Careless Builders - Advice

Yaayuh!

Yaayuh!

Yaayuh!

Soldato
Joined
5 Nov 2010
Posts
24,859
Location
Hertfordshire
I'm rather disgruntled this week. There is a small track leading up to my house and opposite me is a building site. They've built 1x Detached and 2x Semi, they're just waiting on windows and internals. So probably 4 weeks left.

Picture at the start from my CCTV to illustrate.
EfTXMsU.jpg


Last night we came home to find that our phone line was snapped and left on the ground (from telegraph pole), immediately I assumed it was the builders and that they'd done something stupid. I was confused as it ran from my house, to my neighbours house just up the track and then to the telegraph pole. There's no reason for them to have wanged it. So I checked the CCTV...
Sure enough, they got the digger out at 8:20 on the track and went to swing it around over my neighbour's garden and caught the cable..No letter, no phone call, nothing.

So I rang the foreman as I have his number from an earlier dispute on them trashing up the track and making in impassable by car. The call basically went like this:

Me: "Hi there, It's <insert name here> from number <insert number and address here> opposite the site.
Him: "Yes?"
Me: "I've just come back to find that our phone line has been taken down, we now have no internet"
Him: "Okay..."
Me: "It appears your boys brought it down this morning.."
Him: "Not trying to be funny, but how are you sure?"
Me: "Because I can see on my CCTV your digger swinging round over my neighbour's garden and catching it at around 8:20, then saw your guys just round it up and leave it by the side."
Him: "Ah, okay it was the digger was it? Okay, leave it with me. What I'm going to do is get Openreach out ASAP to fix it."
Me: "Much appreciated"

So I'm waiting for some callback from either him or Openreach. I like to think that i'm a tolerant man, they'll be gone soon and so I'll give it until tomorrow morning before I ring him up and ask for and update and potentially kick off.

This isn't the end. I digress.

This morning I left the house on my motorbike and within about 5 miles on a roundabout I feel something is a bit weird in the bike's handling... I thought nothing much of it and got to the next roundabout and something was seriously wrong. This time I veered off into the other lane, luckily it was empty. I managed to nurse it to work and turns out I have a roofing nail in my front tyre.

Skip back to when I was reviewing the CCTV for the phone line, I remember seeing them use their big mound of dirt and rubble to fill some gaps and dips in the track... Coincidence? I think not.

Now as I said, I think I'm a tolerant man, but I am very angry right now. So I'm asking for the wisdom of GD on how to handle this. Do I just be patient on the phone line and get my tyre sorted and not seek any damages etc? Or do I go to town on them?

Unfortunately the new houses do not have doors yet, so no letterboxes.
 
Yeah I've come across crap like this before. Next door neighbour was having a rather large extension built on the house and quite a few people ended up with nails, screws or bolts though tyres. It was obvious what the cause was but unfortunately we couldn't prove it was them specifically so there was nothing that could be done. Frustrating to no end.
 
Unfortunately there is no way to prove where the nail came from mate, it's an expensive pain but little you can do but accept it.
 
UPDATE:

Spoke to the developer direct. He said he had been made aware and it's reported to Openreach on a 4 hour call out. Result. I have the reference for that.

As for the nail, i mentioned that I know it's a common issue with building sites and hard to prove but I did see them using their own mud and rubble pile to smooth out the track yesterday and it would be one hell of a coincidence. He said he'll let them know about it and hopefully they'll be more careful.

I figured I'd take the understanding and calm approach. I've learned in the past that going in red hot like a bull in a china shop, usually make matters worse.
Roll on 4 weeks time.
 
Some people get what the want by shouting and being an ass.

However I find that more people get what they want by being reasonable.

Having said that have you had a good look into their potholes for more nails. At least you could say that nail most probably came from that as their are more there.
 
You could accidentally set fire to the new houses - say you was playing with matches and wind blew it out of your hand and onto some scrap timber -

In all seriousness it's not funny is it - I had a bungalow built right next to me and got home one day to find a big hole dug through my hedge to electric pole in my garden -

Rang them up and said being as no one has asked me you can fill it back in and under no circumstances will I let you put cable under my hedge - few days later young lad from electric board turned up and told him to find another job - few days later a old hand from electric board turned up and first thing he said was - are we paying you for pole in garden - Such a nice man - no - this garden is agricultural land isn't it - Me on the ball - It certainly is - So I got a reasonably big cheque every year for pole so let then dig a trench to pole.
 
DXP55 said:
You could accidentally set fire to the new houses - say you was playing with matches and wind blew it out of your hand and onto some scrap timber -

In all seriousness it's not funny is it - I had a bungalow built right next to me and got home one day to find a big hole dug through my hedge to electric pole in my garden -

Rang them up and said being as no one has asked me you can fill it back in and under no circumstances will I let you put cable under my hedge - few days later young lad from electric board turned up and told him to find another job - few days later a old hand from electric board turned up and first thing he said was - are we paying you for pole in garden - Such a nice man - no - this garden is agricultural land isn't it - Me on the ball - It certainly is - So I got a reasonably big cheque every year for pole so let then dig a trench to pole.
Click to expand...

Please re write the last paragraph so it makes sense :)

Mite be an interesting story
 
These are small problems we all have to deal with from time to time. Don't get stressed or angry or anything.

Fix the puncture and get on with your life. The houses are nearly finished.
 
DXP55 said:
You could accidentally set fire to the new houses - say you was playing with matches and wind blew it out of your hand and onto some scrap timber -

In all seriousness it's not funny is it - I had a bungalow built right next to me and got home one day to find a big hole dug through my hedge to electric pole in my garden -

Rang them up and said being as no one has asked me you can fill it back in and under no circumstances will I let you put cable under my hedge - few days later young lad from electric board turned up and told him to find another job - few days later a old hand from electric board turned up and first thing he said was - are we paying you for pole in garden - Such a nice man - no - this garden is agricultural land isn't it - Me on the ball - It certainly is - So I got a reasonably big cheque every year for pole so let then dig a trench to pole.
Click to expand...

I'm interested to know how much you can charge for a pole being erected in your (agricultural) garden.

As for living next to building sites - it's the noise and commotion that bothered me most when I had to put up with it for a few months.
 
We had a similar problem with a building site next to ours, both me and the misses followed trucks and cars that either lost stone or kicked up left stones on the road, resulting in two smashed windscreens. Neither of which the builders would take responsiblity for.
 
These things are frustrating but ultimately part of life... I know sometimes it can seem like the world is against you etc. but considering some of the bad things that some people have to go through this is small beer. Seems like you've handled it well so give yourself a pat on the back, keep smiling, and move on with your life.
 
Rossi~ said:
UPDATE:

Spoke to the developer direct. He said he had been made aware and it's reported to Openreach on a 4 hour call out. Result. I have the reference for that.

As for the nail, i mentioned that I know it's a common issue with building sites and hard to prove but I did see them using their own mud and rubble pile to smooth out the track yesterday and it would be one hell of a coincidence. He said he'll let them know about it and hopefully they'll be more careful.

I figured I'd take the understanding and calm approach. I've learned in the past that going in red hot like a bull in a china shop, usually make matters worse.
Roll on 4 weeks time.
Click to expand...

Absolutely fine be to be calm, definitely not worth kicking off but I'd also be firm and demand some payment. Difficult to prove but whatever... money for the tire and the mission by phone line pls. If not forthcoming then small claims court, cite the CCTV and then come up with some invoices for them re: reasonable expenses then hope the don't want any fuss and pay you off to drop the thing - will especially work well if a big firm.

Frankly they do this stuff because they can get away with it, they're human, they'll take shortcuts... if there was more fallout from them making a mess, leaving nails everywhere then maybe there would be more incentive for them to spend a bit more time being a bit more careful.
 
Feel for you with the nail. i've only ever had two punctures in the UK, and both have been builders nails in the tyre. Unbelievably frustrating when it's a car. Horribly dangerous, if it's your bike.

I don't know why they get so many nails all over the place, but I have a pretty vivid image in my head of them doing an evil laugh and throwing nails across the road like confetti.
 
Sitrep!

I replaced my tyre and just asked them to be more considerate with their sprinkling of nails and screws. Since then I've walked up and down the track every other day and picked up any that I can see, only a few since this incident, but will continue until they're gone.

Wednesday morning, my 30th Birthday, I was taking a shower and just finished lathering up (oh yes, think about me all wet and soapy) when the shower stopped.... "****" I thought. Turns out they'd now hit the water, again, with the digger. My partner went out to see what the fuss was about and they said it'd be sorted in a couple of hours. Luckily we had water in the kettle so I had a flannel rinse off, better than resorting to the water-butt.
Later on that day just before we went out to the cinema and lunch, the foreman knocked on the door to say that they're going to have to cut off access to the track at some point, i.e. access to my property (via car only) so they can install the sewerage and cover on the track and that we had to park round the corner for a day. I agreed sooner rather than later, as it had to be done and just want them gone. They did the work yesterday and we should be able to park on our drive tonight.

What they also managed to do yesterday is hit our gas pipe when digging for the sewerage....I returned home to a 15c house and wondering why the heating wasn't on. I noticed a form from National Grid through the letterbox stating that they'd capped (disked) our meter and that I had to call them to get someone out to re-supply. I did so and they came out in 2 hours, thankfully.

I ended up ringing the developer and having quite a moan about what we've had to endure over the course of the development, but it's of no surprise that he didn't really care and uttered "there's not much more we can do". Which is true to some extent.

List of **** ups.
  • Loss of water supply x2
  • Loss of phone line and broadband due to overhead cable being caught by digger
  • Loss of gas supply
  • Track impassable due to poor condition caused by machine access to site
  • Nail in front motorcycle tyre
  • Cement sprayed up the side of front fence and property
  • General mess of public space (rubbish, shrink wrap in the bushes, slate shards on the track etc)

Apparently around 3 weeks left.

Must....tolerate.
 
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