’s something I would have done to be courteous. I also work from home and have a one year old that naps in the day so it will be a lot for me noise wise. What do you think I should do? Do you think I should write them a note and ask for timescales and schedules (so I can make alternative arrangements to be out the house when it’s noisy) or do you think I just leave them to it and put up with it.

@snowsjoke that’s really bad. I’m sure one isn’t supposed to have building work on a Sunday

OP

They dont have to and IMO, may possibly be renting it out etc

Stuff like knocking next door when you've not even lived there is hard IMO

It will increase the price of your property, ie next doos "plans" IMO

There will be noise etc as its part and parcel of major building works and the drilling into the walls is worse than the knocking down etc

@Theweepywillow absolutely, hence why I didn’t go round and have left it for over a month. But the letter threw me and considering the plans are so extensive and affect my boundary I suppose I would have thought a heads up would be neighbourly!

@DistinguishedSocialCommentator thanks for your reply. It’s empty at the moment and I don’t think they’ll be renting it out. They are a family and it’s a family home. The plans don’t bother me, they’re great actually but I’ve lived next door to this set up before for a year and it was horrendous. Builders tend to care less when the owner isn’t around.

Thanks

Look on the positive side as the new people could be nice caring and even better if builders are

I've seen and heard builders that are lol often, making wise cracks aloud and some even swear thinking its banter

See ho it goes take it step by step and even try to bite your tongue

Dont forget, at times builders can make life a living hell for the home owners at times, EG not working as promised, taking lot longer, not completing works, rubbish work etc. Therefore, don't forget, the new people next door could also be under a lot of stress

Good luck

@DistinguishedSocialCommentator oh absolutely I can see it from both sides. It must be stressful having building work done. But im going to have to live next door to it, they won’t be there! 😂

But you were moving straight in. These people may well be a year or more away from actually living in their house, depending on how long their renovations take, and may be currently living any distance away.

And I’d be wary of discussing planning permission, renovation plans with neighbours who are total strangers. We did this as a courtesy when we moved in here, and the neighbours (whom we’ve since discovered have a long history of objecting to pps on spurious grounds and malicious reports of pp breaches) appeared to think we were asking their permission, rather than just informing them of what we would be doing. It got really ugly, with them filming our builders, making malicious complaints etc. I wouldn’t do it again when you don’t know who you’re dealing with, just go via the official council planning notifications.

@GreekVases thats a shame, sounds really bad, I hadn’t considered it from
that point of view. I suppose I know I’m reasonable and all I want to know is timings etc

@GreekVases out of interest what were their complaints?

I just want to know really when there will be demolitions as I’ll make sure my children aren’t in the garden (dust, debris etc) and when there will be significant noise and I’ll make arrangements not to be in the house. also to know how long the works will go for approximately. I don’t think these are big asks

ok - but i have seen broken at work where the builders have taken their money and not come back and worse

You understand the situation - so, good luck

@DistinguishedSocialCommentator i do see that but I think being considerate to neighbours is important

I know what you mean OP. We live on a corner t-junction and the house opposite our road are having a lot of work done. They’ve moved out. There is no parking outside their house as they’re on the main road so all the work vans park outside our house right up to the dropped curb and really near the junction. It’s really tricky pulling out of our drive now as we can’t really see either way and cars come flying road the corner sometimes and I have quickly reverse back in. Anyway I’m normally very chilled about stuff but what has really got my back up is that they haven’t been round to apologise for the inconvenience, they haven’t said anything to us and as they’re not living there now it’s not inconveniencing them at all! I would definitely go round and talk to the people the building work is going to effect, I think it’s rude not to. Also builder mentioned to me last week they’ve going to be there for another 5 months. So I feel your pain.

Well, ultimately, they just didn’t want us doing the work at all, I suppose — which was fairly hypocritical as from what they themselves told us before relations soured, they gutted their own house and extended when they moved in 25 years ago, and it must have taken forever because they are the middle house of three and have no side access, so all materials, rubble etc had to go through the house or be craned over it. I can’t imagine it was fun for the houses either side.

Their specific complaints included that we were exceeding the square metrage of ‘permitted development’ (we weren’t), that we were ‘stealing their light’ (we weren’t — our extension did not extend beyond the original back wall of the house, their house was always dark because it faced north and as a middle house, had no west-facing windows as ours has), and that we had failed to construct a retaining wall (of course we were constructing a retaining wall, otherwise we’d have been at risk, but we had to wait out a month of terrible weather to pour concrete). All baseless. But all involved planner/building safety visits and paperwork.

I've found this absolutely true, my neighbours are TWO YEARS into an extension and renovation, they don't live at the property and the behaviour of their workmen is vile. Constant swearing, shouting, discussing their genitals, throwing rubbish over into our garden. I've had to bring DD in from the garden multiple times because it's just not appropriate for her to be hearing. Highly doubt they'd be doing that if the owners lived there and could witness it. Our neighbour is there on and off and has never been over to apologise for the disruption and noise, they just don't care.

@snowsjoke some chancers try to get away without a party wall notice so once your neighbours have their planning permission, I would get in touch and ask when to expect the PWN

Also be careful as the PWN is a bit misleadingly phrased. It asks you to consent to or dispute the works. But “consent to” actually means have no surveyor. So you have to pick “dispute” the works, even if you actually have no objections to the work itself, in order to get a surveyor appointed at all. Then you can pick between single joint surveyor vs two surveyors (one each).

If they are only at planning stage I doubt they will be able to answer those kind of questions yet. Once they have planning they will probably get builders to quote and only then will you have a timescales idea.

building work can be annoying but ultimately it’s needed for the upkeep of properties and well maintained properties are good to have beside you.

There was a reverse of this on here recently. MNers told the poster no need to talk to the neighbour. I can't imagine why not, but maybe that's why they've not been round!!!

Builders rarely keep to schedules and you'll be lucky if you get to know the morning of which works they will be doing that day. The builders tend to move crews between multiple jobs and schedule isn't a word they can even spell. It's annoying but there's not much to be done.

That was because they didn’t actually own the house yet! It is possible to apply for pp on a property you don’t own, but would be somewhat eccentric to bustle about informing neighbours about works that will take place if their offer is accepted and the sale proceeds!

Make sure their work won’t damage your home

This is what I'm so worried about. How will I know if it's damaging our home until later down the line if cracks appear.

While I understand building work is a pain and you don’t have control of it, so it can be worrying but I think you are being unreasonable.
You actually like the plans! You have no idea of the schedule etc. though. Go through the party wall process if they are building on any boundary, appoint your own surveyor (at their expense) and then you will have protections for that part of the build.
As to when there will be dust/debris, in the absence of the owners, go around and see the builders and they will let you know when it’s going to be dusty etc.
There will be disruption and noise but we are in a terrace and did a loft conversion with a 1 yo in the house and he napped through it. I just moved his travel cot to whichever part of the house was quiet and put some soothing music on.

@Houseplantmad thank you for suggestion. Did you chat with your neighbour before your loft conversion?