Browse Forums Building A New House Re: How to P*SS of your neighbors... 21Jul 14, 2008 6:13 pm Hi Annoyed,
Regardless of building on the boundary or whatever I was shocked to read your post. No one has any right to come onto YOUR property, remove a fence which you partly own/share and re-attach a gate to YOUR house. I am disgusted by the SS's attitude and how dare they show no respect for your land/home. Ok lets say they are building on the boundary then the most common courtesy would have been for them to write to you advising/obtaining permission for the fence to be removed etc etc. I would have lost the plot if I came home and saw that. I don't think you can put any blame on the owners but I certainly can understand why you would want to avoid them. If I was in their shoes I would have approached you myself to give you the run down. Not a great start for future neighbours. If it was me, I'd be going straight to my solicitor and have them send a letter to PD and let them know you won't be treated like this. Take lots of photos and document every call/conversation you have with them. The way I feel about them at the moment they deserve a good kick in the ar*e. BTW, what Estate are you in? What house are the neighbours building? H2B Happy at Home Re: How to P*SS of your neighbors... 25Jul 14, 2008 7:15 pm I'm building with PD in Mernda Villages. Happy at Home Re: How to P*SS of your neighbors... 26Jul 14, 2008 7:24 pm if it was me i would get out the 8 tonne excavator at the head office tell them to fix the damage, appologise for there total lack of respect or they will lose an office or two.
But in reality you cant do that legaly so take photos, keep a copy of all your documentation, emails etc, put your dog in the most expensive boarding kennel you can find contact your solicitor hand it over to them , go for all of your legal costs, boarding kennel costs and full rectification costs and just to boot call ACA, they will jump on it straight away, get the local paper involved it also wouldnt hurt to call there association ie : master builders or hia im a member of master builders if you stuff up you get a new one torn Da Vinci Outdoor Living Architectural landscaping http://www.davincioutdoor.com Re: How to P*SS of your neighbors... 27Jul 14, 2008 8:14 pm I don't want to trivialize your situation but if you have a house in a new estate with a vacant block next door then at some stage someone is going to be building next to you. Building is messy and difficult work and to be honest I'd say the mess is minor by building standards. You should see what they usually do to empty adjacent blocks.
Obviously a certain amount of respect for your property is reasonable and from that perspective they have failed to even try to do the right thing by you. Part of the problem is they are a big company and if it isn't PD's policy to contact existing neighbours then it will never happen. A really good site supervisor might have contacted you but thats about the only way it would happen. The sub contractors don't and won't give a monkeys. As you bought the house established maybe this doesn't apply to you but from my own experience I've seen this sort of thing in my own estate (next door in fact). People finish their house and move in after 6 months of messy building, noise and mud. However when the people next door start to build theirs they complain about being inconvenienced etc. It's a fact of life in a developing area and you just have to appreciate that once your house is finished other people are going to want to build theirs and you have to make allowances. As for the size of the house and building on the boundry they don't call them McMansions for nothing. If you want open spaces buy in an older developed area. Sorry to sound harsh but I think a two sided argument is needed here as you have to weigh up the whole scenario. Re: How to P*SS of your neighbors... 28Jul 14, 2008 8:20 pm I'm scared after reading this post that my new neighbours might hate me too
We are building a large(ish) double story home in an established area with PD, we have two single story homes on either side... I would hate if PD came in and treated my new neighbours and their home with such little respect... I would also hate it if my new neighbours thought my home was 'too big' for their area...I hope they like the fact that I'm knocking down an ugly house and putting up a nice new one Either way I hope you get a result in your favour My karma ran over your dogma Re: How to P*SS of your neighbors... 29Jul 14, 2008 9:24 pm Quote: Ok lets say they are building on the boundary then the most common courtesy would have been for them to write to you advising/obtaining permission for the fence to be removed etc etc. I would have lost the plot if I came home and saw that. Yes, this was so simple to avoid, all they had to do was put a note in your letter-box advising you of date of fence removal so at least you could plan for any inconvenience. More than the mess, I would be worried about my dog getting out when I wasn't home and yard suddenly unfenced. We have built our garage on the boundary but very lucky - no-one can build on our other side as we are last house facing that direction ie our other side will be joined by a corner block's back boundary. Re: How to P*SS of your neighbors... 30Jul 14, 2008 9:33 pm I think we all need to be tolerant of building going on around us and I will be when we get to that stage but I will not accept another builder coming onto my land and making changes. We are the 2nd house to be underway in our street. The block to the left hasn't even been released yet so I know I'll have building going on all around me when we move in down the track. The couple to our right are still deciding on their house so they too will be a little way off. I don't think Annoyed's problem is with the building side of things it's more the fact that PD have not been more respectful of his home and property and I think anyone would be mad if they came home and found the fence removed! That's just so rude. And how dare PD attach a gate to his house!
Bel, maybe to put your mind at ease you could go and meet your neighbours after settlement and let them now what you are planning to do. I think in most cases people would be happy to have a newer house next to them. Only adding value to the street. H2B Happy at Home Re: How to P*SS of your neighbors... 31Jul 14, 2008 9:43 pm Forgive my ignorance but apart from the last 6 months (renting in town while we wait for the new house to be finished) I've always lived on farms or big rural blocks and have never come across this kind of thing.
Are you all saying that it is now acceptable, at least in new estates, for homes to be built right up to/on the property boundary? What happened to minimum distances? Does that mean that the walls/windows of homes can be as little as a metre apart? Is that normal now? I always thought that the eaves had to be about 2 metres minimum away from the boundary. If so I find it amazing that councils are allowing that. It seems like a recipe for social warfare to me. In the estate we're renting in the houses are about 2 to 3 metres apart and I find that like living in someone else's pocket. Re: How to P*SS of your neighbors... 32Jul 14, 2008 9:47 pm Ancient Mariner, I think it's only habitable rooms that need to be a certain distance away from the boundary. Mostly it's just the garages which get built up to the boundary, any habitable space behind the garage still needs to be a certain distance away from boundary.
Annoyed, hope you get it sorted out. Re: How to P*SS of your neighbors... 33Jul 14, 2008 9:51 pm AM, in our council we are allowed to have garage walls on the boundary but not house walls; house walls must be a minimum of 900mm (still not much, I know) from boundary.
A garage wall on the boundary is not allowed to have a window in the boundary wall - I like a high window on garage wall to let light in during day. Easily solved, we just changed it onto the back wall of garage. Edited: in other words, exactly what donuts just said Re: How to P*SS of your neighbors... 34Jul 14, 2008 10:05 pm I believe in our Estate you are allowed to put the garage wall on the boundary too. We can't in our street as we have a different set of rules. All the blocks in our street are around 800sqm and have to be two storey, we also have to have a side setback of at least 2.5m on both sides (the developers prefer a 3.5m side set back). We will have 2.5m on one side and 5m on the garage side (and 7m behind it from fence to the house). Would have been nicer to center the house on the block but we wanted a side yard too hence the 7m. Happy at Home Re: How to P*SS of your neighbors... 35Jul 14, 2008 10:14 pm Where we are (Glen Eira Council, Melbourne), you can have your house on the boundary for x% of the length of your block (where 'x' is something like 25). Main conditions are: average height of section on the boundary can be no more than 3m, it can't have windows facing neighbours (wall has to be fire rated), and probably something about allowing light into the windows of habitable rooms of your neighbours (ie at least 1m space between wall and windows).
Our house has about a 4m section of dining wall on the boundary, which created issues in how to construct without annoying our neighbours too much. Looked like we might have to have it built "from the inside out", which would have been more expensive, but neighbours were happy enough to let builders use their land - but we asked! And had our SS talk to them when there were any problems. And checked with neighbours to make sure they were happy... I guess God didn't use subbies... Re: How to P*SS of your neighbors... 36Jul 14, 2008 10:24 pm Thanks for the info, not quite as bad as I was visualising. At least there is still some separation!
But -- I don't quite know how to put this tactfully -- don't you find it all a bit 'cosy'? You wouldn't want to have noisy neighbours! Re: How to P*SS of your neighbors... 37Jul 14, 2008 10:33 pm Hi Annoyed
I personally can see why you are upset. It is really disrespectful to you and your property to just walk in, pull down your fence and not even have the decency to speak to you about it prior. It's your property, you own and have paid for the fence. The neighbours do have to take some responsibility. They have engaged the builders to undertake work on their behalf. They should be speaking to the builders and getting the builders to rectify the situation. We are building in an established area and actually had new fences put in before we started building. Our garage is built to the boundary and the builders didn't have to pull the fence down to do any work. They had to work around it. They are very capable of doing so. In the process of building our house they damaged the fence of one side. The neighbour was very irate about it, and I don't blame them. We are handling it with the builders because it happened due to our build. They shouldn't have to be the one's to deal with the builder on the issue. I know you don't want to get on the wrong side of your neighbours, but there should be a mutual respect and it shouldn't be left in your hands to deal with it. I don't understand what being in a new estate has to do with anything. You have built your house, paid for it and have every right to live there and do whatever else you want to do to the property. Otherwise how long do you have to wait to enjoy the house that you built. The builder is very capable of working within the confines of the property and as their is a neighbour on one side they should respect that. Don't forget that the Council issues the building permit and the builder has to work within the requirements of that permit. They will come out and inspect (I am sure they have to) if you contact them to make a complaint about the building works. Also, builders are required to provide a safe workplace and by pulling down your fence and encroaching on your property, they are not ensuring your safety. Maybe a call to worksafe (or whatever they call themselves) to advise them about PD work practices might get PD a bit more concerned about your issues. I'm sorry if this is sounding a bit melodramatic, but you had a fence on your property which was also keeping in a dog and they just didn't give a damn. Re: How to P*SS of your neighbors... 38Jul 14, 2008 10:37 pm It would annoy me as well. I'd be speaking with the owners to see if they can pull their SS in line . Re: How to P*SS of your neighbors... 39Jul 14, 2008 10:43 pm Summary:
- There's this thing called Title, which means the land is YOURS. Whether its a new estate or 100yr old suburb, the land is yours. Others have to ASK to come onto it. - PD is meant to be a professional company. They should know established building practices. They also have a reputation to protect, which is one of the few (non-litigation) hammers you can wield. - Your neighbours might not be actually constructing the house, but PD are their agents. They have some duty of care as well. They can't just wash their hands of this. And be thankful you don't have a shared sewer pipe with next door - our neighbour's sewer actually ran across the middle of our block, then down the side of our block opposite theirs - or at least it did until the new footing went wham! through it. Then we were all literally in the s**t!! I guess God didn't use subbies... Re: How to P*SS of your neighbors... 40Jul 14, 2008 11:06 pm I totally agree with what others have said - it is your property you have paid for it, it belongs to you and no one has a right to enter or most certainly alter anything about it without your permission. If someone took down my fence without asking (and my dog didn't eat them ) I would be horrified, that could have serious safety implications for pets or children! I am building in a new estate and I will definitely expect a mess around as others build and I will do everything I can to oblige my neigbours as thier houses go up but I certainly won't accept damage to my property or my families comfort!! Thanks mate. Yeah good points! Leaning towards Option 3 to get a bit extra space in the cabinets but not going too crazy high (and expensive). Would require a mini… 13 39695 Broker here - legislation says that every true broker must put the clients best interests before theirs so in theory they must offer you the best options for you on their… 2 46012 The worst thing you can do is sign a building contract without a pre contract review. Over the years many people have come to me with disputes where they just signed… 0 8339 |