Realistically what can our lawyer WFH neighbours do to stop our (noisy) building work

[SpotOnMyBot]

We are undergoing a massive renovation project on the house. This was 100% necessary - there were 2 extensions at the back of the house that were falling down (attached to their side) that were always going to need to be rebuilt.

We have been going for only 4 weeks and we've already had 2 letters from the one set of neighbours complaining about absolutely everything from mess to noise based on the reasoning that they WFH permanently and find it 'unfair' that we have noisy works going on.

They've now escalated their letter and told us that they will 'take action' if we don't take action immediately (not sure what action we can take - what it seems they would like is for us to stop work every day so they can have some peace and quiet).

We've made sure the builders only operate in the considerate constructor hours, the builders have said they will clean their roof (this is one of their issues about the mess) but that their roof is covered in moss so they are only willing to clean the dust off it. The neighbours are claiming they are working outside hours and making more 'mess than is necessary' and not cleaning it up. They may arrive before 8am but they don't start work till after 8am - they claim this is not good enough as they sleep till after 8am and workmen arriving before 8am is too early for them.

They want to take legal action but I'm not sure what they can do - does anyone know? Given they are both lawyers, they will have the means and the ability to do this so we want to be careful! It is noisy now as they are having to demolish things but it will get less noisy as time goes on - we have told them this but they are not interested.

You don’t know what time they work till at night, they may be doing international work that means they have to work until the early hours of the morning. Our neighbours have been having work done since April. Thank Christ it is nearly finished. Both DH and I work from home. Although they don’t start work until 8, they all congregate fro about 7.15 talking shouting laughing, and it disturbs us everyday. They have had some really noisy work done some days, which is ininevitable. But if you have to work with the constant hum of cement mixers, cutting of stones, wood, added to the shouting, swearing, wailing along to the radio it makes for a really stressful working day. The dust and the noise that makes it’s way into the house is dreadful. We are detached, but it is still unbearable. I feel sorry for your neighbours.

Actually - you haven’t thought this through^ @puttingontheritz

You seem to be suggesting that no one should do building work except where it doesn’t inconvenience others? Literally nothing would get built.

There's always a risk that your neighbours will have building work done, drilling etc is noisy and not much you can do to make it any quieter really.
Apart from no loud music , swearing and making sure regs are adhered to, there's not much they can do.
By sending you snotty letters rather than coming and talking to you, makes me think that they just like throwing their weight about.

I think it’s all been covered by other posters.

Keep your neighbours informed, particularly about noisy works, skip changes, deliveries that may cause obstructions etc. Give them realistic timeframes for works and update them if things change.
It’s preferable to remain cordial but it can be difficult with neighbours against you. They sound quite demanding, but we all value peace and quiet especially in our own homes.
I’ve been on both sides of this, my NDN are absolute selfish twats, they’ve had two extensions in recent years with no warnings given. Mess everywhere, driveways blocked, radios blaring, done on the cheap so corners were cut. They couldn’t give a fig and that’s what tends to grate. They whinged plenty during our own building works, but we just smiled and kept them informed. The neighbour that objected to our extension was fine eventually and appreciated being kept in the loop.

They’re just sending letters to intimidate. Nothing they can do. Wfh is irrelevant that’s their choice. I’d suck it up and try to ignore them. They’ll probably calm down once it’s done.

It's part and parcel of life. Both DH and I wfm, next door started a 3 month extension not long after we moved in. They warned us, and that was all we could really expect.

The builders worked fairly reasonable hours and we were lucky that no dirt came our way, but had it I know they would have been reasonable about it. The noise though was a pain as they had people up and down between our houses all day long setting the dogs off! But again, not their issue. We sucked it up because that's all you can do.

We actually have a great relationship with them. People are within their rights to build as long as they stay within the rules and regulations. People WFH have to accept that residential noise is to be expected and have ways to cope.

Meh. I'm a lawyer who WFH full time too. I also live in a flat with terrible soundproofing right on the corner of two of the noisiest roads in my city, and in the past year have had two entire student halls built (one literally across the road and one a few doors down) and a massive new hotel being (noisily!) renovated across the other street. There also seem to be constant roadworks - as I sit here now someone is under my window with a pneumatic drill 😆.

Yes it can be annoying but if you're going to work from home you just need to accept that life goes on around you and develop tactics to deal with noise. I use headphones when I need to concentrate and just apologise at the start of calls if it's really bad.

So long as you're doing the works in normal daytime hours there's absolutely nothing they can do about the noise.

Is it really just dust settling on their roof or is it small debris? Dust will wash away with the next rain so it is likely the later. It doesn’t help to minimize the situation. If debris is landing on the neighbors property, the builders really should be looking for a way to minimize that

you are going to get a lot further with your neighbors if you shift your approach. Right now you say things like they knew this work had to happen, this is all just normal, and wfh is their issue. You need to reframe entirely. The situation is extremely difficult, even if the repairs were necessary for both safety and maintaining your own home value and the value of neighboring homes.

They sounds like awful neighbours.

no one wants to live next to construction noise, but it’s finite. We have neighbours who, by their own admission, have more money than they could ever spend. As a result, they never stop adding to or working on their 8 bedroom house. We live with construction noise year round. But they’re working within the rules, so moaning would be pointless.

As long as you’re keeping noisy works to within the permitted hours, and your builders are keeping dust to a minimum (ie using wet suppression where appropriate), your neighbours will have to suck it up.

In terms of the noise, they can just go back to the office, unless it has closed and their company has gone 100% hybrid. Nobody has to work from home. If your builders permanently damage their property, that's an insurance job.

Our now neighbours had work done for three months before they moved in.

Nes windows, bathroom, kitchen, rewiring, sanding for painting...

Mostly low level noise but constant.

When we gave them a heads up about work that we were having done (week at most) they said "oh we mostly work from home".

Er yes, as did my husband & son whilst they had their work done.

Twats!

Nobody has the right to demand a lie in. If that were the case we’d all be tiptoeing around all day because of those who work nights

id make sympathetic noises and tell them I’d speak to the builders but the project will involve some noise, and will be within permitted hours. It’s not reasonable to suggest they start work after 9am etc, as there are restrictions on how late they work. You’re not prepared to allow this work to over run because a neighbour wants a lie in. They need earplugs and a healthy dose of reality.

let them rattle on. You know you’re not doing anything unlawful and it will help to explain that this was something you looked into in depth, and have put many checks and balances to ensure all work is done within regulations, as efficiently and quickly as possible.

you’re not going to please them whatever you say, so be polite, be clear and be firm.

You do realise WFH existed before the pandemic, don't you?
I have worked from home since 2013 with no option to go 'back to the office', since the main office was on the other side of the US and now is in Asia.
My point is irrelevant to the OP's issue but I wanted to say it.

Ouch. This sounds like it sucks for everyone.

However I do have to point out to the people asserting that “no one has to work from home” that there are jobs out there explicitly designed around the idea that not everyone will be in at once as there isn’t the desk room which makes ad hoc changes to routine difficult. People who wfh full time are unlikely to be welcomed back to the office. They may even be without me - without an office in easy driving distance and with a contract that specifies they only come in (rarely) for meetings.

My neighbours building works have been going on for 14 months now and it is starting to piss me off. They've had a skip outside for the entire duration and there's sand and debris in the road for 5 metres either side, 2 inches deep! There must landmass and banging constantly. I work half and half home and office- I just want it finished now.

Your comments come across very judgemental, which is entirely unnecessary given that you are the one causing the problem in this situation.
One very simple thing you can do to help is to tell the builders not to arrive before 8am. You think your neighbours are "lucky" to sleep until 8am? Perhaps they are struggling to sleep at night because of the continuous stress you are imposing on them. If the builders are currently starting work at 8am then they are arriving before that, with car engines, car doors, moving equipment, talking. Tell them to arrive at 8am instead.
The other thing you can do is ask the builders to clean up at the end of each day, every day. That's a completely decent and respectful thing to do.
If it were me, I'd be doing everything I could to reduce the impact on my neighbours.
In legal terms, they can ask the council to investigate the noise levels, and the council could then issue a noise abatement order which, if you break it, you can be fined. They can report the dust if they believe it's damaging their health. They can also apply for an injunction to stop the disturbance. I'm guessing you both want to avoid that.

Can you put up some mesh to stop stuff falling on their roof? That does seem really annoying

There’s constant never ending building work going on round me. It’s got worse since lockdown, every other person is having extensions.

Its non stop noise from every angle and is doing my head in. But there’s not really much l can do about it. People are entitled to modify their homes.

It sounds really tough for them if it is noisy and dirty. The most annoying thing when next door had their work done was that the builders did not care at all that other people lived there. For them obviously it is just a building site. So, they pulled down the dividing wall between gardens and would leave stuff to fall on our side, throw rubbish into the garden that would blow over, pile up crap out the front, radio on all day etc. And the dust is insane if you are pulling down buildings. We offered our neighbours a full house clean and windows doing at the end of our extension. If yours is going to be 6-8 weeks of demolition, I wouldn't think it unreasonable to offer to pay for someone to run a hoover around every now and again.

Your neighbours need to remember a few things, not least that whoever bought the house would be making a load of noise, that their new neighbour could very easily be much less considerate than you (and indeed might be doing the works themselves, starting 7am 7 days a week and taking much longer than your professionals will take.)

The only alternative is that you don't do the works... see how having a dillapidated house getting worse and worse next door to them suits them instead!

Your neighbours are being unreasonable, and I'm quite surprised at the number of very hostile responses on this thread.

If work needs to be done to stop further damage - including to their property - then it needs to be done. And it's in their interests that you're doing it!

If there's an issue with dust, can your builders supply a big tarpaulin that they rig between your house & theirs? And cleaning their roof once a week, at your expense, sounds fine. But your builder may like to report first on the soundness of the roof, and the safety off putting any human or mechanical weight on it ...

Have your works been signed off by a council/town planner? If so, your neighbours really haven't got grounds to complain. Your builders are working within designated construction hours.

Yes, the noise can be intrusive, but I work a lot from home - at the moment my next door neighbours are digging a bloody cellar next door (and I have the party wall agreement). The neighbours on the other side decided to totally renovate their house while I was writing a book. The drilling next to my desk made me think at any moment I'd see the drill bit coming through. But the book got written, and they have a lovely bathroom!

If you approach them with a view to pacification DO NOT ADMIT TO ANY NOISE OR DISTURBANCE ABOVE NORMAL LEVELS.

Tell them you're monitoring your builders' comings and goings and noise level, and you're satisfied they are operating within acceptable hours and level of noise, per local regs.

Tell them it's most unfortunate that their sleeping hours are so unusual. Bring them a bottle of very nice champagne that they can pop open as soon as the work is all done.

You need to face these cheeky fuckers down. Of course they are angling for a new roof on their extension at your expense. Your builders are absolutely right to have as little contact as possible with their property. The dust will all wash off with rain and they stand to be accused of damage, which would be a financial mess to deal with.

If a tarp could be placed on their extension roof without damaging it, maybe this is the solution to the dust problem. I wouldn't do that without their express permission and without having them sign a waiver wrt damage though, if i were your builders.

You think your neighbours are "lucky" to sleep until 8am? Perhaps they are struggling to sleep at night because of the continuous stress you are imposing on them.

They are lawyers, not melting snowflakes! "Stress" caused by neighbours doing necessary work, which will actually improve the value of the neighbours' house as well as the OP's??

Pul the other one.

Or if that really is the case, can OP let me know who these lawyers are, because I NEVER want them employed to act on my behalf if they are such wimps.

8am is a reasonable time to start work. It's a reasonable time for construction noise to happen.

I suspect these neighbours are trying to intimidate @SpotOnMyBot into paying them compensation. For what, I have no idea. The OP sounds as though she's being as considerate as possible.

Ask your builders to stop blaring out music. It's going to go a long way in helping smooth things out.

Gosh the moaning on here is silly. Building works are noisy and god forbid if a bit of dust blows due to wind and building works!!

maybe get your builders to erect a bubble of sorts that will contain the dust?!?!?

id call your local council and ask to talk to the building regs team and advise of your situation and see what they say

also do check out your home insurance as quite often they give out free legal advice

do also consider looking into whether what they have done is ethical in sending you a letter - surely they are compromising their firms reputation in some way i.e surely they’d have to inform their employer if they were threatening legal action against someone

I know others are telling you to deliver wine and flowers but I couldn’t bring myself to do this given how small minded they’re being!!!