Rental property now a building site

modulus

Hi,

Just looking for a wee bit of advice. I rent a small cottage that has barns right beside, actually facing the cottage. The landlord has decided to convert this barn into a home and the place has essentially become a building site, the gate into the house even states that hard hats must be worn. Its noisey with diggers and vans, cement mixing.

Surely the lease is now void? Any advice would be great!

Thanks!

Michael D Not Higgins

Why would the lease be void?

If you rented in an apartment block and a new development started beside it would you expect it to be void? Your lease covers the property you are renting at present which is the cottage, so I don't see how the barns affect you (beyond noise). If there's a safety concern due to building works on the property, you should raise this with the landlord and come to an amicable agreement.

djimi

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

Why would the lease be void?

If you rented in an apartment block and a new development started beside it would you expect it to be void? Your lease covers the property you are renting at present which is the cottage, so I don't see how the barns affect you (beyond noise). If there's a safety concern due to building works on the property, you should raise this with the landlord and come to an amicable agreement.

It guess it depends on the property and the nature of the building work in relation to this. Its not an apartment complex, and if the barn is in the same garden space as the cottage then Id say the OP has a right to take exception to the immediate area of the home being turned into a building site.

ted1

was their planning permission applied for and granted?

what time of day does the noise start and stop.

have you access to your property without entering the site?

runawaybishop

modulus wrote: »

Hi,

Just looking for a wee bit of advice. I rent a small cottage that has barns right beside, actually facing the cottage. The landlord has decided to convert this barn into a home and the place has essentially become a building site, the gate into the house even states that hard hats must be worn. Its noisey with diggers and vans, cement mixing.

Surely the lease is now void? Any advice would be great!

Thanks!

Is the barn within the boundaries of what you are renting?

modulus

Well it greatly effects us, the barn is right at the front of our house, literally less than 15m away. We've kept the blinds closed because they are pretty much outside the house all the time. I've been woken up a few times with vans and diggers driving by the house. They usually start about 8am. The gate we need to use to access the property has safety notice about hard hats e.t.c

I understand if construction beside an apartment block begins its tough but we rented what was described as a quiet remote cottage which is now quite the opposite. Its just frustrating.

Yes there is planning permission granted but this all unfolded after we moved in. I'll just say if we moved out, i think they'd find it extremely difficult if not impossible to rent it out to anyone, no one would bite!

runawaybishop

modulus wrote: »

Well it greatly effects us, the barn is right at the front of our house, literally less than 15m away. We've kept the blinds closed because they are pretty much outside the house all the time. I've been woken up a few times with vans and diggers driving by the house. They usually start about 8am. The gate we need to use to access the property has safety notice about hard hats e.t.c

I understand if construction beside an apartment block begins its tough but we rented what was described as a quiet remote cottage which is now quite the opposite. Its just frustrating.

Yes there is planning permission granted but this all unfolded after we moved in. I'll just say if we moved out, i think they'd find it extremely difficult if not impossible to rent it out to anyone, no one would bite!

Is the construction within the bounds of the property you are renting or is it just next to you?

ted1

modulus wrote: »

The gate we need to use to access the property has safety notice about hard hats e.t.c

SO with effect you are living on a building site, does you lease say you have a garden?

ask your landlord to define the area of the site and that you need sole access to the site without accessing via a building site.

8am would be within the times set out in most planning permission.

Michael D Not Higgins

ted1 wrote: »

SO with effect you are living on a building site, does you lease say you have a garden?

We don't know what gate this is. It could be a gate that is for a lane that connects the entrances to both the OP's rented cottage and the barn as it might be the most convenient place to attach the notice. If the work isn't on the property being rented, then the safety concerns of a hard hat area need to be worked out with the landlord but would not constitute a breach of the lease.

_Kaiser_

Sounds to me that there's a common gate leading into a yard with the OP's cottage on one side and the barn on the other with 15m (per the OP's last post) between them.

As such he is now living on a building site and possibly in breach of H&S regulations around site access?

But as usual the only real advice is to talk to the landlord and see what can be worked out. The LL may be fine with ending the lease early (in my experience things in the country work slightly differently and people are even less concerned about leases and theoretical consequences than they are in the cities).

Personally I wouldn't be happy though and if there was a safety issue (particularly if the OP has kids) I'd probably be telling him I didn't agree to live on a building site and see what reaction I got.

the_syco

modulus wrote: »

we rented what was described as a quiet remote cottage which is now quite the opposite. Its just frustrating.

Yes there is planning permission granted but this all unfolded after we moved in. I'll just say if we moved out, i think they'd find it extremely difficult if not impossible to rent it out to anyone, no one would bite!

It sounds like the landlord is an effing cowboy. They rent the cottage out to you as a quite remote cottage, and just after you move in, they start building? I'm guessing the landlord hopes to have the barn converted within a year, so when you leave, he'll have two cottages to rent?

If I were you, I'd look around for somewhere else to live, and explain to him that you rented a quite cottage, not a effing building site, thus you want to leave, and not be penalised for it (ie; get your full deposit back).

And look into going the legal route if he says no, as the sort of stunt the landlord did would rub me the wrong way completely!

handlemaster

Ask for a reduction in rent. That will prick his ears to start with.

modulus

Thanks guys, we're going to approach the landlord and see what happens! I'm sitting here listening to loud drilling as we speak, we dont want a rent treduction, we just want the lease terminated early and to get out of here!

djimi

One of the basic rights that a tenant has is the right to expect peaceful enjoyment of the property. Generally this is taken to mean that the landlord is expected not to bother the tenant unnecessarily, but I would be exploring if in your case the work that is being carried out would be considered to be in breach of this.

Id be contacting Threshold and the PRTB to see what their opinion on the matter is.

modulus

Ive just contacted the PRTB for their opinion.

focus_mad

Have you any photos of said gate and building site in proximity to your cottage? Otherwise this is all guesswork.

Your lease would not be considered void however from a health and safety point of view, the building site itself is breached if there are PPE signs everywhere and you're able to stroll up to the cottage.

Definitely worth talking to the landlord as opposed to sitting idle and being annoyed by the noise etc..

On a side note, 09.30am for loud drilling is part and parcel of a site.