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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Neighbours who work from home

283 replies

Confusednewmum1 · 19/02/2020 02:29

So we have moved to a house that requires total renovation, it has not been touched for over 50 years. We have spoken to the NDN about plans ie rip house apart and start again/extension ect. However every time we do work they complain about the noise as they work from home.

I get that this can be frustrating but at the moment we can’t give a schedule of work just due to the nature of old house. Example last week new front door on Friday to be fitted told 1 hour job no real noise ect. It then turned into needing a lintel, brickwork repair....... but this all spiralled in the moment.

My neighbours seem to think my builders should work around their calls ect. But I have really just advised there will be building work most days Mon-Friday 8:30-5 until at least the end of the year, it’s the only honest timeline. Council are happy as they have said noise not excessive ie generators or nematic drilling. But my neighbours have said this is not acceptable and there 2 1/2 year old naps during the day???

I also have a young child who happened to still be asleep this morning when they complained at 10am as door frame was going in and they where on a call.

AIBU to think that if they work from home then noise is their issue to mitigate not mine?

OP posts:
PhilCornwall1 · 19/02/2020 05:56

Forgot to add, I'd not be buying them mouse cancelling headphones either, it's unnecessary.

PhilCornwall1 · 19/02/2020 05:59

mouse cancelling headphones

Really???!!! Noise cancelling!!!

Frariedeamin · 19/02/2020 06:00

I am currently having noisy building work done and also have a noise cancelling headset. Don’t waste the money because they just don’t cut the mustard when it comes to construction noise. Mine are great for planes, trains open plan offices etc but do very little with hammering, drills etc. I am using a top of the line v expensive model designed for professionals.

It’s my building work so I can’t complain but every single person I have been on a call with has commented on background noise whilst this work is going on. So I understand your neighbours perspective and how it is impacting their calls.

However I don’t think you are being unreasonable. You have communicated with your neighbour and they have the opportunity to make suitable arrangements. I bought my neighbour flowers as she’s not complained once and is generally wonderful!

TheyAllFloat · 19/02/2020 06:08

Work going on every single weekday for a year?

Regardless of rights and wrongs I still feel bloody sorry for the neighbours tbh.

auslass · 19/02/2020 06:16

Don't know the laws here (just moved to UK), but aren't you legally entitled to do the work between certain times as long as the noise stops by the legally stated time? In Sydney that was start by 7am and complete by 7pm.

VivaLeBeaver · 19/02/2020 06:26

They’re been unreasonable and I say that as someone who works from home a lot who’s neighbours are about to start an extension and major renovation. I know it’ll be noisy, I knkw it can’t be helped, I know it will be temporary.

yellowsubmarines · 19/02/2020 06:29

I moved house recently and I work from home on a computer (so not loud and no customers visiting my house). During the first week I realised that my next door neighbour is some sort of builder who also works from home using VERY loud power tools along the VERY thin boundary between our two houses. I can't go anywhere in my house without hearing power tools blasting away from 8am in the morning until nearly 6pm at night Mon-Sat. Hmm Then the neighbour behind does some sort of work on cars in his back garden (which backs onto mine) and he revs up car engines All. Day. Long. Mon-Sun. Apart from the noise my whole back garden fills up with petrol/oil fumes so I can't open windows or hang out laundry or have lunch outside. Hmm Both of these men turn the radio up so they can hear it over whatever they're doing which might not be so bad if they were both listening to the same station. Then they get a phone call or visitor and start yelling over all the other noise. Hmm
So I can sympathise with your neighbours but at least your neighbours know that your building work will only take 12 months or less.

Aridane · 19/02/2020 06:29

Buy them some ear plugs

Yes, because that’s such a neighbourly thing to do - not passive aggressive at all (and is totally combatible with conference class)

Aridane · 19/02/2020 06:33

Id tell them to go anf fuck off.

Way to help manage a relationship with neighbours

I think all you can do is apologise - maybe drop the, a note with estimated schedule etc like another poster said

hydeandrun · 19/02/2020 06:38

don't buy them headphone, don't pander to their complaints. Just tell them sorry, not much you can do.

they are ridiculous. You cannot let their phone calls dictate your project.

you are doing it in permitted hours, no excessive noise. council agrees.

10FrozenFingers · 19/02/2020 06:38

I cannot imagine how awful the prospect of a year of noise 8.30 - 5.00 5 days a week can be.

You don't sound at all sympathetic to them. Remember you will be neighbours for years after the hell of the noise.

MindyStClaire · 19/02/2020 06:41

YANBU at all. Homes need renovation at times, and you are perfectly entitled to do that. The longer hours your builders work, the faster it will be done and everyone can get back to normal.

I don't know why they think working from home is some sort of special circumstance, do they think no construction is allowed within heating distance of an office block?! It's just one of those things, and we all have to put up with it from neighbours and do work ourselves at some point.

sandybanana · 19/02/2020 06:42

I could appreciate if you said you
had building work going on every day for a month or so. But every single day until the end of the year.

Sorry but that's a piss take.

You have to take into account the time
of year as well- so in the summer when people have windows and doors open, they have to listen to your noise???

I work from home and I wouldn't like that one bit and yes, I'd be complaining.

I can't help but feel that there is more to this than you choose to tell us. Two sides to every story and all that.

WhereShallWeMoveTo · 19/02/2020 06:46

10 what do you propose the OP does then? Abandon her renovations on a house that's not been touched in 50 years and live in it as it is? Would you want that for yourself?

Ohffs66 · 19/02/2020 06:50

I think all you can do is try and be considerate OP and ask your builders to do the same as far as poss. My NDN decided last year to get some incredibly noisy work (diggers and drills in the back garden) done over the space of a week when I was working from home without saying anything. On top of the noise, the builders were shouting loudly in the back garden, radio blaring etc. I actually had to cancel some conference calls as the noise was horrendous. If she'd just told me what they were planning to do and when, and asked her builders to be considerate it would have been an entirely different story as a) I could have planned around it and not been there and b) the radio noise and the shouting on top of the mechanical noise really put the icing on the cake. As soon as I went round and explained the situation to the builders they were much quieter and apologised profusely, which really helped. I don't expect people to live their lives around my working arrangements at all but a bit of consideration from my NDN would have been nice!

Goatinthegarden · 19/02/2020 06:51

It’s short term for the first time in 50 years. It won’t be forever. They need to just suck it up.

My retired NDN decided to have loads of work done in her house, drilling and banging started at 8 every day in my blimming school holidays. It annoyed me because she knows I’m a teacher and she could do it any other time of the year, but whatever, I wasn’t going to say anything to her.

WhereShallWeMoveTo · 19/02/2020 06:52

But workmen always want to start at 8. They tend to work an 8 to 4 day.

mynameiscalypso · 19/02/2020 06:53

They are being ridiculous (side note: I'm surprised they wfh with a toddler). Having the house sit there a wreck will have a negative impact on the value of their own property in any event. Yes it's a pain but that's the risk you take if you wfh.

10FrozenFingers · 19/02/2020 06:53

10 what do you propose the OP does then?

Be much less truculent and sure of her rights. Be kind to her neighbour and apologise rather than standing in her rights. If it's going to be a very noisy day warn her in advance.

Maybe offer to pay for headphones or a head set.

Nothing wrong with trying to mitigate the hell she is putting her neighbour through. OP just seems to be shrugging her shoulders and saying tough titty.

WhereShallWeMoveTo · 19/02/2020 06:57

and Goat while I understand that must have been frustrating for you, as someone who has used tradesmen a lot in my time, I can tell you the customer has very little control over when the work is done. They fit you in when it suits their schedule, not yours. And sometimes they will go off the job midway through to complete something else they've not finished and come back to you later. It's bloody irritating but it has always been thus. They are looking to maximise the use of their time and earning potential.

If you want someone particular to do the work then you have to take the dates they offer. Also some jobs are dependent on good weather so summer months are more likely to be chosen by the contractor. I'm sorry but if that were me invested tens or even hundreds of thousands, you being a teacher would be the very last thing on my mind.

Hepsibar · 19/02/2020 06:58

Presumably your builders work normal working hours?

Separate issue, I often wonder whether folks "working from home" or using home as a business premises are payingapprop rates and tax.

Gwilt160981 · 19/02/2020 06:58

Ask them if they want to pay for your building work?

FizzyIce · 19/02/2020 07:01

We’ve had the same recently, we both work from home maybe once or twice a week and our new neighbours did a lot of work to their house .
It was bloody annoying to listen to it constantly from 8am + and sometimes it went on until gone 9pm in the week when our dd was trying to go to sleep .
That was the only time we complained though as building noise is perfectly acceptable during the day albeit,annoying .

adaline · 19/02/2020 07:02

I see both sides here.

Yes, you're technically in the right but would you really be happy if it was the other way around? If you knew your life and job would be totally disrupted for an entire year because of your neighbours I doubt you'd be very happy. That's a long period of disruption for them and building works always tend to overrun.

We moved into a fixer upper and the work has taken longer as a result, but we couldn't afford to run two properties at the same time. It means our neighbours aren't putting up with daily noise though!

Just remember - you guys will be neighbours long after the work is done.

FizzyIce · 19/02/2020 07:02

@Hepsibar not that it’s any of your business but yes we do , we both work for large companies but entitled to be home based a few times a week