Building work at a weekend

[isitmeorthemidontknow]

Long time lurker. First post. I bought my first house just before Christmas. It's an older mid-terrace. One of the many things l liked about it was that it had recently been fully refurbished by a developer (apparently an older person had lived there for something like 60 odd years and it was very run down). I haven't had much to do with the neighbours but they seem OK.

Anyway, the neighbours to the one side of me let me know they are having some building work done and that there would be some noise, ok, fair enough though not great as I regularly WFH. They also said it may be that the work takes place at weekends. This is less than great. So far there's been some noise last weekend, and some today.

I am finding this unbearable, so I went to see the neighbours on the other side of these people, to ask what they felt about the noise. They just shrugged their shoulders and said if it's got to be done it's got to be done. Then they added that the work which had been done to my house had gone on for the over 18 months and that it had been "hell on earth" as the person who sold to me had done most of the work himself, at weekends, which had been very noisy, disruptive with vans etc. in the street, and the general mess, so now people living here don't really care too much anymore about disrupting others.

I feel somehow I'm being made to be the bad person here, almost as if because I bought a renovated house that I'm the one who made all the disruption, and that I get to reap all the benefits, bearing in mind I paid more for the house because it was all done up! AIBU?

I would view it as the work will be done quicker if it’s going on at weekends, too. It won’t be forever and people have every right to have a nice home. It means you have responsible neighbours who care about things, actually.

You valued a house that had been refurbished but don’t want your neighbours to do the same thing?

The noise would really bother me too. However, they are allowed to do work to their property. YABU to expect otherwise.

But why should someone else's past disruption now set the tone for all the neighbours?

Because their want their house refurbished too! YABU. Live and let live. It won’t last forever.

Renovation work is disruptive. As long as it’s not being noisy into the night then YABU.

Although you’re not responsible for the disruption when your property was done you can’t get away from the fact it will have been just as disruptive as your neighbours.

Oh of course yabu <<rolls eyes>>.

You could ask them not to work on a Sunday - if you're going to find the nerve to do this without having backup from the other neighbours first.

You are being an utter arse. Ask them not to make much noise into the evenings, but otherwise - shut up!

Your views seem hypocritical and it was a bad move to share them with your neighbours!

If the neighbours are not breaking local authority rules / guidance about noise, and you have no specific problems making it more difficult for you than others to cope with daytime noise (eg very poor health) complaining isn’t justified.

Ffs stop being such an arse. Careful now that you don’t get a reputation for being the ‘complainer’ - we have one like that - constantly goes round trying to to rally neighbours to come together against others who she deems is ‘making too much noise’ - everyone hates them.

That was always the tone for every house in the land. Building work happens and is noisy. Suck it up.

Our new neighbours had their house done up and it lasted 3 months and they were living elsewhere. It was constant noise including the builders' radio blaring. We're retired and so didn't have anywhere to escape to all day. We just put up with it. We knew it would come to an end one day. We didn't complain because that's life, it's not like a neighbour playing loud music late at night. When it was finished they thanked us for our patience.

Just focus on the knowledge that it's not forever.

You can’t be this obtuse. You just bought fully renovated house!
You aren’t happy with neighbours doing building work on the weekends but you moan about it in the week too!
You’re viewed as the bad person because you’re a hypocrite and immature, building noise is just part of having neighbours.

It’s just part of life living with neighbours
it won’t last forever you can’t expect to world to revolve around you
quicker they crack on quicker it’s done
tbh they didn’t have to mention it in the first place
I don’t think there holding the last 18months against you

also you could make a rod for your own back what about if you need work done
you can’t complain then do the same yourself

Why should you be the only one allowed to live in newly renovated property?

Yabu

So you’re never going to do any work to your house, OP?

You didn’t answer the question.

Oh no. Not the weekends?

It’s not ideal in the week because you work from home but you don’t want them to work at weekends either?
So when is he supposed to make improvements to his home?
you’re being ridiculous, get some ear plugs and suck it up, it won’t last forever.

This can't be real.

When do you think your neighbours should be allowed to do renovation work if it bothers you in the week and at the weekends?

Why do you think you are being painted as a bad person because the neighbour pointed out that work on your own house was disruptive but they all had to put up with it? She was simply drawing your attention to the fact that some disruption when neighbours do work on their house is part and parcel of life. Why are you struggling to understand that?

You need to grow up or buy a house without neighbours.

You better get saving OP and move to a detached house in the country. A mid terraces sounds like the worst choice for you if you can’t stand noise from the neighbours 😏

When do you want your neighbours to do the work on their house? Should they wait until you are on holiday perhaps ? You are being unreasonable and will make enemies.

I don't really get why you're hung up on this. Just because this one neighbour said that, doesn't mean they speak for the whole street. The neighbours actually adjoining you who are doing the work might have decided to carry out the work on weekends even if your sellers hadn't done so first. At the end of the day, it's irritating, but legal.

Other people will soon move in, like you, who won't have been disadvantaged by what your owner did and will make their own decisions.

You're only "being made to be the bad person" because you're the only one who is complaining about the current work being done - so in effect you are making yourself the bad person, even if it's understandable why. The fact that they've only brought this up now after you've raised it shows that they clearly don't blame you for the work your sellers did (which would be ridiculous anyway), or they would have mentioned it beforehand.

Bet you'd moan if they let it go to rack and ruin too. My old neighbour was like this- make DIY noise for longer than 10 minutes and they'd be moaning like hell and coming up with some spurious reason why it was particularly important that they have peace and quiet on that day. But if they wanted work doing, or wanted to use their fucking leaf blower or pressure washer, or their useless son wanted to rev the arse of the car he was working on for hours on end, why that was absolutely fine. I quickly came to the conclusion that they were just unreasonable pains in the arse and ignored them. Don't be like them

You chose your house because it had been refurbished. Presumably you didn't think the work was done by fairies using magic wands and tiny hammers muffled with silk?