Kittensbar

We had the nightmare of living next to one of their jobs. They said they would remeasure when we queried the measurements of the side return. They never remeasured and rushed to put up the extension rotating it across the boundary as they went, despite agreeing with Southwark, the building surveyors and adjoining owners to built it straight. They produced two sets of plans, one for us, Southwark and the Party Wall Surveyors and worked to another one so not only do we have 2/3rd of our neighbours' extension wall on our property we also have six major differences. After the building encroachment and their disregard of the plans, we asked them to meet my building surveyor on site to go through the plans, they refused to do so even though they were working around the corner. The mention of a boundary surveyor had them running so fast that I am still choking on the dust. Our safety was not considered and dangerous work such as putting up scaffolding above our heads was just carried out without any notice, despite stating in the Party Wall Agreement we were to receive notice. Hours of work, safety etc were totally ignored by this company and their Project Manager.. If anyone would like to see their work and pictures of the work being carried out please contact me and you can pop around the see for yourselves just how professional this company are. Even better ask the Directors of Plus Rooms to meet you here at my property so that you can see for yourselves whether they are a company you can trust with your money. If they have done nothing wrong here then why are they running and hiding. They even went so far as to build a false crooked back wall to try and give the illusion that the extension should be crooked. The pictures of them carrying out this work are unbelievable.

Four weeks ago my husband was in the kitchen and heard a noise in the bedroom above and climbing the steps to the landing found a man with one leg through the window (he did have a second leg!). He had climbed over 8 fences to reach our house, trying all other houses en route and he used the outside shed to climb up, removing our window box to get in the window. My husband said "what do you think you are doing" and he immediately jumped down shouting 'wrong house wrong house'. He then darted in to our kitchen and then ran away over the fence, trying the next door patio doors as he went. My neighbour who has three nest cameras (2 external and 1 internal) looking on to our property complete with audio and records us 24/7 recorded my husband shouting at the man from inside our house. We also had our own footage of him and the police recognised him. He has since been arrested and is on remand as he has a record of breaking and entering. Just yesterday at 2.00am a white male with bald head about 6ft accessed an expensive 4 x 4 and only ran off when confronted by a neighbour who heard the noise outside his window. I am not sure if it is the same man I recently saw walking down the street looking in to each car as he went. I have lived here since 1991 and when I first came here both houses next to me were robbed and a man was stabbed and killed by Bellenden Road. Things settled down over the years but we seem to be back to a high level of crime again.

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Thank you all for your contributions. The reason for this post was to see if anyone else would like to get together for a class action and I now have a few names so thank you. Plus Rooms told us they would remeasure but they didn't - they told us they would build it straight - they even told both Party Wall surveyors and Southwark and yet they rotated the extension bringing it over the boundary line. They created a false taper of the roof tiles at the back to create a 'v' shape to be continued in to our garden. We were lied to and we are not the only ones and we will not be. If they work on the house next to you, I would advise you to be very careful when going on holiday when they are building extension walls. If they had done nothing wrong well why did they not supply the drawing we requested showing the measurements? This was never forthcoming. They have had plenty of opportunity to come here and go through the measurements but they never have because they are aware that what they have done is wrong. Why else would they not want to resolve this ?

Everything I have said is documented either with ourselves from Plus Rooms or available on Southwark's website. There were many other questionable things Plus Rooms did that I have not said on here because I would not be able to prove them. I am only stating things I can prove

Thank you very much for (a) taking the time to register and (b) that rather helpful piece of information. our neighbours have been aware of the boundary breach from the beginning and as soon I realised what was going on I wrote to ask them to remove the section crossing the boundary. I received an email back to say they wanted no further communication. Our neighbours do not want to discuss the extension. They ignore any correspondence regarding it. Even my ex husband wrote to Plus Rooms - he is a building surveyor with over 30 years experience and they simply said - we have done nothing wrong and just done what the client wanted. They just want you running from pillar to post until you give up.

I agree - they have a lot of work so why do this? The reason is that there is a lot of competition and if they can offer something extra to greedy owners - such as ours - they will do this. They event took time to taper out the tiles the side of the roof to make it look as though it should come across. This was a totally false aspect as all the back walls in our street are straight. I am getting no joy out of taking time to make this post. Yes the work is a nightmare and we had hoped when it was over we could get on with our lives but now they have built on our property this has made it very difficult and not content to just build on our property, they are waiting and have been for 8 months to finish the garden that they designed which unfortunately involves taking some of ours.

We have an email from Alex Halifax advising that as we were querying the measurements they would remeasure before building the wall. They built it whilst we were out of the country and never consulted us. They also rotated the extension and although they could clearly see they were crossing the boundary, they continued to build the wall. They are well aware of what they have done. At no point have they come back to resolve it. We are here if they want to. We are not the only ones they have done this to. Alex Halifax is not qualified to measure boundaries. Up until four years ago he was working in the marketing department for Renault cars. They measured using an old measuring tape - I have a similar one for knitting. The whole measurement taking was just as a matter of course. They already had the measurements they were working to as the plans had been drawn up.

I would love to knock it down but the law here is a very grey area

You would think so wouldn't you but this really is not the case. There is one going through right now at Upland Road courtesy of Plus Rooms where they are building across the boundary and the owner who is affected contacted Southwark and was told that it was a civil matter and Southwark granted permission to go ahead. I could not believe it either and in fact that is the very reason I have approached The Evening Standard because until it happens to you, you are unaware of how powerless you are to put things right.

Can I come back to you with pictures please

Funny enough they have accused us of harassment because after 1,500 hours of building work over 7 months non stop with every clause the Party Wall Award broken by both the owners and Plus Rooms and our home, garden and plants covered in debris, loud music from the site, their contractors parking in my disabled bay, scaffolding put up over our heads without notice, I finally shouted at the owners from my garden and they recorded this and called the police. It has become quite evident that they want us to be arrested for harassment which is why we do absolutely nothing now and you would be surprised when you sit back and watch them trying to get you to react and push buttons. . Even with 3 security cameras looking at us 24/7 and with audio on since May last year - even listening to us in our back garden -we do not react. Our friends think they want us to harass them in order to get us out of the house so they can complete the theft of the rear garden and it is becoming more evident this is the case. Quite frankly we have more important issues to deal with - this person needs to get his extension off our property as we currently have a dispute in progress.

We know we are not the only ones it has happened to because we have spoken to two other people. If you go through the Planning Applications you look at the public comments from neighbours but that is only the tip of the iceberg - for instance we never commented because we were given plans showing a straight extension. We had William Doherty from Planning round and although he sympathised he said that we were in a stronger position to deal with the matter and it would need to be dealt with via Civil action. Plus Rooms know this and that is why they go ahead and do this time and time again.

Thank you. Yes we have photographs and we have our Deeds. Deeds to not show the exact measurements. It is quite clear just from looking at the extension that it is crooked and coming across the boundary. As I mentioned in another question here - they rotated the extension whilst building it and whilst we were away to bring it across the boundary - the idea being to continue the crooked line in to the back garden. Yes I have all of this correspondence. A surveyor specialising in boundaries is required and my surveyor contacted Plus Rooms and their response was "we have done nothing wrong - we were acting under the instructions of the owners"

2/3rd in length - the extension was supported to be built square off the back wall. This is what we were told, as were Southwark in the plans, the two surveyors acting for both parties and even the plan attached to the Party Wall Award. Whilst we were away and knowing we had not agreed to the measurements, they also rotated the extension. The idea is to change the boundary and keep the crooked line going on in to the rear garden. He has been waiting 7 months for us to go on holiday to complete the garden. If I sound mad 1. The bat that was there disappeared whilst we were on holiday in October 2016 and would have delayed their work. 2. In November 2016 whilst in New York, they went on our roof which they were not supposed to do for the loft extension. 3. In March 2017 whilst in Mexico they put up the wall (as detailed above)\ 4. When the owner thought we were both out one Saturday he put up a panel on our property trespassing as he did 5. This weekend when we were away he struck again, this time pushing back the fence that is his further on to our property. He now has 3 CCTV cameras up audio and visually recording us and they have been up since May 2017. His next move will be to dig up the rear garden and built a wall continuing from his extension and going right across our property. He will do this whilst we are away using the same firm that happily built across our boundary for the extension. We have our deeds showing a rectangle garden - in fact we all have rectangle gardens along here. All the other extensions are straight down the middle of both properties - this is the only one where there has been a land grab and the only one whose garden has sat waiting to be finished for 8 months because he has been waiting for us to go on holiday. Anyone who wishes to visit and see the goings on are very very welcome.

I would also add that there is a property in Upland Road where the adjoining owners have gone to the Council to say that the extension Plus Rooms are building is coming across their boundary. The Council have come back and said that is a civil matter and given the go ahead for the encroaching extension, leaving the adjoining owner with not only the disruption of the work but having to take legal action/civil action.

I appreciate that my neighbour would have agreed to the work and paid for it but the design, measurements, construction and project management was all done by Plus Rooms. My neighbour is completely complicit in the goings on and has been trying to steal some of our rear garden since May - hence why we have been unable to go away. We went away for two nights this weekend and during this time our neighbour pushed a fence back further on to our garden. We called the police

Hi, Admin here Unfortunately this post touches the boundaries of legal issues which are outside the capabilities of the forum to handle i.e. if we get sued for something said by a post on the forum we can't go there. Obviously we can't say what is wrong or right when it comes to the detail of the post, all we can say is that it is for someone else in a judicial capacity to decide, not me. So I've taken this post down and hopefully it can be resolved off the forum.

Thank you so much - what a fabulous idea. Cheers for sharing

Bearing in mind it was your neighbour, Janet, who was mistreated by Plus Rooms and who posted the original thread, your review is most surprising. Plus Rooms removed Janet's fence and plant pots when she was out of the property so that she was unable to stop them and she consequently lost some of her land to you. They did something similar here three times. It could of course be a coincidence that we were on holiday when they illegally when on my roof and damaged it. Again it could be a coincidence that three months later when we were on holiday they built a wall crossing the boundary on to my property, having said they would remeasure but didn't. They waited. until we were on holiday before rushing the construction of the wall. If you care to take the time and look at Southwark Planning, you will see that they have a pattern of moving boundaries in favour of their client. We witnessed shoddy workmanship and poor management. They broke every term of the party wall agreement, knowingly doing so with the consent of the owners of next door but again that is another story like your Wren Kitchens. There was also an issue with bats that miraculously disappeared again whilst we were on holiday. I would strongly advise any adjoining owner where `Plus Rooms are working next door to be very very vigilant when it comes to boundaries because there was even a case where they moved the boundary knowing the next door neighbour was deceased and the Executor had a dreadful time dealing with the matter.

I would definitely give Plus Rooms a wide birth.

Plus Rooms did a side return and loft extension next door. We had a party wall agreement which they totally ignored as did the owners. Scaffolding was erected without giving us any prior notice and it was erected right over out heads and on my property. The work did not keep to schedule despite the men working over and above the allowed hours by Southwark. They went on our roof and damaged it when they were not supposed to be on it and they erected the wall to the side return whilst we were on holiday knowing that we had not agreed to the measurements. We now have an extension that crosses our boundary line. They submitted plans to Southwark and attached the same to the Party Wall Award and then went ahead with other plans that they had not disclosed but that prepared. I could go on and on or you could just come and see what they have done. In fact anyone interested is welcome to see for themselves and I have photographic evidence too.

Please remove this thread

Are you still doing smallish bricklaying jobs? please let me know as we have a small garden wall that we could do with some help on. Thanks so much