Has neighbours work effected my property?

[Fragglekid]

Hi,
First time poster so hope I’m in the right place? I’m in desperate need of some advice.
We have a 1920s bungalow with accommodation in the roof space which we have extended to the side. Approx a year ago our neighbour past away and his house was bought a ”developer”, who set about removing every tree, plant (approx 20 trees) and removing in the region of over a foots worth of soil (our houses gardens used to be on the same level but now his is at least a foot lower). He then puts in a large outbuilding apparently under permitted development and built a very deep drainage gully significantly lower than the foundations of our extension and about 2 meters from our extension foundations this was left open for some time with a lot of earth slipping in and when the pipework was finally put in had to be re dug in places when the pipework was put in the gully was just filled back in with gravel and earth. Rather stupidly at the time I didn’t take any photos. We have now had a number of cracks appear in our extension ceiling and now upstairs there are cracks appearing round the doorframes our cupboard doors into our eves are no longer level and get jammed. We also have cracks appearing in the old part of the house in the ceilings. I have spoken to our surveyor who said it could be settling but impossible to say. I have built of couple of extensions before (we used the same reputable builders) and never had this before and I am seeing more and more cracks daily. Could the work done next door be causing this? As far as I’m aware the outbuilding has no building regs for the drainage that was put in and I wouldn’t ask my neighbour as he is not a very pleasant man. I have no idea what to do. Thank you for any advice.

 

[JP_]

Can you share photos of the current situation, inside and outside? Might help.

Hopefully things will settle - if all filled in now, then I don't think there would be a growing problem. But, depending how deep they went and how close to the house, they probably should have had a legal party wall notice drawn up to protect you (although I honestly don't understand how this protects you in reality!)

 

[Fragglekid]

Thanks so much for the response.
We have filled in but the cracks keep coming back which I wouldn’t expect if it was just settling. Agree re the party wall doesn’t help I suppose it just lets you know what they are doing incase there is a problem as at the moment we have no idea how close they were and how deep.
I will upload some photos.
Thanks again.

 

[johnny2007]

By removing trees he's possibly changed the soil drainage stability, making it more prone to movement.
That's what I would be worried about, especially 20 trees in a small area.

 

[Fragglekid]

Yes the tree removal is worrying now that I’ve read more about it especially as many were 80+ years old and he had to get huge industrial machinery in to take them out and its a good size garden but not huge (probably about 1/5-1/6 of an acre), so its got to have effected the ground in some way.

 

[^woody^]

If you look at this and the building forum, you will see many posts regarding cracks that appear gradually or suddenly after many years, and with no apparent reason and no nearby building works. So the point is, cracking does happen when no building works are done, so just because cracks appear after nearby works, that does not automatically mean that the building work is the cause. We have had several "record breaking" weather events this year for instance. Or one of your drains might be leaking.

What needs to be done is for someone suitable (I would suggest your surveyor is not that person) to investigate the cracking and explore all the possible causes. This is done by eliminating the least likely and that will leave one or two most likely. The first step is to determine what type of events could cause cracking like you have - say foundation movement or is it just wall shrinkage? Then if it is foundation movement, what could cause that? Only then can you say that the building work was the most likely, (but not a certainty) and then proceed with a civil claim against the neighbour.

The correct person would be a Chartered Structural Engineer. And if you think that a legal claim may arise, then that engineer needs to be qualified to give 'expert evidence' to a court.

Your home insurer should deal with this type of event, but you need to be careful that they don't just fob you off and treat it as your claim against them. They would need to investigate it properly, and I would also suggest that they let you instruct your own independent engineer, not use their usual non-qualified non-impartial loss adjuster.

Otherwise, you may want to research your legal position, options and the process if a claim is to be made.

Case like this turn on the opinion of experts. It does not matter if you did not take photos or have a party wall award in place. You are covered under normal negligence/common law for damages caused by others if that is proven. However you need to prove that the neighbour not only caused it, but owed you a duty of care. Removing a tree for example may not mean that they breached any duty of care to you.

 

[johnny2007]

20x80 year old trees removed with huge industrial machinery in a little garden.
Cracks appearing soon after in a 1920 bungalow.
I know what a reasonable person would think.
I also know what a chartered structural engineer would think.
And I also know that someone who lives on one of the moons of jupiter would think that it's perfectly normal for a bungalow to start cracking after 100 years of being perfectly immobile.

 

[Fragglekid]

Apologies for the delay but for info this is my neighbours wall, which a year ago was a perfectly lovely straight red brick pointed wall (the breeze blocks is the new extension) I will take photos of the damage to my property too, but I thought if there wall is showing signs of movement (which I have no real idea if this is the case), then this maybe a good indicator of what maybe happening to my property.