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.

Thanks @candycane222 :)

UPDATE: Sadly nowhere close to a solution. Today was awful, OH got so horrifically angry (the noise was so loud we couldn't hear each other talk in our own home) and hammered on the door.
One of the workers said 'no we won't open it. We are told not to open the door'. WTF?

Then one of them came out with a mobile phone, didn't speak but pointed it at us and the 'fake building contractor' (the man who seems to hire the workers) shouted at us from the loudspeaker, speaking utter gibberish about being a professional. It seems the workers aren't allowed to speak, either.

I thought OH was going to keel over with fury, it was dreadful. Our stress levels are starting to concern us, and we need to make some plans to address how we deal with that.

Later after work, we walked to the local police station to check if there had been any progress and were told it wasn't a police matter (!). They just basically shut us down and wouldn't even discuss it with us when we asked about the MOT. We did mention our chat earlier this week but ...nothing.

So we are back to the multi pronged attack - we will approach DVLA, Human Slavery, Fraud, Health&Safety and try to find the head honcho at Building Control.
Then it's the MP. Was hoping to do this sooner but had to deal with other stuff this week.

If anyone knows how we can locate the email address of the chief exec of BC that would be great! Are they online anywhere?

Just located name and email contact of the head at Building Control for our area so that's one thing less to fuss about!

Just wondering if this is the building control you are in touch with? Sorry if already in hand as I know you have mentioned BC
https://www.cncbuildingcontrol.gov.uk/dangerous-structures/

Editing to say this may not be for your area.

I think it's just the dept connected to our local council. We have reported him twice and have witnessed them coming out of the house, so we know they do visit. All we have been told is that he was forced to rebuild 4 chimney breasts.

They are currently attaching extremely heavy girders to the walls (for support, perhaps) which sounds extremely unsafe. None of these guys are builders and are not working safely. I am amazed BC haven't investigated further.

According to the online literature, he is required to consult a building expert or engineer to rebuild them. Absolutely no one of that description has ever been inside that property. The current person in charge of the work is a wheeler dealer with no work van or equipment (owner hires it) who doesn't even know what a party wall agreement is.
He laughed at us today and said he had never even heard of it.

I am angry that BC have been in there and not thought to check on all of this, it's ridiculous.

@MissMarplesCat this must be so stressful for you, and it just doesn’t seem fair that no one is taking the people to task for what they are doing and the impact it is having on you and your DH.
Hopefully something will be done soon. Have you noticed any damage to your own property from the builders actions? Just wondering if you have legal cover with your house insurance would it be worth you having a chat with them?

I have followed the thread but can't recall - do you know if he is working on the other side of your shared wall? Because on or even adjacent to it and he needs the party wall agreement in place. Have you looked on the gov website for this? I'm worried for you that he is going to render your house insurance invalid - perhaps call the insurance people and ask them? You may have legal cover through them too? To ask a solicitor about the party wall. Apologies if you've already been through all this upthread!

All this sounds completely horrendous , I don't want to piss on your parade , but I'm sure when you are selling up you have to declare if you have had any issues / complaints about or with your neighbours . As you have , you might have problems putting your house on the market .

We are resigned to declaring everything and accept our losses, of which there are many. It is just truly awful, and at this point I would be happy with less just to reclaim my life. We were not altogether happy with the area, which has changed in the past 5 years, not in a good way..

About the party wall - we are covered, and he had to pay out to repair our hallway wall and our roof in December. Since then no work on our wall.. so far.

I’m so sorry this is happening to you. It sounds so very stressful. Can you afford to move into rented while you sell?

I would contact Radio 4's You and Yours. This is the kind of story they could get stuck into to find out what's actually going on.

Good thought. They love a story like this.

Yesterday's 'workers' left the back door and windows wide open all night and several bags of cement at the front of the property which are now gone....

I get the feeling the workers have contempt for the owner.

Quiet today, so hoping to calm down and refuel for our fresh approaches on Monday.

What strikes us as the most odd, possibly the elephant in the room, is why he removed the chimney breasts in the first place. The house was completely derelict, holes in the upper floors, etc. Instead of dealing with these obvious repairs, he went straight in to hacking down the chimney breasts with no experienced workers or equipment.
If he was a regular guy hoping to move his family in on a budget, this does not add up. And since two downstairs support walls were removed (creating less private space), he certainly wasn't planning to use it as a HMO either.

...

We can't afford to rent whilst selling but are trying to figure out plans to reduce our stress response, which feels urgent at the moment.

I hope you went in there and took photos!

Maybe his family is bigger (multi generational) than the people who came and gushed over the place for effect and he needed a bigger living room to fit them all in. He certainly sounds as if he knows absolutely nothing about building works because he's compromised the safety of the entire structure. He bought at auction so probably no mortgage, money from somewhere else either savings or loan from someone in the community perhaps as he seems to know a lot of people. There's no way an insurance company will touch it with all the works going on and not even using qualified skilled people running an official business. He's probably too tight to have tried to get insurance anyway. So uninsured, if it falls down he's left with only a pile of rubble to show for his money, possible manslaughter charges if anyone dies in the process and personally liable for any damage to your property. You'd think then that he'd do all he could to ensure it doesn't collapse in a heap! He's a total idiot.

Don't wait until you're in a dark hole before getting help with your stress. If it gets that far you'll lose ability to function and therefore make any progress in this situation. If you can't sleep get some OTC sleeping pills, if you're feeling very negative get some St John's Wort, if you're on the verge of panicking take chamomile and valerian (herbal tea is better than nothing). If it gets worse see your GP. They may be reluctant to prescribe if you're not already in a dark hole, but the idea is to maintain functioning until you're out of this mess, then you can come off any meds. If you can't sleep your brain won't function properly, everything will start to seem ten times as bad and your ability to cope with it all will reduce drastically too, it's a bad combination.

Do all the self help stuff too: meditation, yoga, walking preferably In nature, see friends, read etc. and if just being at home is stressful due to proximity to the wreck house even when there's no noise, then get yourself physically away from there as much as possible. Go to the library or cafe, do groups or classes at the community centre, go to the park, take a weekend away by the sea if you're not going to stress about what is happening while you're not there.

IDK what your plans for selling are, but there's house buying companies that'll give you a very quick sale. If you're planning on using one, see if you can find out what religion he is, look up when the major religious holiday is because that's when work might stop for a week or two perhaps as everyone focuses on family and god etc and you can perhaps get a better price for the place by offloading it when there's no noise occurring and no dodgy comings and goings.

SMALL UPDATE:
As of Tuesday we have contacted:
Health and Safety
Building Control requesting escalation.
Chief of Building Control.
Crimestoppers/Human Slavery.
DVLA.

Since then the wide boy contractor with the dodgy MOT has vanished.
Owner arrived this morning looking distressed. Always parks far from the house. Walked up and down street during various phone calls for 30 mins, walking to and fro like a man possessed.
5 mins later a Jag arrives, turfs out 3 dishevelled workers and speeds off.
Thankfully OH got the reg and the vehicle is neither MOT'd or taxed.

OH called the police with this info, so lord knows if anything will come of it.

It seems the owner is avoiding the property and possibly in a panic due to losing the 'contractor'.
As of this morning's events. it seems certain that he is involved with illegal networks, however small. We are certain he could not have located a bunch of legitimate, cash in hand workers, to be delivered in an untaxed vehicle within the space of 5 minutes.

I may telephone the Human Slavery line but it leads directly to crimestoppers - which is essentially the police?
Sadly the police told us last week that the exploitation issue wasn't their department!

AAAgh.

Thank you for the update. It seems crazy that someone could do this and there be no comeback or consequences.

Apparently Crime Stoppers is not the police but an independent charity. It might be worth talking to them. Perhaps they could escalate it up to the department who deal with human slavery.

Also just located UNSEEN, a Human Slavery charity and put in a detailed report there. Also logged the unregistered Jag to DVLA as well as police.
So this week we have sent reports to 6 separate places, hoping for a bit of luck now!

If nothing happens within 7 days it's the MP next.

The work they are doing in there at present sounds extreme, mostly deconstruction, sounds of bricks and plaster tearing to the floor. Odd for a project that requires building a chimney breast. Something changed suddenly yesterday and it sounds as if the entire house is being ripped apart again.

You know, if you asked me for just my gut feeling here, I would say they are 'making time'. By that I mean pretending to do up a house. It sounds utterly batshit crazy but it's so haphazard you could well believe it!

I'm not working today so I think a long walk is in order.

@MissMarplesCat Crimestoppers are an independent charity, wholly separate from the police but they feed into police by providing information they receive. Essentially it's a separation that allows people to make truly anonymous reports. Just go straight to your local police.

Don't expect a uniformed team of officers to arrive at the door for a case like this though. That would spook your men and mean the police lose all opportunities to investigate and protect any potential victims. It'll be done quietly and without being seen.

That said, I'd want to speak to the police Duty Inspector by the end of next week if they haven't been in touch - you do that by calling up, saying you want to make a complaint about the handling and wish to speak to the duty inspector today. They'll call you back, albeit likely in the next day or so.

We followed up with the police after our initial report early last week.
They told us there was nothing more to say, that we needed to seek help elsewhere.
OH spoke to them again today but said they didn't seem interested, but took the details of the unregistered vehicles anyway.

I sent an online report via crimestoppers a few days ago so might follow this up with a phone call.

Thanks:)

Sadly the police told us last week that the exploitation issue wasn't their department!

Don't let this put you off. Some police CBA with paperwork and are only interested in crimes they can solve (because otherwise it makes their figures look bad). This type tells lies to make victims of crime go away. Some of them are outright abusive and will happily try to gaslight victims of crime too or abuse them in other ways. Don't think that just because someone is a police officer that they're automatically on your (the victim's) side or a decent person. You may have to raise complaints to get anywhere, but don't assume you have no rights or it isn't their job just because they're telling you that.

@MissMarplesCat was it a police call handler or a police officer you spoke to? If its the handlers saying that, ask to speak to their supervisor during the call. That's not acceptable.

Do take into consideration contacting You and Yours on Radio 4. This is exactly the kind of story they cover and they often make real headway in solving problems.

Probably a call handler, yes, but OH spoke to one on desk in local station, so perhaps similarly useless to us.

UPDATE: No work since Friday. This isn't too unusual, but the owner has been parking up and going inside alone for 1 minute at a time, walking around looking confused.
He hasn't done this since the last time Building Control paid a visit.
He made a bit of a racket in there in that small amount of time, so likely clearing stuff out of the way.
We had contacted both BC and the head of staff last Tue, so perhaps they have been in touch with him, and work has stalled - which kind of implies they don't want to be observed.

Don't know if I mentioned it but Health and Safety got back to us and said it was not their concern, but sent us links.
Human trafficking called us back last Wed, I think, and spoke to OH. They wanted a good amount of details that we gave them.

And that's all for now, we are both realising how badly this is affecting out lives. My body is in a bad way, I am having palpitations, my IBS has flared up and I am sleeping very badly. OH is like a hen on eggs, not himself at all. We are so, so bloody worn out from it all.

We are resolved to move on, but would really like to put a spoke in the illegalities before doing so. Not to our health's detriment, but at least in ways which are easy and accessible.

I am currently reading a book by a lovely Zen monk (Thích Nhất Hạnh), ironically would be so much easier to tune into in a peaceful, happier space. Not the point of zen at all, which ought to encompass the rough and the smooth, but after 18 months of this utter toolbag and his band of merry fraudsters...

edited for typos

I don’t have anything practical to offer, you are stuck in a very stressful situation. Are you on instagram, there’s a Tibetan Buddhist Master on there called Tulku Lobsang, he communicates in such a warm and inviting way without glossing over the difficult stuff. I return to him a lot. All the best.

I’m sure I suggested months ago that you lobby your local ward councillors and your MP. You should be attending every public meeting your council holds and making a huge public fuss about this… I am sure I suggested this ages ago. Also this should be formally reported as a dangerous structure. Again make a public fuss and contact your councillors NOW for crying out loud.

Also contact local press!