what to do about the ugly side of next door's extension?

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So, next door built a single storey extension a couple of years ago, almost completely against the boundary fence. Neighbour occasionally made comments about coming round to finish off the side facing onto our garden but never did. Our garden has been a bit wild so we just let ivy grow over the side of the extension and it disguised it reasonably well.

However we are now doing up our garden and have replaced the boundary fence (not even sure if it was ours but we did it anyway) which necessitated clearing away the ivy. The final fence panel has yet to be erected so that something can be done about the side of the extension which is currently completely exposed and accessible. Unfortunately, neighbour seems distinctly unenthusiastic about rendering the side of his extension and is being a bit evasive. It looks an absolute sight - big grey blocks with untidy grouting, bits of liner sticking out from under the roof tiles etc. It's right next to our living room window and difficult to ignore.

So, if he continues to procrastinate, I'm wondering if there's something simple we can do ourselves to make the side look more presentable. Could I slap on some rendering myself and paint it? Is that hard to do? Alternatively I'm tempted to plant something fast growing (Russian ivy?) which will quickly cover the wall again (and he will have to deal with it growing over the roof and windows of his extension ......).

Any suggestions? I don't want to fall out with him but equally I don't want to leave the fence unfinished much longer (it's 3 or 4 weeks since we told him we were doing the fence and a couple of weeks since it was (almost) done.

take a few photos to show him how awful it looks. Have them printed, in colour, in a large format.

Bare blocks will absorb a lot of rain so his home will be needlessly cold and damp.

If you felt like it, you could, with his agreement, use cream masonry paint to make it look better. I doubt you would do a good job of rendering it yourself. If it is a ground-floor extension, cladding could be used, but if you do it, he will blame you for any resultant problems.

Or you could just erect a full-height fence with some trellis, and grow roses/sweet peas/grapes, or holly in pots which, being evergreen, will hide it all year. Personally I don't like ivy or clematis.

I had wondered if there were practical not just aesthetic reasons for having it properly finished and now the ivy and foliage has been removed there is no protection from the elements. Full height fence is an interesting idea and I like the idea of roses. Once that's up though, it's not coming down if he does decide he wants access to resolve any damp problems. I'm tempted to direct a hose pipe at the wall for a while to see if that has any effect!

Fwiw I wouldn't plant roses. Most of them only have flowers for a very short time, and they look pretty ugly the rest of the year (particularly winter).

Ivy will cause endless damage to their building and yours (grows like crazy, damages brickwork, blocks drains). Evil stuff!

Do you know which way the ugly wall faces (so how much sun it gets) ? That will determine which plants are most suitable. Do you want something evergreen?

Is there a chance that he's waiting for the weather to warm up before painting/rendering/finishing off the other side?

Did he need planning permission for the extension? If he did there would expectations that the outside was properly finished. I know you don't want to cause bad feeling (not that he's giving you that consideration) but he shouldn't have been able to have the building approved by building regs if it wasn't finished according to specifications.

Oh God, I wondered if you were my neighbour! Our sodding builder also didn't render the neighbour side of our extension because he was complete cunt. We are planning on doing it though, why the hell wouldn't you? If you're not fond of him, you could dob him in to building control.

Honeysuckle grows rapidly ( well my neighbours does). You could train that to go up the wall.

I have honeysuckle. It forms quite a tangle, and takes a lot of cutting. Also the tips take root where they touch the ground. However (I just looked) it is still in leaf.