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Hecateh

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Can you not just send a letter to all neighbours saying you are working on the house, there will be occasions when temporary blockage of the road will occur and if they would like to be notified of the days this may happen then they can send their details to you at.... and then list contact details for yourself. Tell them this is to save paper and time spent posting individual letters. 

 

I did this just before Christmas, I wrote to all the neighbours within complaining distance and said we would be working on renovating the house, that there will be noise and mess on occasions and that we would do our best to minimise this, if they wanted to ask any questions or be told when anything disturbing is going to happen (scaffolding, roofing, tree cutting, cement mixers whirring outside etc) then to send their details to me...

 

Not one person has! Although one called me to tell me I'd left a light on and another keeps stopping when she sees me outside to ask if I ave fixed the observatory yet as she can see pigeons... I always smile and say I haven't made it to the top floors yet and run off inside but I feel like saying "Can you see pigeons in the observatory??? yes??? well then there's your answer !!"

 

 

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We put out a short newsletter most weeks to all the neighbours that were affected by our build.  Some agreed to accept this by email, others we just gave a paper copy to.  We tried to forewarn them about major disruptions, like when we had a succession of muck away trucks coming for a few days, and when the borehole drillers were coming, and I think it worked reasonably well as a system.  We certainly got to know the neighbours pretty quickly, and that was generally a good thing.

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+1

We did the same, including the Primary School opposite our site.  We had alreday planned forr the most disruptive activities to be excuted during school holidays and routinely advised delivery companies  to avoid clashing with school drop and collect peak times, wherever possible.

 

It worked well in general, though one of the next door neighbours was always looking to be "disturbed" and it caused him more stress than it needed. He complained about the site hours and MBC had to cut back their normal 12 hour, 7 days a week schedule to  local work site hours, prescribed by Local Council schemes for "Good Contractors". MBC worked it well  has they had another site close by and simply moved my team to work on that site most weekends and evenings.

 

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I did send letters to each of the neighbours at the beginning and asked for mobiles or emails, none responded but one still kicked off because I said it would be morning and it didn't come til late.  Since then I have sent letters out for any deliveries that would take longer than a few minutes but of course I cannot say exactly what time they will be there.  With a brick delivery the neighbours son (in his 20s) came out swearing at the to 'move that effing thing' which of course did not get a good response from the driver.  

As, with each letter, I have requested contact details and they have chosen not to give me them, and despite being as considerate and reasonable as I can I am still getting grief they are now going to get letters when there will be a real problem.  The utilities will let them know themselves so I think the only big one I have left is when the roof comes.  

 

Thanks everyone for your support.

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23 minutes ago, Vijay said:

There's only so much you can do - some people will moan at just about everything and you have to just rise above it ;)

 

 

Very true, and some will see your attempts at trying to be as helpful as you can be under the circumstances as a sign of weakness and use it as an opportunity to cause you even more hassle.   I speak from experience..................

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35 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

 

 

Very true, and some will see your attempts at trying to be as helpful as you can be under the circumstances as a sign of weakness and use it as an opportunity to cause you even more hassle.   I speak from experience..................

I'm pretty sure that is what has happened which is why I am no longer doing any more than I have to, whilst remaining polite and pleasant

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The positive side is you see the true nature of your neighbors. It took us over 5 years and 3 planning applications and ended up selling our house and plot with full planning and building warrant as we had moved into an other part of our life journey. It was amazing to see and meet so many people who helped us and I always say hello to the people who wanted us to fail. "Wanting to fail" might not be the right words, the house has now been built and every time I pass it a sense of joy comes over me. I was laughed at, I was told to shut up at the first planning  hearing, and the end result has given me a reputation and credibility, ok that means nothing to me but has opened many doors without me needing to kick them in to gain entry. What I am trying to say, if you keep to your own moral compass then you have nothing to feel ashamed about, just keep smiling and keep trying to make the world a better place for all. Remember your house will be there long after you are gone, you are gifting a home for future generation.

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  • 7 months later...

Just reading through all this again has made me feel better.

 

I am at the bottom right hand side of a cul de sac.  There is a neighbour, the one that kicked off most at the start, who is directly at the end of this cul de sac at the bottom of a hill that is pretty steep in places.  There is an aco drain at the end of the cul de sac between the road and his drive.  At the right hand side of this is a council road drain.  This always causes problems with heavy rain as it takes all the crap off the road as well as the rainwater so, with heavy rain, it has never coped well in the 20 years I have been here.  

 

The council clean this drain on a regular basis (probably 3 x per year) it has been cleaned since my building work has finished, so very little of the crap is down to me.

 

BUT     it is still my fault that the drain couldn't cope with the excessively heavy rain we have had today.  I don't think they realise that is it pretty warm out tonight and, having my door open I an hear all they are saying. I appreciate that it is frustrating, annoying and bloody awful when they are at the end of a steepish road and when the drain doesn't cope it goes straight into their garage/ workshop - but I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE. 

 

Their property would never even be given planning permission today.  

 

Ah well, at least while they are 'slagging me off' they are leaving someone else alone. lol

 

I no longer let it get to me since I realised that I am the easy target for their frustration

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  • 4 weeks later...

With unhelpful neighbours take comfort in the knowledge that karma always comes into play. At our last house (semi detached) our neighbours did daily DIY ..... for 4 years! Even when we asked nicely for the odd day of respite when my wife (a nurse) had been working a 12 hour nightshift and needed to sleep they declined and just kept going (he's retired so it wouldn't have been an issue to give us 1 day off)  This guy used tools like no one else - to knock a nail in was bang (wait 5 seconds) bang (wait 5 seconds ) and so on - sawing was the same ! The suspense waiting for the next bang or saw action was part of the torture. Anyway, we sold up and don't actually have close neighbours now, and I had to laugh when I heard that the the guy we sold it to has all night parties and even plays loud music during the day such that it can be heard over100 metres away even *outside* - oh the irony ? . As they say ,"karmas a bitch" ?

Edited by curlewhouse
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