enviromental officer

[sploop]

Hope someone out there can give so advice. Have been working on and off as time and money permits to complete loft conversion and complete refurb of rest of house.

Neighbour next door has complained to the environmental office concerning noise from work being carried out. Latest concerns removal of chimney breast on party wall. Enviromental officer says that I must only carry out work between the hours of 8.00 to 18.00 hours mon to friday and 8 until 12.00 on a saturday, the same as if I were a business. At the moment as I have no work this seems alright, but as soon as I'm back working I won't be able to do anything at all. As this is my own work and not a business can this be correct??? Thanks all.

[Alex]

Just try being a considerate neighbour ,building works is a daytime occupation in a residential environment.I would say that the hours you have been given are more than adequate.This attitude that you have a right to disturb other residents peaceful existence so that it suits you is probably why your neighbours have complained.My applause to the environmental dept.

[Tom Woods]

I dont know. I'd personally be quite happy to cut my neighbours some slack in a similar situation and hope they would do the same for me..

I'm in the position where i have work to do on the house and cant afford to get someone else in to do it and also have to go to work myself.

If i were to undertake a big noisy job in the house i would first talk to my neigbours. I would be very happy to agree times that i will be doing it.

Perhaps you should talk to them and say that you will not do anything in the week to give them some peace but would like to work full days over the weekend (if this fits round your paid work schedule).

It is to your neighbours benefit to cooperate with you so that you get the job done sooner and stop making noise!

[nightjar]

The times have nothing to do with whether you are a business or a private individual. They relate to when any neighbour can reasonably expect to not have to suffer noise pollution.

Colin Bignell

[Weatherlawyer]

And the legality of his situation should best be explored in UK.legal.

I can't see that he has been issued a legal injunction. It sounds more like a request at best -or more likely, a bit of jobsworthy chickenshit to me.

Noisy neighbours are a royal PITA and I would be pissed as hell but you can get away with murder as Fred West used to say till he hanged himself.

What annoys me is the grammar employed by newbies to this group. They seem to be able to speak English elsewhere.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Yes. If you were doing that sort of work outside those hours in the first place without having negotiated with your neighbour beforehand, then you got exactly what you deserve. When I was doing noisey refurb work, I always checked with my neighbours first (at any time of day). This way, they know there's going to be an hour's bashing/hammering or whatever, and they can plan their lives around it, knowing when it's going to stop. If they had visitors or something like that, then I would postpone the noisey work, although they never asked me to do that. If you've been working "on and off as time permits", it sounds like this might have been going on a long time, with no end in sight if you haven't been communicating with your neighbours, so it's quite reasonable that they shouldn't expect to have to put up with this forever.

[nightjar]

As times have been specified, it sounds like the EHO has issued a Statutory Nuisance Abatement Notice. If not, it is a highly probable outcome if the noise continues outside those times. A £2000 fine is not unusual for a first offence of disobeying such a notice and the upper limit is £5000 per occasion.

...

When I was at school, we spent one school year learning English grammar. A graduate employee of mine tells me that the first and only time he encountered grammar as a school subject was when learning French.

Colin Bignell

[Andrew Mawson]

chimney breast

beforehand,

refurb

day).

When I was having to re-furbish my shops overnight as we couldn't afford to close I found that a knock on the neighbours door with an explanation and a bunch of flowers for the lady of the house worked wonders. In one case it even elicited an offer of labouring help! I've always found if you treat people as you would want to be treated yourself works in 99% of cases, though the remaining 1% are usually lost causes.

AWEM

[Owain]

Oh yes.

And if is is (or may become) a statutory order as Mr Bignell outlined, it may be followed by a civil action on grounds of nuisance, together with a claim for compensation.

Just be grateful you have nice neighbours who have dealt with this through the council in an amicable way instead of coming round and showing you where you can shove your power drill.

And I trust you have also complied with the Party Wall Act?

Owain

[ARWadsworth]

"nightjar .uk.com>"

A duty solicitor told me that I could not start noisy work before 10am on a Saturday if DIYing at my own home but I could start noisy work at 8am on a Saturday at a customers house.

Adam

[Peter Lynch]

Wow, now that's a good post. Give yourself a pat on the back (and I don't mean lie under an incontinent cow)

[sploop]

Thanks everyone for your replies and advice. I am not trying to be a difficult neighbour and I have on as many occasions as possible tried to work as quietly as possible and in many ways this has made me reluctant to start jobs. On this instance I have been removing bricks using just a hammer and bolster. Most of the bricks were not difficult to remove anyway.

My next door neighbour is an elderly woman who frequently doesn't answer the door, which makes it difficult to advise when I'm working. Very rarely have I carried out any work resulting in excessive noise past the hours given. My work on the house is dictated by available funds. The last substantial work carried out was to the upstairs bathroom that was completed between July and the end of August last year. This bathroom is on the far side of the house way from our neighbour.

Since then until a week before Christmas, I was working away five days a week. I may have given the impression in my post that I expected to be able to work any hours that suited me. This is not the case and has never been my intention.

I do have a proper party wall agreement agreed with my neighbour some time before work started.

On occasions that I speak with her, I have kept her up to date on the progress of works and the expected time scales.

Unfortunately I feel that with this neighbour I just can't win.

Once again, thanks everyone for your valuable advice

[mogga]

Put her a letter through apologising if you've caused her any agravation and send her a bottle of wine or some flowers. (Wine is the one to send if you think she's moaning as she's probably get more pleasure from the flowers)

Being polite and apologetic costs very little, a couple of quid on a bottle of wine (or flowers) and you'll hopefully get a nice neighbour.

Some people are really sensitive to noise, and others are not.

[Owain]

Sherry or gin. The corner shop/office are quite likely to know her tipple, if she's a regular imbiber.

Owain

[Mary Fisher]

"nightjar .uk.com>"

I was taught English grammar and spelling from five years old to when I left school. French and Latin were studied only for five and four years respectively.

The thinking that English language is a special subject is sad, shouldn't every lesson be an English one? New words and spelling and usage are surely taught in every subject.

That would mean that all teachers could express themselves with good grammar, spelling and comprehension of course ... :-(

Mary

[nightjar]

True, it was an element of all language teaching. However, in the period leading up to O level, we had a year of English Language lessosn studying nothing else. The grammar question was worth 15% and ensuring a high score in that virtually guaranteed that everyone would pass. It also provided a good boost to the marks of those of us who would have passed anyway.

Do schools even offer Latin these days? I would have difficulty recalling much of the subject today.

Apparently, expecting children to spell words correctly restricts their creativity. I suspect the same thinking applies to expecting them to use the words properly as well. When I was at primary school, spelling ability was used as a measure of a pupil's progress.

When I were a lad they could. Of course, then a requirement to get into university was a pass in an examination called Use of English. As non-graduate secondary school teachers were rare, that provided some guarantee of their ability to express themselves properly. Even though I was studying engineering, I also had to have at least one foreign language. We are, however, assured that the larger number of people going on to further education today is not a result of a lowering of standards.

Colin Bignell

[Mary Fisher]

"nightjar .uk.com>"

Some schools still do and it's recently been introduced as a subject.

Oh yes?

I've heard that, I haven't seen any evidence.

Yes, something has to be.

We are indeed so it must be true.

Mary

[Owain]

nightjar Do schools even offer Latin these days?

"In the private sector, Latin is still fairly common, with around half of all schools following the Cambridge Latin Course. Nationally about

1000 candidates sit our A level examination each year in Latin. ...

"In Scotland, about 250 pupils sit Higher Latin. The examination involves an unseen translation and 2 interpretation papers covering Virgil (or Plautus) and Cicero. Greek is rarely taught. Classical Studies attracts about 500 pupils at Higher level and covers Athens in the 5th century BC and Rome in the 1st century BC and 1st century AD....

"In Cambridge, video conferencing and web-based tuition deliver Latin teaching in schools that do not have dedicated Latin teaching staff. Participating schools now offer learners Latin to GCSE and A-level...."

[nightjar]

I was really thinking of state schools when I asked the question. Mine had about a quarter of each school year take it to O level.

Colin Bignell