Neighbour Problems...

[Pia Bang]

What I think you should do,is have some sense of what that women went through.sympatise and show you care. You got your house built but they had to go through the pain. I would at the very least tell her it must have been a right pain for her and as a gesture treat her to a weekend away,which maybe you should have done during the build rather than moving in,and ignoring the fact that people lived through it and it would have been more sincere. You have no idea of the stress of the noise that a build has on people. Have a bit of concern and consideration for those who lived through it and maybe then you wouldnt be seen as not giving a damm about them,apart from giving them your mobile number. You say the builders went over their time on a few occaisions,which may be very little to you,but when you have to live through it 5 and a half days a week belive me every extra minute is very very difficult.Thats my view from both sides and hopefully you will get to see what she went through someday and will understand.hope its of some help that you will see how upsetting and annoying it is for the other person and I understand when you're not there it is difficult to really know.

Best of luck.

Thanks for your input from the other side. I also have had experience of living next door to a building site in the last apartment we lived in and I agree it was a nuisance being woken in the morning at the weekends and sometimes with work going on until 12 at night. So I think we were conscious of the problems we would face with the neighbours.

However, and I didn't mention this in the original post, I don't think this woman will be at all approachable as during our conversation she flicked a cigarette over not at me but in an attempt to get it to land at the roof, which I felt was a very agressive gesture. She missed but the intention was clear that it was just to stir some more. I did try to sympathise with her before this point, but I wasn't even allowed to finish a sentence.

I'm not trying to say that we did everything right, clearly we didn't -including the times we ran over, but I think the fact that the neighbours on the other side don't bear us any ill will is indicitive of the fact that we did try our best to keep things to a minimum. I also called during the build but the door wasn't answered.

That is actually the first time I have seen the woman since we moved in, in April and hopefully it will be as long again. She may have more problems than I know about as my hubby also mentioned that when a guy was collecting rubbish outside, she was giving him the finger.

 

[z103]

Maybe she's just generally bonkers.
Ignore her, and she might get bored. Alternatively, throw loads of your own breadcrumbs and fag ends onto the flat roof for a while.

 

[droileen]

I used to live next to an old bag like that as a neighbour.

She used to attack the builders that my next door neighbour had in to build a 6 foot wall between them, as she cut down the rough hedge - she was in her 70`s with a bad heart.

I went & spoke with her son, as I was afraid she would drop dead some day when she was on the warpath !

Eventually she calmed down & gave up her activities.

Do not take counter measures, as you will only wind up with war on your hands & will justify her taking more extreme actions.

Go & meet her. LISTEN to her. Apologise for any annoyance caused by your building noise & satisfy her that the problems are now over. Bring her flowers. Kill her with KINDNESS & NICENESS.

Best option - she cannot beat that !