how would you feel if you rented a house and your neighbours started having really noisy building work done....

[hatwoman]

...which was not only noisy but caused a small amount of damage to the house you were living in, leaving you to make calls to the agent to get it sorted...

i'd feel a bit fucked off.

being me, id just think what it was like to be them... some things you cant help... but im a pushover!

who would you be fucked off with?

I'd be hacked off. With the neighbours. How long will it go on for?

Talk to them. If your property is damaged it's not their fault but the builders. And I don't know any building work that is quiet. Have patience - I've been the neighbour with the noisy builders and they pissed off my neighbours too, but apart from having a word with the builders there was little I could do! Building work is very messy and noisy by its very nature.

ok the damage was immediately sorted - and was expected by the owners as almost certainly bound to happen due to the nature of the work and didn't piss the owners off - would you, as the tenant still be pissed off? with the neighbours? and if so why?

Some advice for you hatwoman from DH who is a building surveyor.

If damage is occuring to your property it is likely that they may be working on the shared party wall. If this is the case they have a statutory duty to issue notice on all "owners" as defined under the act. Whilst as a person renting a property you would not qualify as an owner they still have to issue notice on your landlord and any leaseholders.

If they have not done this and are indeed working on the party wall (inserting beams etc) and cutting into the wall then you could suggest to your agent that such works are being undertaken which are damaging his clients property.

The freeholder can then take out an injunction halting works until an award under the act has been drafted and surveyors appointed. Working proceeding after this will be subject to controls as agreed by the surveyors and any danage would have to be made good upon completion of the works by the person carrying out the work.

Note: this would however only apply if they are working on the party wall or in the case of an extension excavating within 3m of your building s foundations and to a lower depth than yours.

Hope this helps

party wall agreement fully - and amicably - in place - all the work is 100 per cent within regulations

No I would not be pissed off with the neighbour. Why? Everyone has the builders in at some point. What are they supposed to do? Not renovate their house until it's convenient to you?

ok - I just wanted to sound out some opinions. In fact we're the noisy ones. Until they moved out we got on well with the owners - they have known informally just through chatting to us that we were going to do this work - probably upto a year before it started, and then when it came to it they knew formally through the party wall agreement, however, by this time they were no longer living there but renting it out. We don't know if they warned their tenants - although I think we can assume not. We chat to the tenants over the fence a fair bit. When the work started we knocked on their door and told them to come and talk to us if there were any problems. That was two weeks before the noisy stuff started. (though, unfortunately our other neighbours had some very noisy work done during that 2 week period and I slightly suspect they think it was us). We've asked the builders to limit the noisy stuff (we're talking pneumatic drills on concrete here) as much as possible - but they've got to do what they've got to do. I feel bad about it but not sure there's anything we can do about it.

Nothing you can do, they are being unreasonable. I'm rather glad you are on the other side now, I was feeling quite cross with you there for a minute!