Question to check that I’m not being unreasonable for the hive mind.

We have recently had our house renovated – some walls out and rsjs in etc. New plumbing, wiring, kitchen, bathroom pretty much top to toe. The house is a  semi detached. Our neighbour has complained that since we have been having works done lots of cracks have opened up in her house and coving has come off. Our builder at the time said it was nothing.

Its worth noting that we haven’t had any cracks or coving moving in our side of the building.

We offered to repair the cracks for her as a good will gesture – but she said she wanted it done professionally – which we agreed she could get a quote for.

The quote she has just sent through is repair of the cracks in her bathroom ceiling and hallway – with a cheery note that she would get other bits done at a later date – for a price of £1300 – £950 labour and £350 materials. I dont know what decorators charge but I would have thought that 130 per day wasnt far off in Swansea – meaning this is about 7 days work plus using myrrh to cover the cracks!

We haven’t got that sort of money at the moment and I will not be paying that much – feel pretty affronted tbh and tempted to tell her to jog on – interested what your views would be?

We offered to repair the cracks for her as a good will gesture – but she said she wanted it done professionally – which we agreed she could get a quote for.

This makes it a bit late for this….

We haven’t got that sort of money at the moment and I will not be paying that much – feel pretty affronted tbh and tempted to tell her to jog on

Get your own decorator to give you a quote.

That’s what dilapidation surveys are for. Your builder sounds like a knob, pass the bill to them.

Does the Party Wall Act apply? If so, did you breach it?

It’s quite possible that what she has is simple settlement that happens when a house is restructured. It is an aesthetic problem (usually) not a structural one. Might also have some doors that need planed or rehanging if the doorway has settled slightly. Your side probably has changes too. But she didn’t do the work, you did, so you are on the hook.

We offered to repair the cracks for her as a good will gesture

It’s not really a good will gesture when you are the one that put the cracks in her house…

You don’t have to necessarily accept her quote, ask her for another. But you should be looking to get the work done.

Hence why I’d agreed to have the work done, I didn’t agree to have her whole house redecorated at exorbitant cost!

Our builder at the time said it was nothing.

Have you had a look and is it “nothing”?

If you don’t sort it she might start a thread here and everyone will tell her to use the legal cover on her home insurance, so worth keeping on side

Seems fair to fix any damage to her house (though obviously you don’t know if it was there before or not.  Someone might of just scared her into worrying about potential problems caused by your works, and/or she spotted a way to make some money, get existing issues fixed.  Who knows).  Labour charges can quickly add up with multiple visits (which might be the case where stuff needs to be redecorated), but I might start by getting that £350 ‘materials’ bill itemised.  That’s quite a lot of coving, filler and paint at trade prices.

If? you broke it you fix it wether you have the cash or not. It’s not good will if your building works caused the damage. Neighbour wars can well take the shine off your refurbished house.

Yes had a look, it’s small cracks easily fillable with caulk. The rooms shes complaining about don’t even touch our party wall, they are the other side of the house.

Basically I feel we may have caused the damage but it’s not certain by any means and she is trying to take the Mick out of us – I’m more than happy to repair any damage we have caused just not to be taken for a mug i.e 950 labour and 350 materials. Will certainly be getting an itemised quote and getting a decorator of our own to look.

It’s been an extraordinarily dry summer, it could just be the ground drying out and causing a bit of subsidence, there’s a lot of it about 😉

The recent very dry weather and subsequent ground shrinkage has caused quite a few small cracks in many houses around here. That may be the cause of some of the cracks but that will be almost impossible to prove. I think you will be paying if you want to keep a good relationship. Surely its quite a small percentage of the overall cost of the works even if it is a bit of a kick in the nuts at the end.

Anything that has replastering is hard to do cheap… the whole process is just time consuming to do properly.

The plastering itself is only a fairly small part of the work and time, especially doing it piece meal.

extortion
ɪkˈstɔːʃ(ə)n,ɛkˈstɔːʃ(ə)n/Submit
noun
the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats.

I don’t think that applies in this case! 😆

Doing the right thing is one thing, getting taken advantage of is another.

My Mom had similar when her neighbours had some structural work done. Pretty much every wall/ceiling junction on the party wall cracked and moved. She had cracked ceilings, gaps in the coving, gaps at the corners of stud walls and even had movement/cracks at a built in cupboard under the stairs and cracks around the stair stringers on the opposite side of the house. I have a building background so I marked up the walls, ceilings and gaps to make sure no more movement was going to occur. Funnily the neighbours who had the work done also said they had no cracks or movement but it would of been hard to tell and covered up with new plaster, coving etc.

When i was happy nothing was moving any further we repaired any damage and re decorated. all the rooms on the party wall side needed quite a lot of work and it would of cost a fortune if we had paid a decorator.

It doesn’t need replastering. Just caulking or a bit of aims and then painting at the most! I’m all for keeping neighborhood relations but I don’t feel it’s being extended to me. If it was me I’d offer to do it as cheap as poss, rather than using it as an excuse to have the whole place redone!

Ok thanks for the replies. Do you think it’s unreasonable to then say, I’m not paying for your guy to do it but I will get my own decorator to fix it? I’m pretty sure when she says it’s not me paying the decorator get £signs in his eyes!

It doesn’t need replastering. Just caulking or a bit of aims and then painting at the most!

But you aren’t the expert and she has a right to have the damage caused to her house put right at your cost. Ask your tradesmen to look at the work required and have them quote on putting it right (she doesn’t have the right to choose who is used to do the work, only that it is put right).

You broke it, you fix it, to as good or better than before. Quickly and without fuss or haggling. And don’t have her chasing round endlessly for quotes, or having to project manage the job for you. Sounds like she already had to suffer months of noise and vibrations with all that list of work you had done. Then when it’s all done, big bunch of flowers and another apology.

You broke it, you fix it, to as good or better than before. Quickly and without fuss or haggling. And don’t have her chasing round endlessly for quotes, or having to project manage the job for you. Sounds like she already had to suffer months of noise and vibrations with all that list of work you had done. Then when it’s all done, big bunch of flowers and another apology.

Agreed – Exactly what he should do if he believes the neighbour is genuine, and not taking advantage of the situation.  However, there seems to be some doubt.  Impossible to make a judgement on that from the info that has been shared.

If you’re just caulking cracks in the ceiling or wallsl I’m afraid you’re not offering to do a good job and neither is your decorator.

If you’re just caulking cracks in the ceiling or wallsl I’m afraid you’re not offering to do a good job and neither is your decorator.

Depends on the damage, surely?

If it was my house you damages with my knowledge of building and building law we would be in court by now, you have failed in your basic duties

A delap survey, constant communication and post settlement survey would have saved you a lot of financial pain

You cannot proved that you are not 100% in the wrong

on the other hand I would be biting the hand of you neighbour at that offer,

Ask her round for a cup of tea and cake show off your how well decorated yours is and suggest that you ask your decorator to quote .. Thank her for her patience whilst you have had all this work carried out and reassure her that you want to make this right .. If she is not happy id go with plumber and bite her hand off as it sounds as if there was no post and pre surveys?

There was no post or pre survey, we are new to this and didn’t realise. The damage is tiny to her house in my opinion, we’ve been really upfront throughout.

I just spoke to our building control officer (who has seen the cracks in her house) who basically said it was our word against hers and she couldn’t prove it wasn’t there before and that she was being unreasonable in the level of repair work she was expecting, but for good will it was reasonable to have them repaired via our tradesperson of choosing.

No caulking cracks in a  wall or ceiling is not doing it properly and an inferior finish.

Unless you’re intending to move house next year then you’d be well advised to give her £1500 this week, and a nice bouquet of flowers and apologies for all the inconvenience. Otherwise she will hate you for ever. And make sure everyone knows why.

I’ll pop in on this, sort of similar (kinda)

We’ve-been renovating a property, has a neighbor.

Lots of work done in our property (too long to list) issue occurred over a large crack in stairwell wall (slippage back in the 50’s) same crack in neighbor wall same place..

Wind forward and we’ve had ours repaired, but that did make some rather big works (pinned) and neighbor was informed we’d be doing this at no cost to him (his house suffering same slippage crack)

Issue, neighbor wanted stairwell repair and decorations made good. We said get a quote or we will get our builders in to do works.. he got a quote far exceeding works required so we got our builder to quote for remedial works and local planning officer to pop round and take a look whilst on site visit… neighbor hasn’t decorated since 70’s and all paper/paint needs properly decorating.. anyway neighbors quote £2500, we laughed and posted it back through his door. We offered our builder to fix issues at our cost (about £900) but neighbor refused stating (I kid you not) “he doesn’t want Polish workers in his house” well fact 1) they ain’t polish, they’re Muldovan and 2) the planning officer made a statement that we could make good using our builders at our cost.

So… a solicitors letter dropped through making claim to all sorts of horse crap, so we organised a survey, planner, party wall surveyor and builder to all go round and state facts in front of neighbor, his son and his solicitor…

Resolution?

We got our builder to make good his repairs at our cost of £900.

Solicitor issued a final completion letter with no further works or repairs to his property would be carried out by us in the future.

Sometimes Brexiteers need a kick in the balls.

It doesn’t need replastering. Just caulking or a bit of aims and then painting at the most!

If you want a cheap, crappy looking finish which may crack at a later date. It might also be advisable to remove plaster to ensure that the bricks haven’t cracked before putting the new plaster down.

I just spoke to our building control officer (who has seen the cracks in her house) who basically said it was our word against hers and she couldn’t prove it wasn’t there before

And their word means little in this circumsance, I’m pretty sure she could find a RICS surveyor to say that the cracks most probably were caused by your building work. You put in an RSJ, the house moves. Twice really – once putting the arcos in, then again when you take them out. Moving causes cracking.

You can deal with her, or you can deal with her insurer and their solicitors. One will be a lot cheaper than the other…

No caulking cracks in a  wall or ceiling is not doing it properly and an inferior finish.

Is anyone suggesting that?  Obviously would have to be decorated/finished.

>Doing the right thing is one thing, getting taken advantage of is another.

Tell me about it…

Wow! What am asshole the OP appears to be. Just thank the good lord you’re not living in Baghdad where you’d be no doubt helping to fix your neighbours house.

honestly it really is that you want everything after not taking ownership of said works.

Seriously grow up and be accepting that you should just pay her or get your neighbours house redecorated.

Brant – hadn’t you freely bent over 😂

I’m not saying I don’t want to pay for it, just that the costs are taking the piss. I’m not an asshole you judgemental twazzock.

Try not to although you have got your knickers twisted up, just take your pills and re access the situation by trying to look at it from her perspective.

At the end of the day, your neighbour probably isn’t looking to take you to the cleaners.

I’d personally be asking “how good is my builder”.

If it was my house that was damaged then I woul;d want a proper repair not some caulk stuff in the crack.  that would involve raking out the cracks, fillering, and then most importantly a repaint certainly of the wall, ceiling that is cracked but probably the whole room as a partial repaint looks rubbish

You are getting off lightly.  I had damage done by contractors similar to what you describe.  Repair costs were £3000+

Its also your contractors liability not yours I would have thought and without a dilapidation survey you have no defence.

pay up

My builder is extremely good according to building control, but there you go just asking for opinions not to be called an asshole.

sorry but wanting to get out of paying a small sum ( compared to what you have spent on your house surely) for repairs to damage you caused is not on nor is suggesting caulking cracks the work of a good builder

Tell me about it…

🙂

There was no post or pre survey, we are new to this and didn’t realise.

Next time get a decent builder who knows what needs to be done, understands building regs and law etc,.and tells you to do it before they start.  It costs whatever it costs, it is 100% your fault.

Just as if someone drove into your house and then offered to bodge up any damage with some filler and expect you to be pleased with that.