to think builders next door making at racket 8.30 Sunday morning is a bit off?

[minxthemanx]

Our next door neighbours are a lovely couple in their sixties - we've lived next to them for 15 years and get on really well. Their eldest son has bought their house (they pay him rent) and he has just decided to have major, and I mean major, building work done. Fair enough, we all have things done to our houses. I've put up (with gritted teeth) with a week of vans outside our house - one day there were 7, most days 5 - we live on a busy access route/bus route (they've parked across the bus stop), and it's been very dicey getting off the drive in the mornings as I have to try to see round 4 vans. So fairly inconvenient for all of the immediate neighbours, but we've been pretty tolerant. So far. This morning a van arrived at 8.15am, admittedly only one, but he opened all the windows, french doors etc and starting hammering, scraping etc etc AND put radio on full blast. I shouted over the fence 3 times, asking him to turn music down, but he couldn't hear me (it was that loud), so I went round in my pyjamas, into the house and right up to him before I could make myself heard. He turned it down, but by lunch time it was back up again, and another neighbour had a go.

I realise that the guy who owns the property has every right to do whatever to his house. BUT he doesn't live there, has been nowhere to be seen, and has no idea of the chaos. His parents have had to move out as they found it so stressful having 6 builders in the house by 7.30am each morning. (They're sleeping in someon'e spare room.)

AIBU in thinking this bloke is a bit of a selfish twat? Would you expect him to come round and speak to the nieghbours before all this starts, to say "sorry about the inconvenience, hope it doesn't take too long" etc? Common courtesy? And since when do builders work on Sundays? I'm assuming they'll be here Bank Holiday monday too. Grrr. I'm really irritated but maybe it's just me. Although my other neighbours are equally peed off about the safety re trying to get off the drive.

If and when he ever turns up to inspect his building work, I don't know whether to say something or not. Thoughts?

I would keep all the chat out the letter and stick to the facts. Talk about being 'neighbourly' etc is a complete red hearing and likely to cause more problems.

Dear inconsiderate pigheaded nieghbour.

Your builders have been working at XXX on these days/hours. Please can you remind your builders that they are not allowed to work on your house outside the hours/days XXXX. (Insert your local requirements) as required by XXX ( insert your local Council) I trust you will let them know immediately.

Yours
pissed off Minx

Short and sweet is the way to go with these things. He is not stupid and he clearly doesn't care that you are being disturbed. I wouldn't mention parking issues at all.

I would also let the builders know ASAP. Speak to whoever is in charge and let them know that you don't want them working outside of their hours anymore. DON'T APOLOGISE to anyone !

Keep copies and logs of everything.

Thanks for that advice. I've re written my letter, in exactly the style you suggested, and it sounds far snottier than the "disappointed neighbour" tone I'd used first. Good advice.

Oh my goodness, I hope it works out then.

Are you going to speak to the builder too? If it was me I probably would. (unless he looked particularly scary)

have you done it OP? tell us the latest please.

I'd also stick a clear notice stating?

"Please Note
Photographic, Sound &/Or Video Recording Equipment
May Be in Use at Any Time"

It means you can legally use any photos or videos you take & it also shows them you know the law & mean business

hope you get it sorted

Sympathies as we are havi g the same with a major rebuild next door.
I was dreading it but to be fair they have been really good so far.
Polite and along if we are ok with the noise. Never start till 8.39 and finish by five so we can still eat in the garden.
No Sunday working or Saturday come to think of it.
They knocked a bit if my wall down and I told them they were mortified and repaired it.
It's stil early days but so far it's been fine.
I'm more dreading the two noisy boys moving in with their parents ha ha.

oh same here. weve got the buyers father doing the house up for them, theyre a young couple and i hope to God theyre not party animals. knowing our luck.....and we cant even soundproff as we have a rented place.

The building work wouldn't bother me , I'd be pleased they were looking after the house tbh but loud radio would drive me insane.

Morning ladies, I spoke to the builder early on Tues morning as I left for work - started politely by saying he could put a van on my drive as usual, then told him there were a lot of pissed off neighbours at the weekend. Explained about the workman at 8.15 Sunday morning - he seemed very surprised and said "he's normally such a quiet lad." I asked why work was being done on a Sunday, and he said because the older couple are desperate to move back in, so they were trying to speed it up. I made it clear that this is the son's problem, not ours, and that I wasn't happy about going round in my pyjamas at 8.30am on a Sunday, to tell a workman to shut the xxxx up. Builder was very apologetic and said he would speak to the lad's boss (it was the plasterer apparently.) He also assured me there will be no more weekend work. I haven't given the letter to the son - I don't have his address or phone number, and don't want to upset his Mum any more by asking for it. I decided he's such a selfish twat that it will be pointless anyway. (Apparently when his parents complained about waking up to builders in the house at 7.30am, he told them to go to bed earlier.)
However, I have seen his brother this morning, who I get on well with, and told him what happened. I've asked him to tell the brother that he would have got an abusive phone call on Sunday morning, had he given any of the neighbours his contact details (wonder why he didn;t!)

Decided to have nothing to do with him. I've got a lot of other things on at the moment, other battles to fight, and he's such an arse it'll be a waste of time. Decided liaising with the builder would be more fruitful.

Thanks for all your support.

No weekend work at all is ridiculous imo, but starting later is reasonable.

Valium I wouldn't have objected to weekend work if it didn't disturb us. But everyone is entitled to a bit of peace and quiet on a Sunday, without hammering, banging and blaring music - when you've been living with it all week.

I think building work is part and parcel of living side by side as many of us do - people have to do up their houses for all sorts of reasons. The loud music would have cheesed me off as I said earlier and I always made sure our builders had theirs on low.

We had builders in for a year - every day of the week. You would've hated us

In our case we thought it was better for the workmen to start early but finish by 4pm.

valium

In our case we thought it was better for the workmen to start early but finish by 4pm

Did you decide that with or without consulting your nieghbours

Or do you live somewhere where you dont have close nieghbours. I hope so

We have close neighbours.

The work had to be done regardless of wether the neighbours liked it or not.

Luckily they were understanding, we explained the situation and kept them up to date with what was happening.

Building construction work involving noisy power tools has to stop by 1 pm on a Saturday and is not allowed at all on a Sunday

The OP was from May, so hopefully all building work is now finished.