WIBU to complain/report to council

[feduptimesamillion]

[Name change as this is almost certainly outing]

Short and sweet: I’m just fed up now. We’ve had nonstop home and garden renovations close to us for five months and now there’s a guy a few different houses seem to be hiring (must be word of mouth?) but he’s consistently working every Sunday. Last week he spend the whole weekend putting up a fence which included staplegunning all the panels to the posts, the garden(s) he is working in are incredibly long so it went on for hours. Today he is cement mixing and bricklaying, he is currently hammering bricks.

I know the name of the company as I can see it on his vehicle, WIBU to report him or should I just get over it?

I’m just honestly sick of it and it already goes on all day Monday to Saturday. I just want ONE day, is that too much to ask?

Genuine question, what are you going to report him for?

what for?

Report him for what?

It’s a fair question, I’m not even sure if I have a genuine complaint! I’m under the impression noisy work is prohibited on Sunday and I would feel different if it was just neighbour Bob putting up a fence himself but because he’s a proper trademan doing paid work, I feel iffy about it. He’s free to work all week so I’m not sure he should be doing noisy work on Sunday as well.

Unless he's working loudly very early in the morning or late at night, he's not doing anything wrong.

Seems like MN thinks it’s fine so happy to told IABU but a quick Google seems to suggest 8-6 Mon-Fri, 8-1 Sat, no work at all on Sunday is the norm. Oh well.

There are only so many things that can be done before it's complete and it's over with.

I don't know current rules, but I doubt there's anything you can do and anyway if you were working and wanted work done it would probably need to be the weekend right?

With all that has happened these last months you are probably feeling battered and exhausted and building noise can drive you crazy at the best of times, but it does end. Just hang in there.

YANBU to be pissed off, it sounds very disruptive and the constant noise must be really annoying.

If it was just one house then you could have a word with the neighbours in question but because he's doing almost every house on you're street, there's not much you can say. You can tell the workman off for doing his job and you can't tell people they can't do their home improvements.

Eventually, it will come to an end and there will be no home improvements left for people to have done.

*your!

*can't not can! Sorry, I give up. I seem to have lost the ability to type

I live on a new development and the council do restrict the hours the site can work and can be noisy, they have to apply for a variation when they need to work out of hours and inform us, like when a crane has to be taken down overnight.

It is worth checking with the council if they have regulations in place. Although gardening might fall outside of building work.

I'm sure if it was your house getting work done you wouldn't mind getting it done on a Sunday!

Thanks for the understand guys. It’s definitely hard when throughout March/ April/ May there was literally no escape, usually we wouldn’t be home Monday to Friday so having massive works happening 6-7 days a week for 5 months is... tough.

I imagine he’s a self employed guy and in desperate need of the money because of Covid, if he is actually working 7 days a week. He must be exhausted!
YANBU to be annoyed at the disruption but I don’t think you should report him as it won’t go on forever. X

@Mammaaof But it doesn’t necessarily make it right. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

In the same sense of mammaaof if it was your business you also wouldn't be complaining. It's not ideal but theres nothing the council can do. They are just earning a living!

It's hardly the end of the world I doubt it will be going on every Sunday for the rest of the year will it? Who knows maybe one day you'll need something doing and someone will complain about you.

Also do you think that if you complain the council will come rushing out? Seriously after ONE complaint from ONE person being so petty I doubt they would even do anything. Your earning a living so let the poor man earn one as well.

Would be totally unreasonable to complain, doesn’t sound like anyone is doing anything wrong by carrying out renovations on a Sunday.

Local councils do specify no noisy building work Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday. It really isn't the same as one house doing DIY after work, so yes I would call the council.

It really isn't fair to expect people to put up with noisy building work every single day for months without a break. It gets very wearing.

Have you tried speaking to him?

I’m not expecting anyone to come running but maybe they can remind him of the permitted noisy work hours. We are really friendly with another couple and they’ve hired him for a huge job in September. Fair play he must do great work but essentially this might go on until mid/late October. Not sure anyone saying IABU would be quite so blasé after 9 months but!

You are right about those hours OP. I had a similar problem a few weeks ago & went & had a word with them. Work stopped immediately, rather than 8pm, & it stopped on a Sunday. If you don't want to speak to them then you can report to environmental health. These cunts are just taking liberties here, & will continue until someone complains.

@feduptimesamillion

Seems like MN thinks it’s fine so happy to told IABU but a quick Google seems to suggest 8-6 Mon-Fri, 8-1 Sat, no work at all on Sunday is the norm. Oh well.

That, or something similar, is generally in planning conditions.

Not sure if they can enforce it other than that.

There are no laws where I live that prevent work on a Sunday after 8am. I've never heard of restrictions either, but I'm Scotland where Sunday opening etc has always been more widespread.