Have just sent neighbour’s builder away

[Allthecoolusernamesaregone]

Our neighbour said she was having work done and we agreed access and to have scaffolding in our garden. We knew it would be inconvenient, but the work was only due to take a few days.

We made sure paths etc were clear and the scaffolding was put up about 10 days before the work was due to start.

It makes access through our normal route very tight, and blocks the majority of light to the kitchen, but is about what we thought.

It’s worse at the moment due to a pre existing agreement to look after my friend’s rabbits, as their run takes up a lot of space, and I have to navigate a ‘squirrel style assault course’ to reach my washing line.

The building work didn’t start as planned, and we have now had the scaffolding up for one month. The Tesco delivery man can’t get his trolley through, so we meet in the garden ( yes, I know ‘first world’ problems!).

We didn’t know work would be starting today, but mid morning my dog
barked ( fortunately he was safely in the house). I saw that my back gate had been wedged open, and men were bringing things into the garden.

They knocked on the door to complain that there were some things stored close to one of the access areas. ( the access itself was clear). I have a postage stamp sized garden and with the scaffolding and the rabbit run I don’t really have anywhere else to move things. The one who was doing all the talking said something like ‘it’s on you if it gets ruined then’.

I asked him to make sure the gate was shut when they were not working in my garden due to my dog ( I will have to take him into the open plan front garden on a lead whilst they are working). He told me they weren’t going to be opening and shutting gates all the time.

I asked when they would be working and he said they would be here when they are here and it might be a day this week and then when they had time over a few weeks. He was almost aggressively vague.

I wasn’t happy, the scaffolding is already a pain, and over a period of a few weeks, with no prior notice, I can’t guarantee that no one will accidentally let the dog out not knowing they are there or have left the gate open.

The final straw came when he again banged on my door and demanded I move the rabbit run, which is about 18” away from the path, and not especially in the way. My husband is away and I couldn’t move it on my own even if I had space.

He said it was my garden and my responsibility to move stuff to give him access. He wanted to set up a cement mixer in that space, and plug it in in my garage. (The garage is normally kept locked.) He was very unpleasant.

I admit I lost my temper there. I told him I was pleased he realised it was my garden and as such I wanted him to remove himself and all of his stuff from it.

I have seen the mess sometimes left by mixing cement and if he had been reasonable I would probably have put up with it, but he was not, and he is not running it on my electricity.

He started ranting that he had a right to be there to get to next door’s job.

I told him that access had been granted with my permission and I was now withdrawing it, and he needed to leave.

He then said he was wasting his time dealing with a woman and wanted to speak to my husband.

At that stage I told him to Fuck off, and left saying I would be phoning the police.

I was on hold for 101 but was quite surprised to see him packing up his stuff and going!

My neighbour is at work and unaware of the confrontation. I have no idea how she will react.

Our ll put scaffolding up one Jan. For painting that happened in March.
In October we out Halloween decorations in it...

This does solve the mystery of why our scaffolders didn't seem to want their scaffolding back. I was tempted to purchase lots of hanging baskets and turn it into a feature.

You were quite nice and kind to let them use your side if the house and garden to put up the scaffolding but they are absolutely taking the Mickey. I wouldn't put up with that . I would tell him to clear off and all his stuff and tell your neighbour, I am sorry but this ain't working. And the builder is extremely unprofessional and rude. I would happily come over now and whack him with a frying pan for you.

How dare he, what an absolute arse hole!

How dare he expect to use your fadden abd your power. The job is nit fir you, so use tge neighbours garden and energy.

You were absolutely right. Talk to your neighbour, hopefully they're reasonable and will talk sternly to their builder.

If it all goes to sh1t with yoyr neighbour, tell them to take the scaffolding etc down and sort their work out some other way...

A neighbour ended up with her scaffolding being left in place for months, over winter, after decorating was finished. Despite many phone calls it wasn’t shifted. Eventually her son phoned and said in lieu of storage fees, he was going to eBay the scaffolding.
it was removed the next day. (Could be coincidental but we all thought not.).

I hope they've got kick boards and netting on the scaffolding too OP so that they don't risk dropping anything onto someone in your garden.

We arrived home once after a weekend away to find that the builders building the house next door had put scaffolding up on their land but with one of the walkways coming over our 6ft fence. I rang their site manager who claimed he'd inspected the scaffolding the day before and that it was entirely over their site. I politely suggested he goy himself back to site to look again!
Surprise surprise, the scaffolding was over our garden - no kick boards or netting to prevent anything dropping onto us. He was told that no-one was to work on the scaffolding until that was rectified. Next day, scaffolders arrive - and start putting the next level of scaffolding up. I asked him where the boards and netting were and got the patronising 'don't know anything about that luv'. So I politely suggested he stopped what he was doing and rang the person who did! Later that day the kick boards and netting arrived! And the 2 weeks of scaffolding was there for 2 months!

'And you can get those poles out of my garden right now!'

= She was a mad racist, m'lud.

skip companies will sometimes do the same

My blood pressure is shooting up just reading this! You’ve handled it well op

😂😂😂

@saraclara Let's just say if I were the neighbour, I'd have gone out of my way to make sure OP was fully informed at all times, and that she wasn't inconvenienced any more than she needed to be. Including taking time off to make sure the work was done with adequate respect for my neighbour, along with constant updates as to when builders were coming in. No way I'd have let it get to this stage.

Well done OP . I had very similar happen in my 20s when a builder bought the neighbouring house continually blocked my drive and then told me at “9 am weekend morning” he would be erecting scaffolding for 2 months over the summer taking up 3m of my garden to work on the house he had bought .I replied “and what happens if I don’t give you permission”. He told me I didn’t have a choice and could explain it to my non existent husband.

my solicitor sent him a letter saying I did not appreciate threatening bullying behaviour. I offered 1 month of access in October with penalty of £500 a day if scalfolding not removed , condition that bully boss would not set foot on my property, they would not block access, must repair damage to garden, could only work Monday to Friday and not during my night shift block .

he was apoplectic but agreed to my terms. All was good in the end. Great foreman and garden left tidy, a few plants replaced with apologies and thanks.

I am right behind you!

I had this with next door’s eight week ‘project’. The scaffolders set up poles in our side path, which was fine, but then put the access onto the scaffolding directly above our gate, instead of anywhere at all on next door’s side (the whole house was scaffolded), so not only were they proposing to use my land for their access, but they were two feet from my office window going up and down all day. Except they weren’t, because I went next door at the end of day one and told next door that they needed to get the scaffolders back to remake their ladder access anywhere else but above my gate. Which they did, the next morning. Some people are such cheeky fuckers, honestly. You’ve been very patient, OP. Now’s the time to withdraw some of your goodwill.

Havent RTWT but slightly worried that the builder might take out his aggression on the rabbits ?

Same happened to us. We rent the downstairs and there's a flat upstairs. The side driveway is ours and our door is half way down the side on our drive.

Upstairs people arranged for a re-roofing and asked for permission for scaffolding all around the house, which we obviously agreed to as it's "our" roof as well.

Scaffolders came and put the steps/access literally right over our doorway. They could have put it anywhere else - all sides were level and had equally easy access. Then the skip hire came and plonked a huge skip right by our door (again, could have been put anywhere on our drive or on the front "garden" where the neighbour parks. We weren't asked for permission for the skip!

After two weeks we'd had enough of the incessant noise, disruption, them throwing bags of tiles etc from the roof into the skip (only just missing us if we happened to come out of our door as they never looked or shouted before chucking rubbish down). We'd mentioned it to roofers many times to stop throwing stuff down as it was dangerous, but they didn't change! We

So we phoned the skip co and told them to move the skip, then phone the scaffolders to tell them to move the access point/ladders. We also phoned roofer firm boss and told him we'd be reporting his firm to council/H&S if a single items was "thrown" off the roof in future. Told the neighbours that we were withdrawing permission for the skip, etc. Of course, it was "our" fault for being awkward that THEY had put the ladders and skip right by our door when there were lots of alternatives. So lots of huffing and puffing and eye rolling when the skip firm and scaffolders came to move it!

You really have to stand up for yourself, especially when dealing with the three worst kinds of "tradesmen", i.e. roofers, scaffolders and skip hire firms - they seem to attract the worst type of worker, and don't get me started on their obscene language - they can't string a sentence together without the F or C word!

You mean you think he would come back just to do them harm? Seems a bit unlikely surely? He’d be suspect number one if he did.

Good for you! He's a twat. I once came home and caught our neighbours grandson doing building work on her house, using a tarpaulin we'd had on our shed roof, OUR hose/water supply and mixing cement on our lawn. He couldn't understand why I was so shocked and wanted him to bugger off. He was a cheeky, entitled idiot the entire time we lived there. It would only have got worse for you and your neighbour needs to reconsider who they have doing their building work

Good for you! He's a twat. I once came home and caught our neighbours grandson doing building work on her house, using a tarpaulin we'd had on our shed roof, OUR hose/water supply and mixing cement on our lawn. He couldn't understand why I was so shocked and wanted him to bugger off. He was a cheeky, entitled idiot the entire time we lived there. It would only have got worse for you and your neighbour needs to reconsider who they have doing their building work

Some builders are..
I went to the retail park today and they were doing some work on scaffolding
Shouting every time a woman went past either tiny tits or big tits. Shame they had a giant board with the company name on it

our local skip firm is lovely....then again the office manager is a woman! make of that what you will.

Well done for standing up to the twat. He's probably not used to it.

Wow, he sounds like an absolute shocker - total misogynist, bully and arsehole.
Glad he's been got shot of - and presumably the actual contracted builder won't use him again either, because it will damage his own reputation.

I never understand why some builders feel the need to a) be such arses and b) do a shit job. It can't really be that much harder to do the job properly and with civility, surely!

Glad you've managed to have a reasonable convo with the neighbour and hope that things work out.

Could not agree more.

What a twat. I would die of embarrassment if I was your neighbour.

After the ‘I’m done dealing with a woman’ comment I can’t promise I wouldn’t have thrown hands!! The nerve of some people. You’re doing your neighbour a favour so it’s your neighbours responsibility to ensure minimum disruption to you.
i had a similar thing. My neighbour had to build a dividing wall in our attic and consequently scaffolding had to be put IN our house. It was there far longer than it should have been. Also one of the builders put a huge hole in our ceiling when he lost his footing. Also it left my newly painted walls and newly cleaned carpet covered in black dust. I was fuming. Always put yourself first because most people in this world will.