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?

So presumably you will never have any work done in your house then if you think it is so unneighbourly?

You went to the neighbours the other side to get them to gang up with you to check how they felt about the noise? You actually did that?

I think they were tactfully trying to point out the hypocrisy of you living in a refurbed home while moaning about others’ right to do the same.

Having neighbours means that noise is one of those things, having nice neighbours who understand that noise during renovations is one of those things and isn’t a PITA about it is priceless.

It isnt setting the tone. Other people need to do improvements to their house. You paid money to have one already done. So that you wouldmt have to live thru disruption. Others are paying good money to do it to theirs. You cant expect your neighbours to never do work

You can contact your council’s environmental health/anti social behaviour team. They will have a word with them. You can log a complaint or call them out to witness it. I realise this isn’t a popular thing to do but there councils have strict hours for noisy work for a reason.

Check your council website. Ours does not allow building work after 12 pm saturday, sunday or bank holidays. My neighbours got a gang of cowboys in and I threatened to gress them for working saturday pm and sunday. They didnt do it again.

The people who bought the house next door to us are doing a lot of work. I wfh and it's annoying but that's the risk with wfh. They also work at the weekends and we're drilling a lot today. Again, annoying but fine. They don't start very early and finish up by 5. They've apologised a few times but the work needs to be done so they have a nice place to live.

Nothing you can do if the noise is within permitted legal time.

it’s annoying, but surely only short term. I lived on a new build estate that was still being built. The noise was horrible and I worked at home. But I knew it would be finished. Only times I complained was Sunday morning work and when they tried to start work at 6:30am.

Most councils will also distinguish between construction noise when it is carried out by a builder and DIY noise which is less likely to have strict hours limits.

more to the point you will have to declare that if you sell which would put a lot of people off complete home goal

Yeah sorry this is a you problem. You don't want the noise while you work from home, but it's not ideal on the weekend either? When would be a good time for you? The work needs doing, and it makes noise. Technically it wasn't you making the noise but you actually benefit even more from that- you get the lovely renovated property with none of the inconveniences your neighbors endured. We have a neighbor who tried to come to me complaining about our other neighbor when the house next to us was built, complaining about parking and things, then he went and did all sorts of renovations and caused significantly more disruption himself- but that was fine of course. 🙄 Such a twat. Get over it if you want to get along with people.

I have heard a building firm needs to get a permit if they intend to work after 1pm on Saturday or anytime on Sunday. There is no restriction for people doing DIY though.

You've bought a older terrace. They need work doing to stop them becoming damp etc. You'd have bigger issues if they wasn't doing renovations and their house was causing damp/subsidence etc to yours. In around 15 years, your house will need work again. You've chosen the age of house, amongst the same houses. You've just got to get on with it. The issue is WFH. We were never meant to sit in terraced houses all day.

Honestly I don't think you have covered yourself in glory here with your new neighbours here ( who may be friends by the way) of matching in to from your recently renovated apartment to a third party to complain about noise after one week of renovations.

Finding it 'unbearable' after this short amount of time seems a bit odd generally though.

I mean if it was 7 days a week every week for months that would be annoying.

My council does say noisy construction work should generally be restricted to
8 am to 6 pm, Monday to Friday, and 8 am to 1 pm on Saturdays. Working outside these hours, especially on Sundays or Bank Holidays, can be reported as a statutory noise nuisance

Seriously get a grip and be a decent neighbour. People are allowed to improve their homes. One day in the future you might want to do some work to yours. Just be nice. If it’s happening after 8am then that’s totally normal. I went through 6 months of this with my neighbours. It was annoying. But they’re nice neighbours and I can cope with being annoyed temporarily.