Letter from neighbour

[CrispsAndChoc]

We’ve just had a letter saying that residents of my street are fed up with us and the disruption our work vans are causing. There’s no name or door number (it was delivered by the postman) so we can’t knock and apologise. It’s made me feel awful in our new home and I don’t know what to do!

For background-we moved in earlier this year to a very run down house down a road of lovely houses. Since we moved in, we’ve had lots of work done but it’s only been one van outside and no skips. A few (maybe 6) neighbours have commented on how lovely the house is looking and that they’ve never seen anything be done to it in years.

During The last few weeks, a few jobs have accidentally overlapped and there have been more vans and a skip on the drive meaning we can’t park on it. The vans are never parked over driveways but have occasionally been opposite one which can make it difficult (but not impossible) for people to get in and out of their drive. A couple of weeks ago, a neighbour had a go at me for parking opposite her driveway and I haven’t done so since despite it being a legal parking space that others have parked in since.

The majority of the work is now finished meaning there is only one van most days but the skip is still on the drive for a few more days.

I appreciate that it’s annoying when work is being done somewhere but my thoughts are that people should realise it’s only temporary and speak to us about problems they may have so we can rectify them rather than shout or send anonymous letters. AIBU

Yes exactly this! Some people are just miserable asshats. If I was so put out, I'd be speaking to you and getting a time frame. YANBU, bin the letter

Great idea.

They will be happy once your house looks much better! They can't have it both ways!

This

I'm with @Sunnidaze and @WomanStanleyWoman2.

You are entitled to repair your home. Whether it involves major building work that takes months or smaller jobs that take a couple of weeks.

A general letter saying someone is annoyed is no use to anyone. So unless they've said "hi, I live at no 42 and your workmen are regularly blocking my drive. Please could you have a word" for example, then living with this sort of thing is just part of life.

Honestly since they didn’t put a name or door number or from the sounds of it a specific issue then I would just bin and move on. My next door neighbour had renovations going on for about 4 months this year. Coincidentally 3 of those months were my last 3 months of university where I was trying to write a dissertation from home and revise for exams from home while the banging and drilling went on against the shared wall for hours at a time. It sucked. But I never once complained to my neighbour because what was she going to do about it? Magically make our houses further apart so that it wasn’t so loud? Suddenly go “oh sorry I guess I just won’t have that new kitchen and bathroom installed then”? It was annoying but it was temporary. And at some point most people have work done it’s just part of having a house even when you rent the landlord might have to have renovations and repairs done which can be ongoing at times so it’s not like it’s even just when you own your own house either.

yes I’m sure it’s annoying to your neighbours but you’re also perfectly entitled to do work to your home as long as it’s not doing anything illegal and not during unsociable hours.

I would put your last paragraph on a little notice board, and bang it into the ground at the front of the garden for all to see. Curiosity would get it seen. 😂😂

Erm Cuppasoupmonster did you actually read the post 🤔

Yes, this sounds like a great idea. I'd definitely do this OP.

My bet is that the other residents are more fed up of the letter writer whinging to them than your renovations. No one wants a dilapidated building lowering house prices in the Street.

My thoughts exactly!

Building works can be very annoying, especially for those trying to work at home. It's unusual that you didn't let your neighbours know in advance, but I suppose it's just as irritating whether you know what's happening or not. The other sounds like someone just letting off steam, so best ignored. Given you have nearly finished, just focus on getting the work finished to stop being disruptive, they'll forget quickly enough.

Whatever you do, Dont do what @Testina has suggested as that will escalate into bad neighbour relations when your house is looking lovely.

I would invite people over, feed them and give them drinks and thank them so much for their patience in all the disruption at the very start to set the tone for the night.

You got this! 👌

I think it's hard for neighbours when work goes on for long periods because streets aren't designed to have extra vans and skips, along with the normal cars - roads are narrow, driveways small etc.
I can see why it would be irritating, people are wfh, noise and extra vehicles make getting in and out difficult. Basically they are getting the inconvenience of your house improvements and it bothers you less because you get the benefit, but they just get the clutter.
That said, anonymous notes are cowardly and neighbours should approach you and have a discussion about anything your contractors are doing which is bugging them.

Most towns have a Facebook page and I'd be inclined to post the note there and say that you are happy to speak to people directly and address concerns but since the note was cowardly posted anonymously, it doesn't leave you any means of doing so!
But I'm quite combative and you might be better in the long run to ignore it and just be mindful of where builders etc are parking.

Write "Fuck Off" in big letters over the letter.

Pin it to your door.

Morons.

If I were you, I would just bin the letter and carry on as normal. We had someone move in to a house opposite us recently and she went to each of the neighbours to explain she was having a lot of work done on the house and expected builders etc to be about for a few months but if there were any problems whatsoever, if we let her know, she would get it sorted, which I thought was nice of her. They've been here for over 3 months now, with vans all over the place, but they are being very considerate as to where they park them, making sure they aren't in anyone's way, and not a lot of noise, so it's a mystery as to what they are actually doing. We're only in a small cul de sac so it can get a bit busy at times, especially as we decided to have our front garden done over recently which added another van to the chaos. I think what I'm trying to say is some people realise that sometimes work needs to be done which will take a long time but know it's not going to be forever, and some people just want something to moan about to make their lives a bit more interesting. Sorry for the long post.

Anonymous letters are the lowest of the low. Nasty and cowardly to boot. Ignore it completely - what kind of little shit does that to a new neighbour?

Seriously OP ignore the rude, aggressive or downright silly responses that have been suggested on here.

The fact that only one person has complained doesn't mean that others haven't been sighing, muttering and wondering when the hell you'll be finished.

Just put an apologetic note through the doors, thanking them for their patience and letting them know when you'll be finished.

Then either invite them all around for a drink, or drop them all in a bottle of wine.

Why would you want to get off to a bad start with new neighbours by being needlessly rude and unpleasant?

Exactly Aquamarine. Same neighbours would likely complain if OP hadn’t had renovations done & they were living near a dilapidated house. Massive eye roll 🙄

It's probably the misery guts who shouted at you and thinks she owns not just her drive but opposite it as well.

It reminds me of the time we had a nasty letter posted through the post to our house. We rented though so it said "for the attention of the owner". Our landlord loved abroad so we opened it

There weird thing was the person who sent it had clearly used a template they used for their business because there was a weird gap at the top where an address and header would be. They had gone to the effort of blanking that out to be anonymous. The letter was so rude, condescending and downright fantasy, and was how the home owners were sick of their road being turned into cheap rentals (trust me, our rent was £1k a month for a half falling down crap shack, it was far from cheap). It went on and on all over us putting a shed in our garden. Not on public land. In the garden. Like 99% of the houses on our road.

In their rush to spew nastiness on the page ready to print and send via the post, the twat forgot to remove the bottom bit of his template which helpfully included his company, his name and his address and phone number. It took me all of two minutes to Google and find his email. And the email I sent I'm still proud of.

After that, he used to come out of his house to his car, and if I happened to be coming out of our house at the time, he would sprint as fast as he could, head down, jump in his car and drive off at speed. Was bloody hilarious. I would always try and go out so I could see him squirm the sod.

Tuff shit. Everyone has work done. You're improving you're home. As long as the vehicles are taxed etc then nothing they can do.

Big note saying 'didn't know who to apologise to' SORRY' laminate it and the original letter. Ideally big enough so everyone can see what a short sighted arse lives on the road.

They clearly aren't used to renovations. But that's not your problem. Work needs to get done, and will carry on doing so. It will end, they just have to wait, like you are. Once it's all done everyone will be happy. Nothing else you can do honestly 🤷‍♀️