House demolition- neighbours rights??

[Cuckoochime]

My neighbour sold his house with planning permission a few weeks ago. The developer has started to clear the site (not the asbestos house itself yet!). It is on a hill on 2 levels- lower (to be parking) and upper which has sea views.
The developer says we have no rights of negotiation/ party wall as his house is central in the plot, 3 metres from ours ( which is near the boundary). He plans to build a mud slope for construction vehicles to reach the upper level by our boundary, just a few feet from my house. He says as its mud it doesn't count as building so again excempt from party wall law. The noise, dirt and vibrations will be catastrophic for us at that distance (down below would have been bad enough).
Do we have any rights? Will the council planners get involved in this or do I just accept for the next year our living room and bedroom will be unuseable in working hours?
Or has anyone lived with this and can give any advice to cope without a nervous breakdown? We are in tier 3 lockdown so can't escape.

Sympathy. My neighbours are building a massive extension and it seems like there are no rights.

AFAIK party wall agreement should be done only if within 2m of a boundary so he's probably right. My neighbours are building 20cm from the boundary, have not bothered with a party wall agreement and have scaffolding on my land. I'm gritting my teeth as I know I have to live next to them and don't want a falling out.

The actual building work hasn't been as noisy as I feared and I'm working from home 1m from the extension. The builders radio at deafening volume is another matter.

I think to avoid a breakdown you just need to keep telling yourself it's temporary. I think you'll find it won't be as noisy as you fear. Most building work actually seems fairly quiet though I guess the demolition and site clearance could be noisy but hopefully very short lived. At least it's winter and shutting the windows isn't a problem.

My neighbours are building 20cm from the boundary, have not bothered with a party wall agreement and have scaffolding on my land.
I think your need to tackle that. If they make a mistake and need to gain access to your side, are you willing to accommodate? What happens if they go 5 cm overhanging your land?

I don't think there is much you can do OP - they need to access the site somehow & presumably there isn't a reasonable alternative.

Nothing you can do, it will only be temporary and most of the heavy work will probably be done in the first 6 months, but on the plus side you get a nice new house to look at instead of an old one.

Why "catastrophic"?

Get in touch with the council asap. Get them on site and show what is going on and the proximity of it all. No guarantee anything will change but you have to at least give that a shot

Did they agree a construction management plan as part of the planning permission? This will deal with the steps they need to take to minimise disruption to neighbours during construction.

Thanks all. It sounds like we will have to go for a lot of winter walks to escape! I have also emailed the council (no phone service due to lockdown tier) to ask what they are able to do, if anything, to protect householders from noise, vibrations etc just in case...

Poor you OP!

Check the planning docs as they usually specify hours of work etc, but it’s likely that you basically have no rights. Just keep telling yourself it’s temporary.
It always strikes me the number of people who move out to avoid noise whilst their extension / landscaping / etc is built, without considering anything they can do to help neighbours.

Just to say it is not acceptable for a council to have no service due to lock down Tier! They can and do work from home. That’s shoddy. Contact your local councillor. You should look at working hours and an expectation that noise is kept to a minimum. I assume your garden doesn’t need a retaining wall due to this development? Are you clear on this?

If you look online under the planning application reference number you will be able to see the actual approval notice issued by the council. This will have a list of all the conditions imposed as part of the planning permission. The Council can and should enforce these if the developer decides to do his own thing.

Following my post 6 weeks ago, the work started next door then promptly stopped. I assumed it was due to Christmas break , but in fact I learned today it was due to enforcement action from the council as planning conditions were breached.
Yesterday the work started again- and today a council worker visited the site to tell them they were in breach and had to stop (they haven't).
Following his departure I've now had a rude 'name calling' email from the developer accusing me of calling the council - even though I didn't (not that I blame whoever did!). Shall I just ignore the developer's email even though he's out of order? Really don't need this hassle, just expected professional (polite) contact throughout the development when necessary.

Pass the email through to the Enforcement section of the planning department.

How did the developer get your email address? Don’t reply but make sure the planning department know that harassment is now added to the list of issues. The council can stop them working but most developers need to get the job done and work appropriately. Or they don’t make any money.

I would pass the email onto Enforcement
I would also be inclined to reply saying that you didn’t actually complain to The Council before but now you’ve realised it’s a highly effective option you may consider it in the future and thanking him.

The developer asked for our email address when work started as he said he could then keep us informed about the build. We assumed this was reasonable.

I'd pass the email onto planning tbh. If nothing else will show what sort of people you dealing with

@Hoppinggreen

I would pass the email onto Enforcement I would also be inclined to reply saying that you didn’t actually complain to The Council before but now you’ve realised it’s a highly effective option you may consider it in the future and thanking him.

This is genius.

Good luck op.

I don’t think the council will do anything , people/ developers build all the time next to neighbours, they will have heard all the complaints under the sun, but at the end of the day you’ve just got to grin and bear it.
I’m not sure anybody makes more noise than they have to when doing building work( maybe shouting,swearing and the radio too loud ) but catastrophic? I think that’s a bit over the top .

I think you should complain to the council, take photos, videos, times when they are working etc.
I had been on the receiving end of a complaining neighbour when I’ve been doing building work. I followed all rules and regs and wasn’t actually a pain to the neighbour, it’s a long story. But I have learnt that the one who shouts the loudest gets the most attention and is believed. If he’s threatening you in any way report him to the police. Don’t just email. Phone and write as well. If he’s in breach of planning and you complain a lot the council are more likely to take action. Bonus points if you can get other neighbour to complain as well

When they have done the drainage, but before that have put the windows and doors in, go and poor a bag of cement down each waste pipe.