Neighbours wants to put scaffolding on our property

[TubeScreamer]

Our neighbours are doing a lot of work on their house. As part of this they would like to put scaffolding on our property. This is apparently necessary to access their roof. They will also use it to paint the side of their house at the same time.

Ahead of meeting with them to discuss it, what should we be asking of them to protect ourselves and our property? We would like something in writing and evidence of insurance? Is it the scaffolder’s insurance or the builders’ insurance that is relevant, or both?

This is a big project on a 3 storey listed building, and our property is also listed. We won’t say no to it, but the whole thing is going to be a real nuisance for us for some time. The scaffolding will remove our parking, create lots of noise and dust, and the work takes place outside of dh’s office window.

I am keen to learn from other people’s experiences, particularly bad ones!

Neighbours are fine but we are not close and relationship with their builders are already poor. Work has been going on for months and they have shown such a lack of respect for us so far, and caused a lot of damage in our garden. The neighbours themselves are not living in the property at the moment.

A good end and thank you for keeping us updated! I do think this happens a lot builders/ scaffolders want to take the cheapest and easiest option. Neighbours do often capitulate as they want to be neighbourly. If it’s done properly with legal protection then I’m sure it’s often fine but if done without you have little recourse and it can be a disaster.

I suppose the lesson is if a neighbour comes knocking for scaffolding ask for the details of the independent surveyor who will be drafting the party wall agreement. If they don’t have one then it’s a no.

Oh, my. You were going to cost them money! How dare you be so presumptuous?

And by Friday? Well, I would start living by “Fine fences make for good neighbours”.

Well done.

Great result @TubeScreamer hopefully once all the work has been completed and they’ve moved in the neighbours will become more reasonable . It’s frankly unbelievable what people that you don’t know and have no relationship with think you are going to do for them .

Well done OP.

It sounds as if you raised a whole load of stuff that hadn't even entered your neighbour's head. A very 'back of the fag packet' approach, undoubtedly shared by their builder.

Massive kudos to the OP. I really hope that all the posters on here who have said "oh you are gonna have to let them its the law" and "oh how can you be so HORRIBLE to you neighbour" are reading this and feeling duly corrected!

Well done OP

I know you want to stay on good terms with neighbour but you are right not to be exploited

If your neighbour behaves like this to you, then they will probably behave like this to others and will earn a reputation as CFers

It seemed like the wall to your outbuilding and the neighbour is shared. So depending on what they do on the upper part of the wall they may still need a party wall agreement in place

You should need to get proper advice at this point

Well done OP.
Take lots of pictures from all angles and as high as you can get - your slate tiles etc.

Just in case anything gets damaged - which it will. They have proved themselves to be the builders from hell and NOT the considerate sort at all.

So..........

The power of Mumsnet

What I dont get though in that they are planning work that requires access to your property BUT they havnt planned it, presumably if you go down the Party Wall route its going to take some time.

It sounds like neither your neighbour, builder or scaffolder have either any social skills or know how to go about the work properly

Sounds like you have done well by not letting them on your property.

I might be inclined to ring The Council to see if they have the relevant consents

I am guessing that the builder told him that everything would be fine and to trust him. Neighbour is a starry eyed idiot who just believed him. My experience is not with buildings but with protected trees. On the estate where I live, there are many protected trees. Over the years there have been several people who moved in and wanted the big nasty tree gone or drastically pruned. They find blokes with big chainsaws who spin a good line and the next thing you know, the tree is butchered and the householder is heavily fined. We live in an area with a lot of clay and the trees manage the water table. One householder actually managed to cause subsidence in his house by getting a large tree removed! Its always the same story. The good men are massively busy and expensive and people want stuff done NOW and on the cheap. It never ends well.

Sorry, but I had to laugh at the builder wandering off mid conversation because a woman was talking. 🙄

Sounds like you did very well and the outcome is ideal.

I am very late to this but just to say VERY well done OP. Similar to this happened to a friend and it did not end well at all because the you equivalent party were made to feel like they were being unreasonable by all concerned (they weren't).

👏👏

Well done OP. You've handled this brilliantly. The neighbour on the other hand...

Well done.

Anyone who thought these builders were suddenly going to become considerate and reasonable is deluded.

That the builder just walked away says it all.

A massive project and the neighbour waited until the week before to mention this. I'm really glad you've set your stall out. These neighbours sound like cf.

You little belter OP. 👏🏼

People really need starting to stand up to these arrogant builders and scaffolders and roofers. So many of them have no consideration at all. If more people stood up to them, they may eventually wake up and smell the coffee that it's them who are the problem! (Not all, obviously, but a significant proportion of them!).

We've had no end of trouble with them with both our neighbours over many years. Started years ago when we were hijacked one morning with a huge skip lorry outside blocking the road and neighbours knocking on our door asking if they could put it on our drive, "only for a few days" - we felt we had no choice as the traffic was building up! Two sodding months later, we still had a skip blocking our drive. They took the first away and replaced it with another when we weren't in! Not only that but they were having their roof replaced and the CF roofers just threw everything down randomly towards the skip - so the whole drive was littered with broken tiles, broken bits of wood, etc - and they never looked when they chucked stuff down so we were constantly in fear of being hit ourselves when we walked on our own drive. Then finally when they came to take the scaffolding away, the sods managed to squeeze their huge lorry through our garden gates, leaving no space at all, and refused to move it when we pointed out we couldn't get in or out of our drive. Typical "we won't be long luv!" - most of the bloody day, even them buggering off walking down the road at lunchtime to the pie shop!

Other neighbours are constantly having scaffolding, at least every year or two, sometimes for guttering, sometimes for a roof leak, sometimes for external painting. Every sodding time, never ask for access as they need our drive to get the boards/poles to their back garden - they just turn up and expect us to move our cars - again, lorry blocking the road outside so we're under pressure to agree. Not any more. I just refuse now. Neighbours are horrid anyway, always have been, so no chance of good neighbourly relations. Car stays on the drive and they have to take a longer route via a small gate on the back of their garden. Tough. I don't give a shit anymore.

The more people do it, the more likely the CF scaffolders, builders and roofers will actually start behaving like rationing human adults rather than neanderthal knuckle draggers.

My neighbours and I share adjoined garages. The houses are opposite each other at the end of the cul de sac and the 4 garages (two each) are between the two houses at the closed end of the cul de sac. Each of us own the space in front of our own garages. I got home from part time work one day to find my space full of workmen and their tools, saws, benches, tile cutters, lumber and other materials and the ensuing mess, and their van parked on my neighbours side. He was having worked done and hadn't stopped the workmen from spreading onto my my land. I got out of my car and asked what was going on and was told the usual "we won't be long love" "your neighbour said it would be fine" even "can't you just go out somewhere nice for the afternoon" They seemed quite taken aback when I told the to clear up, clean up and move NOW and asked quite pathetically "where can we go" I basically said anywhere you like but not here! and to ask the man who was employing them. My neighbour (he's dead now) was a nice guy but not the sharpest or most thoughful tool in the box. Just about every time he had something done to the house, his workmen managed to annoy somebody.

When I asked my neighbour to put scaffolding on his property and access to our roof which required actually going on his roof (terraced house) he had me pay for a surveyor to inspect his roof before, and as luck would have it he owned a scaffolding company so insisted I use them - even though I had already had scaffolding up with another company (he didn't respond to my initial letters asking for permission and only communicated when the scaffolding went up). So it added £1500 to my costs.
I'd say he f they want scaffolding up they need to make good the damage to the garden and pay for the windows to be cleaned that side of your house. I'd also make them aware of the builders' behaviour and ask for an end date that the scaffolding MUST be removed.

Well done. So they can do an alternative it’s just more expensive and more difficult.

We have a neighbour who never moves their car off their driveway to let their builder/gas/electrician whatever park on their driveway. Only room for one car. He just tells whichever trade to park on neighbours driveways instead. The fact he can move his car round the corner with no parking restrictions doesn’t apply to him.

Thank you all so much for the nice comments following my update. This is MN at its best.

I am normally a very quiet and not assertive person, but the comments and advice gave me the confidence to be assertive, even though I hated doing do!

My neighbours showed their true colours in how they behaved at that meeting and I think we are paying for it today. Surly builder and his team are today replacing windows (from inside) on the boundary wall, with debris all over our outbuilding roof. No damage so far, thankfully. I don’t for a minute imagine they offer to clear it all up at the end of the day. They definitely are aware because they’re leaning out of the window over the roof. We’ve taken lots of photos just in case.

It will be interesting to see if the scaffolder turns up tomorrow to start building scaffolding from their side.

I'd let them see you taking photos - it might inspire them to clean up!

Agree

As your building is listed, call your heritage officer, or whatever he is, and just, umm, you know, chat through a few things.

It would be really good to find out where you stand.

You are just covering your own arse here, not starting a dispute.

I'd also be going over there and saying with a feral grin "I hope you are going to clean that mess off my roof and please be careful while you are doing it"

Sounds like a strong case for Party Wall Agreement!