Hi Oracles
Apologies for the backstory, i hope it adds value.
In Feb '22, a 2 up/down Georgian/Victorian property next door to me was bought by someone who then promptly started work on extensive renovations.
These works included removing wood and old plaster from the walls to go back to brick, expose joists, remove some floor boards upstairs, remove chimneys, replace a wall in a rear extension, excavations - it has been brutal for both myself and neighbours in this small street.
Builders arriving from 6:15am until 14:00/15:00 per day. Work eventually completed Jan '23.
Its been a nightmare and learning curve as i now know about Party Walls but, it was all too late to be effective. i was never provided a PWA at any point, the council advised i should have had one but did nothing.
I was originally advised that the work would be up to 3 weeks and 2 old ladies would like there but, having seen the result, its very unlikely given its now hard tiled flooring downstairs and inappropriate facilities for stiff, fragile older bodies prone to falls and bangs.
The result of the work is that as the two properties share the upper floor joists and they removed all the old plaster to expose the beams and walls, they never filled those joist holes again and simply boarded around them. This now means that sounds easily transmit between the properties, whether its people talking loudly, baby screaming, dog barking, etc.
All that is preventing transmission is 12.5mm plasterboard on their side.
Frustratingly, during Covid i had put up an independant wall with 2 plaster boards, insulation and a 5mm Techsound layer. This meant that in the early phases of the work, when i was allowed in next door, my music could be very loud and they would not hear it. By the end of the work it now can be heard despite my efforts to not be a nuisance and to be considerate of others.
The rear extension is only a timber frame, erected over the party wall upstairs to the outside edge (ie, my side) and plasterboarded. my featherboards are cladding the rear from one wall to the partywall and should be 2 bricks deep yet their internal wall is built over this edge. This means there is only a piece of baton and plasterboard between us at the rear of my property upstairs so we can hear each other talking quite easily.
The house did appear on Air BnB before Christmas, it has had one set of guests (with the baby), an old couple (i presume to be the owner) with a yappy dog stayed some days over Christmas.
Thoughout last year, i asked to speak with the owner and was always told 'she' was coming down later but, never knocked. In Aug '22 i posted a 16 page report of the problems, indicating where the now weak spots were and requested a meeting to discuss. No response. 14 days later i wrote again, expressing disappointment at her failure to share the concern and remediate whilst practical.
The house is now up for sale, it seems an unrealistic price to us in the street, she is demanding an additional £115k for something believed to have been over priced originally.
What can i do? I expected 'them' to live in this property and to feel compelled to remediate once experiencing the problems themselves yet now it seems they want to move the problem on to someone else who wont 'own' the Responsibility.
How can i ensure someone is responsible for remediating these problems and that she/they 'dont get away with it'?
Thank you for reading.
Natalie