Guide for Dealing with Neighbors During Home Renovation

Depending on the local codes and building department requirements in your area, you might require permits to do work as simple as remodeling a bathroom, replacing a floor or knocking down a wall.  The reality of the situation is that in most cases people do not get the permits required for the work they are doing.  Regardless of this fact, keeping your neighbors in the loop can go a long way to ensuring a smooth and successful home renovation without involving violations and fines.

INFORM

If you are doing any work that will result in noise or lots of building materials going in and out of your house, chances are your neighbors will figure out what you are doing.  Sometimes proactively informing them of your intentions can go a long way towards avoiding any ill will.  Make sure to conform to your cities rules for start and stop times for home renovation work, as well as observing the days you are allow work and days that must be taken off without special permits.  This is not saying you cannot work after hours or on weekends, but try to do the least intrusive work at those times if possible.

In NYC, technically renovation work can only be done during regular working hours Monday through Friday.  In NYC you are also required by law to inform all your neighbors (on either side and behind) five days prior to construction commencement. 

KNOWING YOUR PROBLEM NEIGHBORS

In our case we dealt with a neighbor on one side of our house that has been a problem since the day we moved in.  He constantly complained how the old owner took care of the house and would literally scream at us every time we left the house.  We knew renovating next to him was going to be an issue.  For each of our three neighbors, my builder and I personally went to them and spoke to them about the work that we would be doing and gave them our direct contact information just in case they had any questions or issues.  Two of them were very supportive and positive, even warning us about the third, a notorious trouble maker for everyone on our street.  The problem neighbor would not answer his door and would not accept our letter sent certified mail, but our obligation was fulfilled. 

DURING THE WORK

Make sure to be as respectful to your neighbors as possible during the work, paying special attention to the amount of noise you are making and how clean the outside of your work site is.  If you do have to keep supplies or trash in the outside of your home for any period of time, make sure it is as neat as possible and covered whenever applicable.  If you are doing exterior work that might result in dirt or debris getting on your neighbor’s property, speak to them about it proactively and vow to sweep up every day after the work is done.  Make sure your work site is at least neat if it is going to be unsightly for a while. 

BAD NEIGHBORS

In our case there was nothing we could do placate our problem neighbor.  From the second we started construction he was outside of our house every day, harassing our workers and threatening us.   He called the building department on us four times during the course of our work and reported us for three separate issues that were pure fabrications.  He said we did work without a permit (before construction started), that we damaged the side of his house during our façade work (completely untrue) and that our backyard work changed the grade of his soil (also untrue) Each time he registered a complaint with the building department and they sent an inspector out who asked to see our plans and observed the complaint site.  In each case the complaint was dismissed, much to our neighbor’s chagrin.  It always helped to be very conversational and pleasant with the inspectors to get them on our side for all these issues. 

FROM BAD TO WORSE

In a few instances our bad neighbor went so far as to damage our property (he threw a metal grate against the front of our house), threaten everyone on site (the workers, the GC, the architect, the subcontractors) and even threaten physical and sexual violence against me.  If you haven’t figured it out by now, he most certainly mentally challenged at best and a pathological and dangerous person to be around.  We are also not the only people on our street that have had issues with him—literally everyone has at least one horror story about him and he also harassed and called the building department on another neighbor over and over again during her renovation.  Hopefully this will not happen to you, but if it does the only thing you can do to protect yourself is to follow all the building code laws as closely as possible to minimize your problem neighbor’s complaints.  Also, if applicable call the police to report harassment and property damage claims every time your neighbor steps out of line.  We’ve called the cops on our problem neighbor 5 times now and have 5 police reports on file.  Now he merely makes snide comments in our direction, he does actively threaten anymore.  I hope you have better luck with your neighbors than we did!

SUMMARY

The bottom line is that is impossible to get along with everyone in the world, and people renovating their home can be subject to a certain type of ill-will from their neighbors.  It’s always best to be open and upfront about this type of work, keep people in the know and makes them feel like they are a part of a process, not an enemy.  Also, once the work is done invite your (good) neighbors over for cocktails or coffee to see your new place!