to be annoyed with neighbour's building works, specifically what is happening today right this very minute?

[Mintyy]

So as not to drip feed:

Attached neighbours have been doing diy (involving knocking down internal walls, installing new bathroom etc) since January and major external building works since the beginning of May. They have been building a kitchen side return extension since mid June. This has involved non-stop noise, dirt and disruption for the entirety of the summer.

The kitchen extension involved building a breeze block wall on our boundary. We look out on to it from our kitchen door. The deal was for this to be rendered and painted cream.

The breeze block wall was finished on 7th August. Our neighbours came round to look at it from our side (and to apologise because it is about a foot higher than they said it would be) and I told them they we were going away for 13 days the next day, returning 21st August and it would be great if it could be rendered and painted while we were away.

So, guess what? We came home yesterday to find 3 of their builders on our patio lobbing the first layer of render on the wall. Today they are out there doing the top layers.

As I sit at the kitchen table (which is where I work) I am about 8ft away from this wall. We cannot go outside (handy when I have 2 weeks worth of washing to get done and dried) at all. DS can't go out and play in the garden.

I expect they will be finished today and cleared up by this evening so we will only have been inconvenienced for a day and a half

But NEVERTHELESS aibu, in the light of all we have put up with so far, to be really fucking annoyed that they could not have got this done when we were away?

YANBU.

But for future neighbourly relationships accept their offer of a bottle of wine as full payment for the inconvenience.

If no bottle is forthcoming, declare war

Seriously. Sit patiently... tomorrow is soon enough for washing.

A foot higher than it should be is a lot and surely that breaks the terms of the planning permission?

Maybe it couldn't be done until today? I work for a construction company and many things can put off a build being finished on time. You can't render in bad weather either and it has been particularly rainy lately so maybe that was an issue. I wouldn't get too stressed, it's 1 day of inconvenience.

We chose not to make a fuss about the height Nancy, because we are understanding and accommodating people who generally do not make a fuss (neighbour had measured height of wall from her side of the existing fence, without realising that we are a lot higher up than her - live on a hill iyswim). Also, we were about to go on holiday and what were the neighbours going to do? The rsj and roof struts were already in place.

So we have quietly gritted our teeth and got on with it all this time, including dealing with all the emails and having to interact with them about it all in a philosophical and mainly convivial way, and have infact only asked them for ONE consideration ... which they seem to have ignored.

I'm getting more wound up the more I think about it.

YABU although understandably stressed I guess.

There could be all sorts of reasons why they couldn't start the work earlier.

Why can't you go out into your garden while they're working?

You said it would be great if it could be rendered and painted while you were away.

I'm sure they thought that would be great too, but for whatever reason, the workmen couldn't get it done in that time.

That is not the fault of your neighbours.

I'm sort of with fudgeface - it might have been out of their hands in terms of when it could have been done. That said, I don't think YABU for getting fed up with it all - 8 months of disruption is a long time. xx

Access to the garden is via our side return which at the moment is covered in sand and render.

Has it been raining here for 14 days? God, you poor things .

I'm sure they'll clear a path if you ask them to. There's no way they should be blocking off access to your garden entirely, unless they weren't expecting you home.

Either way, just ask them to clear enough space for you to access it.

My neighbour had building work going on for months and it did my head in.

Noise, dust, scaffolding, skips and builders vans every where, I could never get in and out of my drive as there was always one of those massive crane-y lorries delivering something in the way, in and out of my garden for access,

Months and months and months of it.

What rubbed salt in the wound was the fact that they moved out for the duration to escape the disruption and left us with it

I know there's nothing they can do, I know it's unreasonable, but I was bloody fed up with it.

YANBU. You are being very good about the extension a foot higher than expected.

I understand about the problems of doing work in bad weather however, I know where you live (stalker alert ), and apart from some very heavy rains over a few days, it's really not been that bad. Certainly not anything that seems to have affected building work near me, which is near you and also rendering and painting. But maybe there is a micro-climate over the river.

A couple of years ago a property developer I vaguely know bought the house next door and wanted to put up scaffolding in my garden to do vital works. I agreed because he's a sort-of neighbour and I wanted to be accommodating. He took this to mean that he would be able to do this for nothing for the entire summer and the scaffolders turned up at 8am the next day.

Perhaps I was naive in thinking that our chat in my kitchen over a cup of coffee wasn't a binding agreement and that we would talk more. He was naive in thinking that I'd be so stupid as to let him do that the next day without any signed agreement.

After a full and frank discussion we drew up a rental agreement with penalties for over-staying. He made those builders finish on the dot of 5pm on the last day. If I hadn't argued, that scaffolding would have made my garden unusable for the entire summer while he went about his own schedule.

A call to the the HSE got him to adjust uncovered horizontal posts roughly at eye-gouging level and tent it so I didn't get showered with debris when I did venture out.

Scaffolders are a law unto themselves because they are in and out. But the builders turned out to be lovely. They not only cleaned up the mess they'd unavoidably caused, they whitewashed my house and garden walls front and back which they'd made dirty, polished my windows front and back and built and varnished a lovely bench to replace one that had crumbled at their touch because, TBH, it was rotten. The cat is enjoying the sunshine on it now. The original wouldn't have borne his weight.

All at the developer's expense.

I bought them four crates of Stella on special offer and we toasted our hatred of him. I hope they pinched more stuff from him.

Oh, and at the end of our coffee chat, my property developer neighbour offered me a crate of wine, which I refused because (a) I can buy my own wine and (b) what I really wanted was a proper legal agreement and not a crate of cheap wine.

Crafty bastard. I blame Homes Under The Hammer.

There's two Portuguese men out there right now, gently buffing their handiwork with giant car washing sponges. I think they are about to start clearing up. At least the wheelbarrow full of cement has gone.

Limited, I will accept crates of cheap wine off anybody . So far we've had one bottle of decentish wine from neighbours - who obviously have pots of money as this non-stop building work testifies - so might just milk current frustration in hope that another one or two might be forthcoming.

The Portuguese workmen are fond of singing Fada songs and smoking endless roll ups. But they are at least quite cheerful! Perhaps they are enjoying the break from the continuous rain that has prevented them from doing the bloody render up until now, our first fucking day back from holiday .

Aware I've probably spelled Portuguese wrong, but cba to look it up!

Yanbu.

Your spelling is sound. You should hold out for more decent wine though.