Complaining to building control re neighbour

[Wonderbug81]

My downstairs neighbour has been doing some major building work. We have a party wall agreement with surveyors involved but for certain aspects of the building unrelated to the PWA I think they've been cutting corners.

One example is removing the water pipes and gutters when they redid some outside walls and not replacing it. This has led to leaks on one of my walls so bad that some rain water was seeping in.

I've tried speaking to the neighbour about the various issues but he's pretty nonchalent.

I now want to complain to building control.

Are they likely to be able to help, will I have to declare the council complaint when I sell and is it likely to cause any other potential problems?

Speak to your insurers first.
That sounds like idiotic behaviour from the neighbour, you can't just remove guttering and not replace it. I would have thought your insurers will have something to say about it and could advise the best course of action.

Definitely email building controls. They will have to act on it, if they are contravening the original plans. When you say water pipes, is this water being fed into your property? I know it’s unpleasant, but if you don’t act now, you will regret it. If your neighbours never speak to you again, so what. They obviously aren’t worth being friends with anyway. Our neighbours cut through our water supply whilst digging their garden, they caused damage to some of our appliances and didn’t see it as a problem. I wish we had gone for them now, and taken them to small claims court, but we didn’t. I just ignore them now - they are irrelevant. They are so called influencers - a pain in the derrière.

Didn't think of that. Will definitely speak to them, thank you.

Thank you! Sorry I used the wrong term. The pipes that connect the gutters. So basically when there's heavy rain fall there's just a waterfall against my walls.

I don't really care about annoying my neighbour at this point, I'm trying to work out if it would bother a seller if I have to declare the complaints when I sell.

Sorry you've had a mare too. Some people just don't care!

Do you have a management company or similar for the flats? If so, speak to them.

It's a Victorian conversion so the management company just takes the money for the building insurance and is there to serve the freeholder so sadly, no.

Part of building regs will be management of drainage. Email them and attach photos. It should be quite simple to resolve.

If building regs in your area are anything like mine, they take no interest in these issues. Good luck, but building regs these days is a rubber stamping exercise - jobs for the boys and nothing else. Certainly try them first but be prepared to have to deal with this as a dispute against your neighbour. If it is as bad as you describe it will be hard to hide if you are selling anyway - a surveyor may pick it up or viewers may see it for themselves if it is raining when they come! If water is pouring down when it rains can you video it? Maybe then you have the basis to start kicking up a fuss with the neighbour, building control etc?

@Wonderbug81 The freeholder will be very concerned! Their building is being ruined! Of course tell the management company. Do you insure the building? Or does the management company? What do you actually insure? They won’t pay up for a neighbours negligence. Your freeholder must deal with this.