A builder fears he’ll never be able to sell his home after his neighbour started “eyesore” renovation work next door.
Etitaz Raja, 34, bought the £150,000 doer-upper in Northamptonshire in 2017 with his life savings, but is now hoping to sell to fund the purchase of his dream home.
But he said he fears this will never happen due to ongoing building work on an extension by his immediate neighbour.
As part of the work, which was given permission in 2018, workers dug an enormous hole in the homeowner’s garden earlier this year.
Raja’s fence collapsed into the hole as a result, he claimed. He said he can smell sewage and has seen rats as the three-metre-deep hole remains unfilled.
He added stress has caused weight loss, and is furious with the council for not intervening.
He said: “It was an investment for me. Right now I’m in a financial loss. I don’t think anyone’s gonna buy the property in the state it’s in.
“It’s changing my demeanour.
“I’ve lost a lot of weight. I was at 90kg when this started. I’m at 80kg now because of stress. I’m not sleeping at night. That’s my lifetime savings.
“I don’t stay there on the weekends in case the property collapses.”
He claimed pipes carrying sewage have also been exposed, causing liquid to leak out into the garden, discolouring the temporary wood used to hold the earth in place, and attracting flies.
Raja, a builder who wants to move closer to his family in Buckinghamshire, went on: “It stinks – we’ve got rats running around in the garden. When I walked over [to his neighbour’s garden], I saw a rat running over the fence towards the brook. I’ve been here seven years. I’ve never seen a rat in my life.”
He said he has made several attempts to flag his concerns to West Northamptonshire Council, and that on two separate occasions, it sent a building control officer to investigate but did not take action. When an officer came last month, Raja claimed he did even not venture into the garden.
West Northamptonshire Council said: “We have assessed the structure, it is not deemed to be in a dangerous state.
Click below to see the latest East Midlands headlines
“Therefore, no action is required from our perspective, but we have let the neighbour know that they might be able to take private action under the ‘Party Wall Act’.”
The neighbour said he has now fixed the broken sewage pipes.
He said the council visited the property on Wednesday and determined its current state is “OK”.
He labelled Raja’s behaviour “very rude” and said his allegation about rats was a “lie”.
He added he “tried” to fill the hole but claimed he was told not to by Raja, who separately said he had structural concerns about the way it should be carried out.
What is the Party Wall Act?
The Party Wall Act mentioned by West Northamptonshire Council came into force in 1997 and particularly affects semi-detached houses, terraced houses or flats.
As per the government, “the act provides a framework for preventing or resolving disputes in relation to party walls, party structures, boundary walls and excavations near neighbouring buildings”.
Or, as the Homebuilding and Renovating website explains: “The Party Wall act prevents building work by one neighbour that can undermine the structural integrity of shared walls or neighbouring properties.
“It is designed to avert and resolve potential disputes with neighbours before building work is started.”
Read more
EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email [email protected] Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel
