Noisy neighbours - house renovations

There are 120 replies in this Thread which has previously been viewed 21,856 times. The latest Post (August 18, 2026 at 8:57 AM) was by Splinter.

1st Official Post
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    Our neighbours are not very friendly at all, with the ones directly next door enjoying their boom box disco sound loud enough to peel paint off the walls.

    The ones opposite have the most terrible arguments with the kids, which is so loud and vicious that I fear one day someone will end up dead. The screaming is sometimes hysterical and not in a funny way.

    Then last night as we were falling asleep, we heard swearing outside and when I could tolerate it no longer, I went out and it was another neighbour, blind drunk having been kicked out of the house by his wife. I told him to suffer in silence, but didn't hang around because drunks are very unpredictable.

    We would move, but there are good reasons why we are not and those reasons will become clear in time, so we have to suffer it.

    Oh and I'm the only one who ever goes outside to tell people to shut the f*** up, which is odd.

    Neighbours can be a pain in the arse so you have my sympathy. When we lived in Glasgow we had a noisy sod in the flat above us who played music at all hours. We were renting so moved out as soon as the six month contract ended.

    We're actually very fortunate here in that we don't have anyone too close to us. We used to, but when the property on one side of us came up for sale we bought it to prevent having to put up with neighbours that close. It was rented out so we never knew who we were going to get. That must be about ten years ago and apart from knocking a hole in the garden wall to give us extra garden space the house itself has lain empty and is pretty much in the same state as we bought it. As the price we paid was for the plot rather than the bricks and mortar it's money in the bank.

    On the other side there is a gap between us and the middle aged couple so we never hear a thing....they're sensible anyway. At the back we have two shop properties joining our boundary wall so no problem there. The rest of the neighbours in the street are fine...we exchange greetings when we see each other and that's about it. Biggest problem we have are from those who park their cars outside our house to use the shade from the trees we planted....bastards!!

    I bought property that came up for sale around me for the same reason. I now have close to four acres, with highway frontage, that I take care of, getting to old for this much land.

    Do you rent or own your home Splinter?

    One thing which has surprised me about Argentina is the number of people who rent their home rather than buy.....even amongst those who could afford to buy but don't.

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    Our noisy neighbours never cease to amaze me.

    Two or three years ago they had all the Terracotta style roof tiles replaced with ugly black corrugated sheeting because of the leaks. In fact, they recommended the roofing man to us and when he finished on our house, the leaks were worse than before.

    Anyway, they have now decided to convert the traditional gable roofing of their house to a flat roof due to the leaks, but this completely defies any kind of logic as flat roofs are much more prone to leaking. They are also redesigning the house with extra rooms and extending the front onto the pavement (sidewalk) as much as legally possible. The entire project is going to take six months with the only benefit to us being that they have gone to live with relatives for the duration. Oh and I forgot to mention their barking dogs - they've gone too, thank goodness.

    But this will completely change the style of both houses as ours is joined to theirs, as you can see from the picture below. In fact, we weren't even consulted until the last minute with planning permission granted with no notification or local consultation whatsoever. Planning permission is a joke in this country and no consideration appears to given over aesthetics of surrounding buildings whatsoever.

    Frankly, their money would probably have been better spent on moving house.

    Because the problems with lazy, fat men sleeping in huts, the crazy persistent traffic and thousands of cyclists passing our front windows every effing day, I've been nagging Adri about moving house for years. This latest development has finally spurred her into action and given her reason to agree with me, finally, so we're now looking at moving house. Hurrah!

    What we want more than anything is peace and quiet, not to mention a nice little garden, so I'll keep you all posted.

    By the way, her son now has his own flat and will be moving out in a few weeks when the painters and decorators have finished. That has also changed the equation for us as to which type of house to look for.

                        

    The house next door to us used to be rented out. It was always a worry not knowing who woud be moving in next although to be fair the tennants who were there didn't cause us problems. When the old guy who owned it died his son told the missus he was going to sell it so we bought it. It was in a bit of a state so we've been using it for storing junk.

    It amazes me how many houses here lie empty and abandoned. The wife says it's because the inheritance laws are so complicated compared to the likes of the UK. No wonder there are so many f'ing lawyers here!! :rolleyes:

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    Quote from Rice

    Are you sure they have permission?

    The local council shut them down a couple of weeks ago and put this on their wall:

    The builders then returned on Monday and said they had permission to only work on the ground floor. We were never even consulted about this radical change and I insisted on seeing the plans, but so far they've only sent the shot of the front as per my earlier post. I'm still waiting for the plans of the rear because that will affect us the most.

    Quote from Splinter

    Here's what they are doing next door which begs the question, what kind of criteria does the local council use for giving permission?

    You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours?

    To be honest in the town where we live there isn't one street that doesn't have a hotchpotch of buildings in design. That one actually looks fine to me!! At least it's not in a state of abandonment which many here are.

    It does look fine but it also looks like there is a large open terrece towering over Splinter's place. I guess his concern is his back yard will be entirely viewable from that terrece. Hardly ideal for privacy,

    Quote from Semigoodlooking

    It does look fine but it also looks like there is a large open terrece towering over Splinter's place. I guess his concern is his back yard will be entirely viewable from that terrece. Hardly ideal for privacy,

    Yes that's one thing our local council seem to take seriously. So definitely worth looking into....no pun intended. :)