House shaking because of nearby building works - what to do?

[Lysander]

Right... not my place but my girlfriend's. She's living in an Edwardian house which has been converted into flats and she has the top floor flat [second floor].

Some building work has been going on nearby for a short while but in the last week the house has started shaking because of the deep excavations, quite badly at times. Occassionaly when the workmen start early we'll be woken up by it and sometimes it's so bad that things fall off shelves. When it started for the first time we thought it was another earthquake!

I'm going to write an email to the construction company but considering the amount of money that must have been invested in this project they're not going to put it on hold because of a few emails. The shaking is worryingly bad at times and given the age of the house I don't want it to damage the property or even for the place to fall down! Any suggestions about how we can actually do something about this?

 

[Lysander]

They will not do anything believe me! It should'nt take long for the ground works to be finished anyway!

This is what I was concerned about. I could at least notify them and the council. I know what these companies are like though, they're skim the email and click "delete". Is there no way to get them to take notice?

I'll certainly write to the council though.

 

[Lysander]

what do you expect them to do, just stop, and leave iy as a piece of waste ground because it inconveniences your girlfriend?

Wow, that was an overreaction. It's not about inconvenience. If you were in the property when it takes place you would also have serious concerns about the potential damage it could do. As I said it's like being in an earthquake multiple times a day.

 

[Lysander]

well as i said what do you expect them to do?

Take at it with shovels?

A survayer and a couple of structural engineers would have had to look it over before they where even allowed to start...

Get out of the thread, you're not helping.