How much should I charge for access to my patio-garden?
I own a townhouse with a small patio garden (about 4 metres by 5 metres) which abuts the two-storey blank side-wall of another building which is about to be converted from offices into several small dwellings which the developer will sell at (obviously) a profit.
It will be impossble for them to carry out the work without access to my patio-garden and so I am expecting them any minute to approach me for permission.
Back-story (which you can skip.) About 15 yrs ago the previous owners asked my permission to access my patio to remove and replace the mortar on the side-wall. They said it would take 3 days, and I would benefit visually from the freshly white-painted wall that looms very large in my patio and is visible from all my rear facing rooms. Plus they gave me £100 as compensation for three days loss of privacy. My patio is enclosed on all four sides so it is very private and usually silent.
The work took three weeks not three days. It was summer and we lost all use of the entire patio, our only outside space, as the workmen brought all their tools and stuff. I was working from home, and from 7am till 4pm six days a week I was forced to put up with a horrendous amount of noise, not only from power hammers but from the workmen shouting, laughing loudly, bantering (with profuse, obscene swear-words) stubbing out their cigarettes on my (then-new) patio slabs. They also had a radio on loudly all day, blasting out pop music which I hate, punctuated with the inane chatter of presenters. On top of this because we are not overlooked we have no net curtains and everytime I went into the lounge or kitchen a workman could see me from just a few metres away. It freaked me out, like I was being watched.
I complained to the site manager but although he promised to tell the lads to "keep it down", nothing changed. By noon every day my nerves were totally frazzled. On top of this, no effort was made to keep my patio clean. It was covered in rubble and dust, which flew about and covered all the back windows with a film of grime. When they left they made a half-hearted attempt at sweeping up the mess, but all of the £100 "compensation" they paid me went on hiring someone to pressure-wash the patio and clean all the windows!
(End of back story.)
This time there are four of us in the house, all working from home. Ours is a very quiet house as everyone is of mature age and all day we are either concentrating on writing, or conducting Zoom or client calls.
I just told a friend what is about to happen and he said that this time I should ask for a large sum in compensation. I asked how much and he said £1,000 a day would not be unreasonable, given the lack of privacy, the noise, the mess, the loss of use of the patio garden and the disruption to our daily lives and professions. A high sum should also encourage them to get the work done more quickly. He said I can pretty much ask whatever I want, as they cannot do the work without access to my patio, and as the developers are set to make at least £100,000 (friend guesses) it's a drop in the ocean for them.
What do you think? Is £1,000 a day too much, too little, or about right?