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.

I had a feeling it was something like this.

Unfortunately a ton of breeze block bricks were delivered this morning.
He is back in there, making one hell of a racket, our floors are bouncing up and down :(

We will just have to get back in touch with the dangerous building dept to see what we can do.

What disturbs me most of all is his resillience.
He arrived with two helpers, again, neither of which drive their own cars. It's as if the entire thing has been planned in a dusty cellar somewhere and no one with any qualifications is involved.

My heart rate is pounding, it is like revisiting a trauma.
I honestly don't know how to cope with this.

OH is at least reaching the conclusion that living here isn't sustainable. There are other issues in the area, which has steadily gone downhill.

We wouldn't come out of this too well financially, but a new start would help us to rebuild our lives, whether together or apart. Sometimes you have to take a hit to the finances to create a better quality of life. That is the position we are in.

I think if we keep fighting the issue next door, we will get ill.

I’m so sorry. I totally empathise. I would leave too. The question is where to move to!

What a nightmare OP. It's unbelievable that this is allowed to happen. And if he's known to be here illegally, how is he still here?

I suggest that you need to get The Council to enforce and look at taking legal action against the owners of next door for the loss of value of your home

You may well have legal insurance in your home insurance or union membership

If you're unsure whether to continue with the marriage anyway, just focus on getting the house sold then either move in with family or rent, temporarily, to give you breathing space to decide what to do. It'll mean less of a chain than if you're looking to buy too.

You could even put your house into an auction or sell to a company that specialises in buying houses. You won't get as much for it as you would on the open market, but you'll get a quick sale. If living there is making you ill then think of the loss as purchasing preventative healthcare/a cure.

Start decluttering straight away and be ruthless. We always have too much stuff, moving it and storing it costs money and if its stuff you can do without, it's pointless paying.

Maybe the breeze blocks is them rebuilding something which they earlier removed and the dangerous buildings team have now told them to reinstate? Your floors bouncing around doesn't sound good though.

What have your insurers said about it all? If you've any claim on your own insurance you may as well make it. As a big company they'll have the resources to go after the other house's owners and pursue them for the losses they've incurred in paying out to you.

I wouldn't think there's much point suing the owners of the other house yourself. Even if you win you'll then have additional expenses instructing court bailiffs to collect the debt and if you don't really know who these people are or where to find them, or even if they have a legal and declared source of income/assets, it'll probably end up just another headache for no results. Depends on how you'll be left financially by selling up, I suppose, versus the stress of court action.

I feel for you. It's a nightmare situation you never could have predicted.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to leave suggestions and advice , your comments are really helpful.

We went out for a long walk in the woods today as both at home, so at least got away from it for a few hours.

On returning, it seems they are rebuilding the chimney breasts. Presume Building Regs forced him to do so. It will likely have cost him a fortune, especially as paying 4 men to work on it. It explains why it has taken him 3 months to get the money together for it.

He is very ....determined isnt' he? if that was me I would have sold it asap.
If he had gone about it legally in the first place it would never have cost him this much.

We had no real evidence that he was here illegally, other than another neighbour who was obviously talking rubbish!

So it all kicks off again, this time 8-6pm every weekday, but sadly we know the owner will be there making noise at the weekend.

We obviously can't do much now, so will be discussing what's next for us.

So sorry to hear this. You must be at your wits' end. I think you're very wise to be thinking in terms of cutting losses and focusing on what's healthier for you long term but I hope you find some kind of legal recourse too.

The fact that they've done something so unsafe they've been made to reinstate it, and the instability that may well have resulted from not reinstating immediately really ought to be grounds for some kind of compensation claim, even if you're no longer in the house (but will undoubtedly have taken a hit on the value). But whether that's something you'll ever be able to make stick is another matter. In your shoes I don't think I'd be able to walk away without at least attempting that, but it probably needs ringfencing in your head under 'don't count on it'.

Huge sympathy for you.

I haven’t rtft but you can certainly talk to the council’s environmental health team about the noise outside of allowed hours and weekends. I believe you can also talk to them about any other environmental impact you think his work is having on you.

For practicalities you have some options, especially as it's summer. Go anywhere else except home. You know you can't live there now, it's making you ill, so don't try to. Get breakfast in a supermarket cafe, it's quite cheap. Window-shopping to kill some time and fetching any groceries you need for the next few days. Back home, make sandwiches, grab and apple and a flask of tea, plus a magazine and blanket, then head to the park if it's nice. If it's raining go read, or sit on your phone paying bills or something, in the local library. Treat home as somewhere you sleep (at least you get a break from the noise at night! It could be worse), maybe eat, bathe, do laundry and store things. As much as possible do your living elsewhere. Go visit people, stay for a day or so if you can!

Thank you everyone, apologies for the late reply.

As far as we know - last week they resumed work with an actual professional builder who chatted to us and said he was there for the rest of the week until 6.
Due to the arrival of breeze blocks we also imagined he had been made to rectify damage.

We spoke to the builder who was friendly and we left it at that, thought it might be getting done properly now and hoped for the best.

A day later the builder had vanished and never returned.
The mad bastard (owner) came back today with a car full of raggle taggle boys who are in there now using a circular saw and what sounds like a battering ram hitting the structure every 10 seconds. This has been going on since 8am.

When we last looked in there, the walls were done, so god knows what he is doing but it seems he has returned to unconventional practice.
We presume the prof builder either walked out or was sacked off.

I sometimes (this is pure conjecture!) imagine he is not the owner of the house.
Why?
He was so surprised and terrified looking when he first arrived.
He looked traumatised and said he didn't know it was this bad when bidding on it.
If he was a struggling family man, new to the UK with a large young family, why rip the chimney breasts off instead of just doing it up quickly and nice?
He looks passive and scared, as if he has no option but to keep on and on.

I don't really think it is possible, but it feels as if they are just wrecking the place and going in circles to 'make time'. It's just so weird.

In fact the 'raggle taggle' boys were joined by a man who looks to be in his 80's.
I doubt any of them have any experience with what they are doing.
It is like he is scouring the earth, stubbornly, to find the most insane solutions.

I don't think things are at all regular here.

This is the kind of thing that intuitively feels like you ought to be able to call the police but in practice isn't within their remit. Buildings control and environmental health, I think. Some councils have an emergency environmental health line, for extreme noise etc, and if you could get a response on that basis it might then expedite the (re-) involvement of buildings control.

I'm so sorry. I don't know how you're coping. I think I would be looking at camper vans at this point, and I'm not really even joking.

True. And thanks.
Building Control, has already been, we presumed he was rectifying the bad jobs.

Today is hell, it is shaking our house even the pavement outside and it is on our living room party wall. Going to have to start reporting it again tomorrow. I can't even imagine what could make that noise.

Some sort of circular saw has been blasting close to that wall for 4 solid hours with no break.

Sounds as though you need to call building control again. Do you think they are digging out a basement? 😱

Is he taking down the breeze block wall the builder put up, because he doesn't want the problems rectified he just wants what he wants?

Contact your house insurance again, I can't see how it's right that your house and the pavement outside is shaking. Maybe they can do something. You can bet your life that if you eventually need to claim for a pile of rubble that used to be your house, if you've not kept them informed every step of the way they'll try to wriggle out of paying.

I'd do anything you can to put them off being there. Sit outside and take pictures of them entering and leaving. Report them to DWP for benefit fraud and HMRC for tax evasion, say you think they're working illegally. If they are at all dodgy, some people parked outside monitoring who comes and goes and what they're doing might make them think twice and call at least a temporary halt to it. While you await another response from building control.

Can you get anything off Amazon or a DIY store or phone app to measure the decibels or like earthquake shocks or something? Then keep reporting to environmental health with evidence for noise and house insurance for potential damage.

Maybe pay for a surveyor to come out and look at your property to assess it's structural safety? Unless that's already been done. At this point I'd be preparing for the potential need to evacuate at short notice. I'd be concerned about whether it's safe to continue living there.

Do you have the name of the old builder's firm? Can you call them and see if you can find out what happened and why he left? He sounds like he might be a helpful person. The more information the better for when you report things.

Oh god shit hit the fan

OH stormed in there and they are arguing. Never seen him this upset.
1 person in there cant speak english and gave OH his phone to call owner, here is a pic of the hallway.
Worker said building control told them to repair chimney breasts and supports.

These workers are not qualified its terrifying.

I have read OPs posts and thought cannabis farm - saw it mentioned upthread to. If it is, they are likely shoving insulation in, which would explain the boarding over, and running electric cables through, along with knocking down walls that are in the way. How much can you see through the widows?

we've been in, a drug farm is highly unlikely.
I still think something else is going on. but who knows.

OH told him he couldn't work till 8pm as against the law so he upped and left, just like that. so very odd. He claimed to be a building contractor and couldnt speak english.

Not much calmer but this is how I see it.

Almost every man who works in there can't speak any english at all.
A local man appeared last week for two days, told us he was hired to do the full week and left after two days.
I think he walked out.

It is clear that building control have forced whoever owns it to rectify the walls, how a poor man like that could afford it is almost unthinkable. So how is it being funded?

Is it typical for all your workers to not speak english? We had assumed he preferred to keep close to people in his community, but this just seems off. Wouldn't a 'contractor' (as the man we found in there to today called himself) be able to speak english?

You'll probably find they can speak English when it suits them OP. Which is not when anyone with any perceived authority is questioning them.

Yes, I think this is all good advice, though maybe events are outpacing any advice anyone can give you.

I'm quite worried from your pic @MissMarplesCat that the place is just being held up by those piles of breezeblocks.😱

I think you need to let go of the idea that the place was bought by a 'poor man' who just wants a home for his family. Whatever else is going on in there, it's not that.

Didnt see this, apologies!

We don't have any contact for the builder sadly.

We have had the walls checked months ago, all was well apart from some plaster damage in the front hallway. So far he has had to pay to fix a hole he put in our roof over xmas, the plaster work and now the rectification of the chimney breasts.

I possibly didnt explain it well, but the breezeblock bricks are just stacked there, they were delivered last tuesday. What we found today was that they are having to rebuild the chimney breasts and supports.

Surely this will mean having to open up the ceilings to get the girders upright - I can't see what else they'd be for???

No protective clothing, the guy had been booked to work for 13 hours until we told them to be gone by 6. He cleared of immediately. I would have a concern about working safety and rights.
OH said he looked really stressed, didnt seem to be lying about language barrier.

The owner is a very scared looking man who dislikes parking in the street. He wasnt present today. He does not seem to care if we watch or record anything, it is like they are all on another planet.

Sorry for rabbiting on, it's been one heck of a day.

If anyone here knows anything about construction, some things are beginning to really strike me as odd.

To my knowledge, he was liable to pay a £20K fine for failing to apply for planing permission and removing walls and chimney breasts.. I assume he is rectifying the damage to avoid the fine.

However, I have been doing a bit of research, and realise that the girder in the photo is to create supports for the chimney breasts. I think the noise pattern today was the guy sawing the girder and allowing the cut end to drop and bounce.

He was working alone, how could he even effing lift it????

So we have this owner having to pay to replace 4 chimney breasts, which I have heard is stupidly expensive (?).

I am more confused than ever, how can he afford that if he couldn't afford a proper home in the first place? It could eventually set him back far more than the fine, depending what has to be done.

Is he made to rectify it by law before selling it?
I don't know how building control work.