What the heck is this guy doing next door?

[MissMarplesCat]

We live in a very small village in a row a 4 cottages. The end terrace is joined to us, and had previously housed an old lady for many years, who then went into care. The house stood empty for a few years then put up for sale. It seems that it was in a bad state of repair (very dated), so went on to auction.
A man purchased it last January and when we got chatting he said he hadn't viewed it prior to bidding and was horrified at the amount of work he'd have to do.
We expected contract work to begin, but he only had one guy, this guy is not a professional in any sense of the word, and to date has damaged our roof (dealt with), fitted all of the windows incorrectly, badly plastered some walls, then hacked it all off and put boards up instead (!), and caused plaster work in our hallway to crumble.

We kept things as friendly as possible, but since last January he has been there most weekdays with his helper chap and they have not stopped smashing at the walls in all of that time. Around 5 skips of bricks have been completed so far, although no interior walls have been removed! Since we can hear a pin drop in there now, it seems like they have removed bricks from the party wall.

As of early Feb this year they are coming 7 days per week. I presume the helper is family or a friend and getting some cash for his trouble.

There's no getting your head around this. The man is very shy and non communicative and looks desperate to get it ready for his small family. What concerns us is that a gas boiler has been delivered from a car (not a plumber van) and left in there. DP overheard him discussing fitting it with an older man who warned hm he wanted nothing to do with it. Make of that what you will.

The guy seems to be struggling financially and very desperate, and whilst friendly, he has already told us a few lies.

Since a few weeks back they have been coming every day even sunday, horrific noise from early until after 5pm. Through last year they even did Easter sunday, and all of the bank holidays, which i thought was illegal for building/construction?
He tried to do Xmas even and Xmas day until DP told he would call the police.

Between October and January this guy was hammering at the front bedroom window frame daily to try to refit it, to no avail. DP works from home so it's sheer hell. It is taking him quadruple the time to do anything because he won't hire professionals. It looks like a bomb site.

Anything we can do here? We have been passed on to planning as council told us building regs no longer have a number. God knows what that means. We've been very tolerant since we knew he was struggling, but since he has already damaged our property and had to repair it, we are getting very concerned and fed up. We doubt anything in there is legit, and he told us when he first bought it that he hadn't had it surveyed, etc.
We think the helper is just a cash in hand guy, with little to no knowledge of what he is doing, and we are very tired of the 7 days a week noise at this point. We have tried to talk, and whilst he is polite, he just lies to us about reducing the days and carries on.

Sorry this is long! Any advice welcome.

Modern slavery and cannabis farm, I reckon. Looking frightened and working all hours can be a sign of modern slavery.

One looked like an elderly business man, smart suit, no car of his own

He might be the chap who bought it.

Not what you expect in a small village.

Ugh this is so sad and horrible. I hope they catch whoever is behind it, and I hope the poor hapless "owner" who wasn't, isn't in irretrievable trouble and getting deported. Though I fear that's how it will end for him.

Oddly enough there is a premises down the road from me that has had endless ongoing incomprehensible building works going on - but luckily for everyone nearby its detached, and I'm pretty sure the person doing the work genuinely owns it (it's a tiny shop and not a house). But it is entirely mystifying and I do wonder if some kind of money laundering is going on in one or both of these cases? (where fake receipts are being issued for 100 tonnes of cement when its two bags etc?) - or something of that ilk?

Well OP I do hope your house is OK at least. Eventually you might find out who the freeholder is, assuming they decide to sell? (I'd be sorely tempted to try to trace the late neighbour's representatives to try to find out a bit more about who it was actually sold to?? )

Or maybe it will be left as an empty ruin for decades....

Money laundering is a possibility. Set up businesses to do work, push money though them, then dissolve.

No, not at all. Happens everywhere though.

That’s what the criminals want you to think…..

Is your house freehold, OP? What could be the reason behind one house being leasehold and the attached one next door being freehold?

I realise that this is the LEAST puzzling part of the whole thing though.

Honestly there's nothing in there at all. We can see in at the back, and we were inside not long since. There's no cannabis, there's not even a ceiling above 2 of the bedrooms yet.

It's just plaster, dust and a fitted bathroom. It's badly done and nonsensical, but there's no room for anything to be hidden. Not even up the chimneys now they're gone! (no cellar or outhouses either).

I doubt anyone would spend that much time and money installing badly placed windows for over a year just to introduce some cannabis much later on. That sounds like a sunk cost.

Ours is freehold.
There used to be an old lady in the house next door, then it was empty for years when she went into care. Remained empty for a good time.

For all we know maybe the old lady was a tenant not an owner? Could ask another local to see if they remember. I also think it's odd that it says the house is leasehold now, if it was bought last March and never let out since.

There are some places in the UK where houses are historically leasehold because of some ancient law that the land beneath them belonged to the feudal overlord hundreds of years ago. I can't exactly remember where - I want to say the Lake District or nearby, and perhaps other places for all I know. You can regularise them to be legal freeholds when you buy, but not everyone does because it costs extra in legal fees. Might this have applied in your area, OP?

I understand and I really feel for you.
I have a DH who is soft on the chancers, the cheeky and the mickey-takers to the point of being a mug, frankly. Each time over the years that he’s let someone get away with something to be “kind”, leaving us taken advantage of and financially worse off or left with a job badly done, I’ve felt more and more that he’s simply weak, and it’s chipped away at how I feel about him. As much as possible, I now try to keep him away from dealing with tradesmen or financial agreements, but it’s difficult.
I hope you’re OK and that you get your house sorted. You’ve been through an awful time.

That is the case in my city. Many terraced houses used to be leasehold but the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 enabled owners to buy the freehold

Some owners never did and when the house changed hands the buyer had to buy the freehold - happened to a friend of mine who bought in 1986.

The old lady next doot to you OP may have owned the house but never bought the freehold. Whoever bought the house may not have been clued up on the situation or may not have been able to afford to buy the freehold so the Land Registry is correct and it is still leasehold.

There are many leasehold houses in Lancashire, particularly in Fylde.

Well, today he turned up at 9am with a guy in a suit. They both spoke the same language and moved around the house for over an hour. Neither of them looked particularly concerned, but the suited gut spoke in a stressed manner.

So god knows why he came back or what happened with the police.

We are even more puzzled now than before.

This is beginning to read like a farce, so I ought to bow out. Not sure how anyone on here can help to work it out. We wondered if he had talked to the police and all was well? He certainly didn't seem to be on the run!

We do have a horrible alcoholic at the end of the row who has issues with immigrants and wonder if he reported him. However, I can't see that he is an illegal immigrant if still here and whatnot.

We are actually discussing moving. The area has gone downhill in the past few years and we have been fed up for a while. That might take time so won't help if the problem next door continues, but hey ho.

Thanks to everyone for trying to help.

You really don’t, but I live in a tiny village. One road and one lane. Not more than 100 properties. We had a power cut early one morning, and then the village was full of emergency vehicles and the power company. A rented property had been turned into a cannabis farm. The previous tenants had been so noisy, that the quiet tenants that replaced them were a godsend. Absolutely no-one had any idea what they were doing in there!

Well at least the noise has stopped. Sounded really weird to be chipping away for so long

Hello OP

Any updates?

I hope it's ok to re open this thread, since starting a new one seems a bit silly.

No idea if anyone will remember it, or be able to advise.

All went quiet next door after my last post.
He called once or twice per week seemingly to check for mail, but that was all. We wondered if he was planning to sell it.

As time passed, he would turn up with a a group of men in another vehicle, go inside, discuss and move stuff around, then leave.
This has repeated several times this past week.

He obviously had to stop all work as much of it was not legally safe. We assumed he would have to either fix the issues or put the house on the market.
It never went on the market.
He will only seem to speak to people of his own language/culture, so no one has viewed the house in the general sense, it isn't listed or at auction, and no one in any kind of authoritative (solicitors, etc) capacity has been inside it to our knowledge.

Now this group of men all piled into a tiny car keep arriving.
We fear he has somehow passed the issue over to them and it will all start off again. Nothing here is being dealt with in a conventional way.

I am at the point where I wish to move, and I am alone in this. The area has gone to hell in a hand basket, and I am ready to move on. Sadly I may have to do this alone.

If anyone has any idea what might be going on, I would appreciate some advice!
We don't know what to do at this point as after seeking (and receiving) compensation for some party wall damage to the hall way, we have had no further contact and are still in the dark about what actually went on.

Is it worth getting back in touch with the police to try and find out what issue they originally attended for and whether any further action is pending? Or just to get general advice about who these people are and what might be going on? It did seem from what you said that something specific was never really resolved.

I'm glad you've updated and I wish you luck. I'm guessing selling might be difficult in these circumstances and I hope you can sort something out as you don't need the aggravation.

Perhaps a slightly high-risk idea, but, with some more information in hand, I wonder if it might be possible that these people would buy your house too for whatever they're doing? It depends what they are doing really!

Leasehold doesn't mean it's "to let" ie up for rent OP. Leasehold means the person who "owns" the property has a long term lease on it, usually 100+ years at start and that's what the "purchase" price is for, they've purchased the lease. Someone else owns the freehold and may be charging ground rent for the land it stands on, which they own and they own the building too once the lease runs out. Most flats in UK are leasehold, it's less common with houses.

The car won't have been his OP and it's unlikely he had a UK driving license either. It would have belonged to the person he worked for, so he could come do the work and collect people etc. The family were probably random people, their purpose to support the narrative to dupe you into feeling sorry for the "poor honest family man" and leave him alone. And it worked for a year didn't it.

I hope it stays empty. Otherwise you're going to have an awful lot of neighbours noise nuisence, even if they're just ordinary people doing ordinary things. I'd consider selling yours now whilst it's quiet. I can't stand lots of neighbours noise, which it's likely will happen in a family home that's now got no soundproofing.

If you mean advice about separation or divorce OP, it will depend on your financial situation. If you can afford to rent you can choose to move out, just get looking if that's what you want.

Although that leaves your husband with no "need" to sell the place since he's the one living there and it's you losing out. So he could drag his heels for ages.

If you live there until it's sold that's less pleasant but likely to get the job done sooner as you both want to end the awkward situation and you'll be there to see/prevent him dragging his heels by things like not showing up to allow access for viewings or not cleaning the place ever etc.

This is unless he's going to buy you out for your share of the house so he can remain living there. If that's the case he needs a mortgage, but you won't need an estate agent to find a buyer.

Neither of you can change the locks on the other, legally, without domestic abuse being a factor. Whether you live there or not, you co-own it until it's sold so both have rights to come and go.

Nothing to stop you moving into another bedroom, that's advisable to make it clear it's over and to give you some privacy, divorce is stressful. You'll need to stop acting like a wife. So no giving solutions to "where's my keys?" etc, no cooking for him or doing his laundry or ironing, no making doctor's appointments for him, no cleaning his bedroom etc. You needn't ask his permission or agreement on any aspect of how you live your life or spend your money from now on, you're no longer a team. You don't even have to tell him anything unless it's something concerning the divorce.

If you've had the type of marriage where you've always deferred to him for the final say in everything, he may kick off at the new situation and you may well see an unpleasant side to him. Ditto if he just doesn't want to get divorced. He may have been your lifelong friend but you can't assume that's still the case now. Be careful how much you tell him about your private business, including housing, financial, romantic. He might use anything he can against you.

You'll need to find all the financial information, debts, bank accounts, savings and investments and marriage certificate etc. All assets are marital assets regardless of whose name they're in. How old are you and do you have a pension? Does he? Those are assets too.

You'll need a divorce solicitor each, not the same one.

And if you have joint accounts, close them. Half the money in there is yours so transfer that into an account in your sole name. You'll have to come to an agreement on how to pay shared bills ie utilities and council tax.

thank you so much for updating. I’ve been wondering what happens. Sorry the situation is not resolved for your relationship or the property. Wishing you progress and peace soon

Set up a land registry property alert on next door. It might give an indication of movement, but they are quite vague so don't tell you what is actually going on.

Yes. OP, it’s good that you care for the marginalised but if you’re in a fast diving aeroplane you put your own mask on first.