Need some advice on the dust and mess created by my neighbour while he's been having major buidling done. I've repeatedly emailed him regarding this but he does not want to reply and will not give me straight answer when I speak to him face to face (which has got heated which is why I've tried to stick to emails).

 

Basically it's all the dust and from cutting bricks and tiles, it's covered my windows, sills, gutters, rear lean to and now my car again (not my 300 thankfully). I'm not trying to be silly with him, I appreciate you cannot stop dust while doing work, but all I want to know is if he will get professionals in to clean everything properly when the work is done. The dust has pitted into my window sills (white PVC) and does not come off when wiped over so I am not happy to say the least.

 

Anyone know where I stand with this or will it be small claims court?

 

Thanks

 

Vijay

Depending on where the dust is coming from, i.e over a low wall or fence. can you not ask the builder to put up some sort of dust shield? only has to be a tarp or something, to try and cut down on the dust thats getting on to your property?

 

Not sure about a claim, but its bad show that your neighbor is avoiding answering a straight forward question?

am a builder have a small biz my self dust can be a issue but the wind cant be coming your way 24.7 can it ? what you need to do if you don't like the dust I know you shouldn't have to do this but get a good hose and just give a front or back a hose each afternoon. as fore the dust from cutting brick thay will be using a wizzer but this shouldn't be going non stop and if it is a petrol wizzer you can run water to it this keeps the dust don't to near non dust atall

Difficult one really, brick dust takes ages to get rid of, even after jetwashing everything down, it gets everywhere as you have found out.

 

Your neighbor really should have taken steps to maintain harmony with surrounding properties and at leas address the issues.

if you let it build up but if you wash it daily its not a issue

This over 3 floors, front and back of my house. Am I really expected to wash down my house every day? This has been going on for 8-9 months now but is obviously worse when they've been cutting brickwork on bay windows and now roof tiles. There is a layer of dust on my upstairs front bay window, you can't even see the white sill and this happened this morning.

 

I'm fuming cos I've just spoked to CAB and they told me the liability falls on the builders and roofers and the home owner doesn't have to do anything to tidy up at all - CRAZY!!!!

you didn't say 3 floor a normal house is easy to hose down .thay will have to do water cutting this will get rid of the dust issue

No water cutting has been done, dry cutting using angle grinders.

 

I'm fuming cos I've just spoked to CAB and they told me the liability falls on the builders and roofers and the home owner doesn't have to do anything to tidy up at all - CRAZY!!!!

 

Thinking about it, I kind of agree with this. It should be the builders responsibility but your neighbour should be telling them to sort it and I would have at least wanted them to acknowledge it without having to approach them.

You could try your local health and safety department, any dust is consider a health hazard these days.

You might want to check what conditions, if any, were imposed when planning permission was granted. Some local authorities

have codes of practice, dealing with hours of work, noise and disturbance etc. You could also check with the local environmental

health department on brick/tile dust pollution and contamination.

 

Be certain to take photos of damage, close-ups of sills etc. (time-stamped if possible). Then put your complaint to the builder

in writing. State in the letter what you what to remedy the situation (for example, professional cleaning of your property when the

work is completed, paid for by them). If you do have to take legal steps for compensation, photos will be essential. Send your

letter of complaint through the post, don't just hand it personally to the builder on site or one of his crew. If the builder is reputable

they should have public liability insurance to cover this sort of thing, which can help in any claim.

Edited November 1, 201312 yr by AndrewG
spellling

Sorry to hear that Vijay - I'm with Andrew's comments above mate....^^^

 

Good luck; I hope you get it sorted,

 

Richard:sad:

Thanks guys, some good advice there and I've taken a few pictures today. As a house owner I would take it personally to keep my neighbours happy if I was planning on a lot of work just to keep the peace. It's horrible when you have a neighbour who quite obviously doesn't care about anyone but themselves!!!

Thanks guys, some good advice there and I've taken a few pictures today. As a house owner I would take it personally to keep my neighbours happy if I was planning on a lot of work just to keep the peace. It's horrible when you have a neighbour who quite obviously doesn't care about anyone but themselves!!!

 

Me too Vijay.... Sadly not everyone is so considerate nowadays mate.

 

Richard:sad: