To hate my neighbours and their million pound basement??

[Amimissingsomethinghere]

Okay so yes IABU but lord help me guys I don't know what to do.

Background - we live in central London on a quiet street in the ground floor flat of a converted terrace house. Next door they are returning the whole house (basically ripping everything out top to toe) and then adding in a very elaborate huge cinema basement room. There currently is no basement so there will be a LOT of drilling.

Basement works haven't even started. They are currently only ripping out the existing kitchen but this is ALREADY causing my walls to vibrate and the banging noise is unbearable. It's so loud in my sons nursery. His bedroom wall is on their side (we are in a small flat) and there's no way he will be able to nap in there.

I am already feeling extremely anxious and every band makes me jump. I am a SAHM and so will be around the flat a lot with my little boy. (1.5)

What do I do? There's nothing I can do is there? It's awful. I feel like sobbing.

The party wall surveyor said the basement would probably take a YEAR to build.

I feel trapped.

when they've got their million-pound basement installed I wonder how they'll feel if next door also installs a basement so they can't hear the cinema over the hammering & drilling?
OP, you are a mere flat dweller, a little person, it doesn't matter about you
they are rich important people I'm sure they'd be very peeved if the enjoyment of their multi-million property was compromised in any way

I thought they [not sure who ) were looking into the impact of basement extensions in london

I'm not sure what the price of the work they're having done has to do with the noise though?

I'm sure you'd hate it just as much if the bill came to £10,000?

I’m guessing the cost of it gives an idea of the scale of the project. A £10,000 project is going to be quicker and on a much smaller scale than a £1000,000 one.

Once the density of basements passes a critical threshold they will all hold hands to create one big sinkhole
😱

If you are ground-floor, presumably the works are affecting the other occupants of your house. Can you present a united front to the builders re. noise and their adherence to rules around the building works.

YANBU. London and building works are hell, never ending as people upgrade constantly as houses change hands. I hope the major drilling works are finished before the summer. A heatwave, being seriously ill and bed bound and my neighbours drillling and building works that went on for 8 months nearly sent me to an early grave.

Obviously the price doesn't matter but I feel like they don't give a hoot about us. Our flat is worth quite a lot to the average earner... but it's just a quarter of what they paid for the house in its current state... I know they are spending at-least £500,000 on the basement alone.

They just brought the house and I can see from my garden they are currently ripping out a really nice kitchen the old owners had... seems like SUCH a waste :(

Ofcourse they won't be living there! They have another place to live in dont they so they can make all the noise in the world.

My DH And I have discussed doing our basement. We thought we may wait to start the works once they have moved in to their lovely new home....

OP, you really have my sympathy. Especially as you have a baby and the works sound so major. As others have said, what's almost as bad as the noise is just how often there's no bloody effort at all from those having the work done to inform, empathise, minimise or even compensate their neighbours.

A couple of years ago the end house in my modest terrace had an extension built and disappeared for the duration without a single word to any of the four homes immediately affected. We had no idea how long it was scheduled for - psychologically that's important, as well as allowing people to make alternative plans perhaps. In the event it was six months from spring to autumn. The noise was awful but so was the loss of privacy and quiet enjoyment over the summer with builders up scaffolding not only making a load of noise but playing crap music loudly and effing and jeffing. You couldn't use the garden. They constantly blocked all of us in (no through road) despite the fact that it's possible even for vans etc to park considerately and keep access free. When asked to move it'd often take them ten minutes or more. I work from home, as does another neighbour so it was hellish.

The neighbours eventually returned and made no fg effort at all to acknowledge what we'd endured. Not even a bottle of wine. Nothing, no apology. Like we all simply didn't matter. They hadn't even left a contact number with anyone so we could find out what was going on. As a result I resent them and blank them. Fuck 'em.

I understand people want to improve their homes but the utter lack of acknowledgement from some towards those who are adversely affected is unforgivable and so arrogant. When we had a small run of fencing done over three days I informed neighbours in advance!

they have another place to live in don't they
I'm alright Jack 🙄

My DH And I have discussed doing our basement. We thought we may wait to start the works once they have moved in to their lovely new home....

Can’t believe you started this thread if you’re planning to do the same as them tbh

Drip feed or what.

OP, you are a mere flat dweller, a little person, it doesn't matter about you
they are rich important people I'm sure they'd be very peeved if the enjoyment of their multi-million property was compromised in any way

I think the OP's situation is awful, but that comment is ridiculous. You just have to see the legal battles between neighbours, the utter carelessness about noise nuisance applies regardless of the bank account of the next door neighbours.

The ones to blame mainly are the ones who give planning permission. On which planet is that remotely acceptable, that's where this nonsense should be stopped.

I totally agree Josef😊 we should blame those who give planning permission!

@poohpooh it was more a kind of joke. I mean it really wouldn't happen.. we don't have the money for starters!

Also this really isn't a bashing to next door or a resentment of them clearly having lots of money etc. It's really not. It's just they haven't really approached us. We would appreciate a note to say hi and that the works have started not anything more. It's not a lot to ask really.

You have my sympathy
No real advise although my kids would sleep through an earthquake when they were little so I hope yours will too.
we live in a village in the NE that has seen more than it's fair share of building work, at the end of last year they started a development of 25 houses on the field next to us
They start at 7.30 every morning with relentless beeping heavy machinery, and crashing where they unload huge trucks of hardcore and earth
They often line up trucks across our driveway and I have to get them to move, they've knocked out next doors power & telephone lines by mistake and last weekend we found out they had shifted the flow of surface water through their earthworks so it all drained off their site down our garden in a fast flowing river and straight for our house - only DH & I baling and our own makeshift barricades stopped it flooding our house, it still got the garage
Spoke to planning who said nothing they can do as the planned drainage isn't in yet so it's a site works problem - foreman came over and told me why it clearly hadn't happened (I've never been mansplained to before until now) and so I showed him the damage, videos and photos and some of the water that's still there and explained that I know poor site management when I see it (I'm an architect) and demanded to know what they were going to do about it
Not looking forward to the next storm this weekend.

My parents moved a lot dads job. So they always bought new build, sometimes, diggers, and machines would be working all day on site, god knows how my mum stayed sane with the muck and dust. We as kids loved it.

My sympathies, I am currently living in a building site with 3 school age kids and it is still a nightmare (much less noisy works and less time).

Previously lived in a block and they were doing works for 9 months on all the neighbouring flats, exterior and our flat (while I was in labour, another story!). I had a newborn, 2 year old and 4 year old and they were diamond drilling concrete all day. I ended up phoning them and asking for 1/2 hour respite in the middle of the day as the newborn couldn't sleep unless she was on me and I couldn't leave the flat as had just had a c section. They did agree. I would see if you can speak to the builders and negotiate stopping very noisy work just for the time when your toddler is dropping off for their nap and put them to sleep on the other side of the flat for naps if you can. Try and get out as much as you can weather permitting, it is shit.

Which is going to be worse? Noise from the excavation and building or the fecking loud surround sound cinema?
You have my sympathies, OP.

If the noise is working hours there's not much you can do and it's just one of the huge disadvantages of having to have close neighbours. I'd push your toddler around the park for their naps (then nip into costa ) absolute nightmare if you're having the hail (that feels like having gravel thrown in your face) and wind that I'm currently experiencing on the 2 mile school run I know! ....

If it's later on, going on past 6PM then you can (and definitely, 100% totally should) complain to whoever you go to for noise pollution/disturbances.

My nextdoor sometimes invites her mates round and has RAVES (in their mid/late 30's ) midweek out of nowhere and it drives me nuts. I don't get any sleep those nights. They start at about 4, and go on until 10 the next morning! don't know how they do it! but I feel like I can't complain because my two boys can be so randomly loud too - especially when they get in strops! My 3yo boy could take on any girl in a screaming competition.

Which is going to be worse? Noise from the excavation and building or the fecking loud surround sound cinema?

Ah, yeah. I'd look into moving ASAP. Get your house sold before the big booming surround sound nextdoor devalues it.

@poohpooh it was more a kind of joke. I mean it really wouldn't happen.. we don't have the money for starters

Ah ok, sorry!

I feel for you a lot, this happened to me in the summer and I'm not a SAHM but was working very hard at work on regular night shifts and really couldn't be getting distracted cos of my tiredness. All I can say is it DOES pass. Now it's done its silent again and no lasting damage was caused, the problem is that long lasting neigbour disputes can happen when these issues arent dealt with tactfully. It does feel so selfish but if they're renovating sadly they haven't got much choice about the noise. Is there any limitations you can suggest to them like stopping at a certain point in the day ( a reasonable time ) or letting you know what they're up to and which bit of the property they're doing when they can so you at least know what's coming? X

That sort of thing happens when you have a garden flat in central London. Bad timing if you are on mat leave at the moment.

I feel a lot of sympathy for you! I’m pretty much a SAHM (work very part time) and when our daughter was about 9 / 10 months old, the house next door (semi detached, attached to us) sold, and renovation work started immediately. We never met the new owners, just saw lots of builders turning up. It went on all day for months, with walls shaking / drilling etc, chimneys being knocked out. DD still managed to nap (sometimes disturbed though) but drove me loopy. I would have felt so much better about it all if they had just introduced themselves, and let us know what they were doing / planning. They weren’t living there either.

Anyway, fast forward 2 years and we are about to start a big ground and first floor extension & will be moving out. Don’t feel guilty at all given how they treated us! However our lovely neighbour on the other side has been given the upmost consideration - we told her we wouldn’t even do it if she wasn’t happy with it. (She’s in her 80s & lived there since the 1970s, didn’t feel it would be fair to cause her any anxiety). Luckily for us she didn’t care at all and is looking forward to coming over for dinner in it!

Sorry not rtft but if you can get a good night's sleep, it will help to cope with the day. I know that's not ideal to have to get out daily for a year. Have you got good friends or family nearby you could spend the days at. I had horrendous noise problems for years, so I know how awful it can be.