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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:
MindyStClaire · 19/02/2020 13:12

HeadachesByTheDozen this may shock you to hear, but terraced and semi-detached houses are fact actual houses. I know! Who knew.

Building work is a fact of life in a residential area.

My parents live in a street of 1930s semi-detached houses (in, believe it or not, a "typical suburban residential street") and every house has at one time or another had the kitchen extended, the windows replaced, most have converted the attic, some have done a big two storey garage conversion/extension. Now the houses are aging, there's a fair amount of roof replacement going on. Not fun for anyone, no, but perfectly normal.

sandybanana · 19/02/2020 13:12

For those that think a year long " renovation " work is acceptable, are you for real?
In a semi detached house?

That's actually more than a piss take.

The impact it may have on your neighbours is huge.

Truly op. You really don't give a shit from reading your posts and appear to be incredibly selfish.

sandybanana · 19/02/2020 13:13

Mindy

My parents too. But they damn well
Made sure it wasn't for a fucking year.

That's just utter bullshit

TheReef · 19/02/2020 13:16

I work from home so can see their point of view, but also yours.

I think I'd say to them that you've taken advisement from the council and you're well within your rights noise wise. However, as a gesture of goodwill you've bought them some noise cancelling earphones and you'll arrange with the builders that there will be a quite, 2 hr window between say 2 & 4 where they will refrain from drilling etc, so any calls can be made during this time.

MindyStClaire · 19/02/2020 13:21

I know it's shit, my parents' next door neighbours (in the other half of their semi) did an extension and attic conversion that went on for over a year. It was shit, but it was also nearly 20 years ago and they've done little since.

We bought a 1970s house (detached, so a real house that is allowed have building work done on it Wink ) that needed to be completely redone inside (redecorated, kitchen, bathroom etc) and we were limited in terms of time and money so that went on for probably two years, on and off. Now we're gearing up to do a garage conversion and small extension that'll take a few months at least. I can well see how OP's work will take a year, especially with people living in the house.

Again, it sucks, but it's the risk you take when you don't buy an isolated house in the middle of nowhere.

ffswhatnext · 19/02/2020 13:22

I wfh, between 2 of my neighbours we've put up with building works for nearly 2 years now.
The beauty of wfh is when the days are too noisy, I can quickly pack up and go elsewhere.

I would explain to them that unfortunately because of the long term neglect of the property over the past 50 years, the works are extensive.

And reading between the lines, it's not going to be a continuous year of work as op has to save up each time for the works to be done.

Madre1972 · 19/02/2020 13:27

I wfh a lot but that isn’t my neighbours problem. One has a baby that cries a lot around nap time (you know-like babies do), one has a dog that gets a bit yappy at the pigeons, we’ve had a full housing estate built behind us and I’ve not complained to any of them Over the noise. People have to live in houses, work needs doing, babies cry, dogs bark. In the summer we even hear children laughing and screeching in the paddling pool (what a cheek huh). I wear noise cancelling headphones for my calls.

Your neighbour is being very unreasonable!

HalfManHalfLabrador · 19/02/2020 13:29

I work from home and neighbours building work is annoying and disruptive however it’s carried out within allowed timeframes so I don’t complain, I don’t expect people to fit around around me because I WFH

ActualHornist · 19/02/2020 13:36

Sorry if this has been pointed out I haven’t read every response - but noise cancelling headphones might be an expensive gift they can’t use if they make their calls from their computer.

YANBU by the way.

LivelyCub · 19/02/2020 13:36

I work from home running my company. It would be a nuisance but it's one of those things in life, unfortunately! I just apologised to my clients and said there was building work. I did not, however, appreciate the workers starting at 7-8am every Saturday and Sunday for three months. The neighbour bought us flowers and a bottle of wine which was a nice gesture and at the end of the day we decided a good relationship with our neighbours who were extending to make room for their young kids (likely to live there for a long time) was more important than lost sleep. Bigger picture.

pointtothetruth · 19/02/2020 13:37

Tell your neighbours to get dressed, go to work like normal people and stop bleating about it. What you're doing is normal. Tel them to bigger off.

IntermittentParps · 19/02/2020 13:44

Tell your neighbours to get dressed, go to work like normal people and stop bleating about it.
You must be being deliberately provocative, because otherwise you are being spectacularly stupid.

MinisterforCheekyFuckery · 19/02/2020 13:46

This thread is doomed to go round and round in circles because it's one of those situations where it's nobody's fault, it's just a bit shit and there's very little that can realistically be done about it. OP has every right to make improvements to her home (within the agreed time frame specified by the council) and her neighbours have every right to WFH. It's unrealistic to expect OP to pay tradespeople to hang around waiting for NDN's toddler to wake up from a nap or for them to finish a conference call. It's also unrealistic to expect NDN's to rent an office space as some posters have suggested.

I'm a bit surprised by all the outrage at the OP renovating her house room by room rather than in one go. Yes, in an ideal world it probably would be better for OP's neighbours to get all the work done and out of the way. But I know lots of people who have bought a 'fixer-upper' and I only know one couple who did the whole house in one go- and that was because they had a massive inheritance and because they had another property they could move into. Most people aren't in that position. All the others could only afford to do their renovations one room at a time. It's really not unusual.

PineappleDanish · 19/02/2020 13:46

Tell your neighbours to get dressed, go to work like normal people

Too funny.

SueEllenMishke · 19/02/2020 13:50

I didn't realise I was abnormal for working from home.....I even get dressed

SafferUpNorth · 19/02/2020 14:08

I work from home and... a) I'm normal, b) I get dressed every morning, and c) would never dream of complaining about a neighbour's building works if carried out within normal hours and acceptable noise levels. On days I find it too much, I'd just take my laptop off to a nearby coffee shop. Done.

House renovation is a fact of life and comes with the territory if your 'office' is on a residential street.

Bakingqueen23 · 19/02/2020 14:16

It might be annoying them complaining. But all these people saying they work from home because they want to and they can go elsewhere need to consider that might not be the case. I work from home because I'm too sick to go into work but I need the money to work. I'd love to go into the office

Bakingqueen23 · 19/02/2020 14:17

You're a delight.

pointtothetruth · 19/02/2020 14:27

It is abnormal to work from home. I accept that for a small minority of people there may be no the choice but for the vast majority there is a choice.

I have a number of friends who work from home and all they bleat on about is how they don't get dressed, pop out for various things and what they watch on TV.

It's the biggest con of the 21st century.

Oh, and the lengths they go to to convince their co-workers that they are actually working by sending random emails day and night, putting fake conference calls in their diary and get this one, my all time favourite......

Opening MS Word, placing a small weight on the space bar so that Skype shows them as active while they pop to the Gym for an hour. Honestly, it's true!

PineappleDanish · 19/02/2020 14:32

I work from home and I don't have co-workers. Am I conning myself?

Interested to find out.

pointtothetruth · 19/02/2020 14:38

Of course not, you're one of the small minority. Thought that would have been obvious.

Jaxhog · 19/02/2020 14:44

I work from home and have had building noise for most of the last 15 years. (We live in an expensive area, where everyone seems to want to build extensions, houses in the garden etc.) The only time it really bothered me was when our NDN's builder decided to cut terrazzo tiles under my study window. I was actually more annoyed by the dust created since he neglected to use water. He stopped as soon as I went round and shouted at him!

Unfortunately, it's the downside of working from home. I bought myself a good pair of noise-cancelling headphones that would also take phone calls. You've restricted the times of making noise, which is really all you can do. The only thing I would suggest is agreeing to let them know before you will be drilling, and asking the builders to keep their radio on low volume.

Jaxhog · 19/02/2020 14:50

It is abnormal to work from home. I accept that for a small minority of people there may be no the choice but for the vast majority there is a choice.

What total and utter rubbish! It's becoming the new normal as more people become self-employed or run their own businesses. We work a normal length day and are even dressed when we do it. I get far more done at home than I ever did in an office, where far too many people just fanny about on Facebook 'pretending' to work.

Longwhiskers14 · 19/02/2020 14:52

You're doing a room at a time and THEN an extension? That's cost to be the least cost effective way to renovate a house! Surely it would've been better to save up and hire a main contractor who could project-manage it all at once? You don't actually sound that bothered about upsetting your neighbours in your updates – more like inconvenienced by their grumbling. I wonder if that's the impression you give when you speak to them and if you were a bit more contrite and apologetic they might back off a bit?

FlamingoAndJohn · 19/02/2020 14:53

I have a number of friends.......

Do ye, aye.