Major Damages to Home.....

[muser]

We are in Landcroft Road, nice place, lovely neighbours.

The 1st major damage was caused by the construction of new pavements either side of the road. The damages were caused by huge, cumbersome, transports carrying brickwork, the breaking up of the paving slabs, hefty and very noisy. The noise and the vibration and the damage they caused was horrendous. I work from home...doesn't help me at all. The terrible shaking of our home, was unbearable.

I complained to the council. The answer I got was rude and disgraceful.

We are on a corner, loads of drilling going on creating large holes.

Now we have major building works directly opposite us which has been going on for months and is huge. Again the delivery of hefty tools and equipment, Shaking even more than the pavement work, floors creaking, huge cracks, we expect it to collapse any moment.

To add to the problems the workers are very slow indeed. I dont know how many work there, but they are very slow and annoying with loud conversations and radio.

Would you believe the cheek of it, they've obviously now gone on holidays!!! So we have to wait further for them to return, to produce more dust (I have COPD!) more noise, adding to the time it is all taking.

Excuse me for going on some time, but this really is so shocking and stressful!!

[Sue]

Huge sympathy.

Re the council issues, in particular the rude response, you could contact James McCash, or whoever your local councillor is. That is just unacceptable from someone who is dealing with the public.

Re the other, you could at least ask the builders to turn the radio down (or preferably off, though good luck with that, as many builders seem oblivious to the fact that there are people around who are trying to work or sleep or are ill or who just want to live quietly in their homes) .

And you could try to find out when the work will be finished, so that at least you have some idea.

And if there is actual damage, inform your insurance company as soon as possible if you think you know the cause, as possibly you could get this paid for by the building firm involved ( though I have no idea!)

[Sally Eva]

re damage

take before and after photos

[muser]

Thank you both Sally Eva and Su

Muser

[Penguin68]

It is certainly worth documenting any damage - with photographic evidence - if you use a digital camera (i.e. as in a phone) the picture meta-data will record the time and date the picture(s) were taken, which may be useful evidence.

Rather than at this stage involving your insurer it would perhaps be a reasonable investment, if there does seem to you to be clear damage, to ask a surveyor to report on this. A surveyor's report again would prove useful evidence. This will cost money, of course, but if you see costly repairs ahead this may still be of value. If you involve your insurer before there's a claim you might simply find your cover reduced or your premium rising (I'm afraid insurers are like that!).

And then perhaps a solicitor's letter to either the builder or the property owner informing them of the damage being caused.

[muser]

Thats great thank you very much Penguin 68

[Jules-and-Boo]

Surely this is affecting your neighbours too?

I would think that you would be in a better position if you can join up other people.

Claiming that you are the only one suffering would seem odd. It would also mean you can share costs and have greater power.

[Penguin68]

As it is written, the neighbours most impacted would be those on the other side of the road adjacent to the building works. These would/ should already have party wall agreements with the owner. So any building damage should be covered. The OP as I read it, apologies if I'm wrong, is in a property opposite the works in question. I. E. I'm guessing by that the other side of the road.

[hellose5]

Hi there - adding a few things -

Check that they are not putting rubble, sand and building residue down the drains in the street - this is a constant issue in Southwark where the drains in the streets have not been serviced at all as far as I know. Stress from building work does not often appear until 3-5 years after the build, when cracks then appear that 'weren't there earlier - you need to get proper advice in this regard - thanks