Owning your own home

Not sure when the last time was that someone was prosecuted for opening random mail sent to a previous occupant of their residence, but I'm guessing it won't have been recently.

we are only down the road from you but when we did ours we took a recommendation from a family member and used hart brown based out of london but lewis myatt there was brilliant

Thanks, think my first step is a chat with the local firm, they do have a detailed lease extension page on their website.

Our neighbours got a local handyman who is also a bit of a drunk to do some jobs. One of which was painting their fence that boarders our 1yo driveway/front garden with Ronseal One Coat Fence Life Dark Oak. He didn't put any dust sheets down on our side.

He then left the almost empty tub balanced on the top of the fence while he went for a fag.

Then the craziest most unexpected and unpredictable thing in the world happened. The wind blew it off and it splashed over our drive. He made some steps to clean it up at some point over the following days. Possibly with a diluted bleach of some sort and a pressure washer, but we're still waiting to find out.

This all happened while we were away and we only found out when another neighbour emailed. Which is really fucking annoying, as if we'd know at the time we could have got friends to move our car and engaged some professionals.

Background rant aside what are the likely options here and what are people's thoughts/experiences?

1. Get a pro cleaner in who will possibly apply some chemicals and pressure wash the whole drive for consistency (is that likely to get the stain out though? Also how the fuck do you find an actual professional and not a joker with a pressure washer?
   
2. Replace the stained pavers with spares / new - the problem is they'll stand out and won't match right?
   
3. Replace the whole drive to ensure consistency (this seems an extreme solution)
   
4. Claim on their home insurance - how does that actually work and what for?
   
   

Neighbours have said they'll cover the cost of cleaning, etc. I don't want to be a cunt and just want a resolution. But equally given that it's pretty new and cost a fair bit of money and effort I don't want to disadvantage ourselves just to be neighbourly. Particularly when it's basically negligence on the part of their workman and they didn't give us an opportunity to get it remedied or checked out by a pro.

Cheers.

No it isn't, if a reasonable excuse exists.

That’s the point. The default is that it’s illegal to open other people’s mail.

Nope, not after delivery. Have a look at the Postal Services Act 2000. S84(1) says you can't open post while it's in transit without good reason, but S84(3) is clear that once it's delivered, it's only an offence to open it if i) you intend to cause detriment to someone, AND ii) you don't have a reasonable excuse.

No intent to cause detriment, no offence.
Reasonable excuse, no offence.

Get your neighbours to claim on their insurance. Their insurers will probably replace the entire drive.

Cock punch the ‘handyman’ for good measure

I am sort of wondering about suggesting this. Not least because I don't really want to go to the effort of sourcing a pro drive cleaner for whatever £00s only for it not to work and have to replace it at a larger cost and general life faff.

Is there anything else I need to be aware of or consider? You know the sort of thing where after the event everyone will go "oh you didn't want to do that, because now you can't do x".

Assuming you are on good terms with your neighbours I just wouldn’t touch it and be very clear that you expect it put back to the way it was.

I would be wary of anyone who says they can fix it by cleaning it and if the neighbours suggest this I would ask them what makes them qualified to suggest it as a solution.

Surveyors; why do they monger such scare??

10 weeks in to our sale the buyer has been spooked by both 'immediate replacement of roof' and 'damp found'. It's a 200+ yr old barn that was converted to living in circa 1860 - it has no foundations, so if the ground is damp... the walls get damp... none of this is apparent on the inside, and only if you wave a damp meter at the outside. Walls are +30cm thick stone.
The roof, it's north facing, clay tiles which never see the sun and is what can be described as poor visual condition - with a few slipped and cracked tiles . But it does not leak! It was noted on our survey 6 years ago when purchased, and is still going strong.

We've got number 2 kiddo on the way in approx 6 weeks, number 1 starts school in a 3 weeks. I need this place gone and to be in the new abode.

How does one negotiate my exit? We're not in a position to have works carried out ahead of moving (time based, see above). The roof is probably the only thing that 'needs' to have work, and the north face only, damp can be ignored. Do I just offer a cash sum to get things going? X cash, on basis of exchange in 2 weeks. Completion first week of September?
I don't really care if they take the cash and sit on it, never doing the roof. I just really need out of here as this place is seriously getting inside my head.

Have you ever stayed on good terms with a neighbour? Expecting a new driveway for a paint splash is bonkers.

https://www.ronseal.com/faq/#:~:text=If%20your%20fence%20paint%20has,rid%20of%20the%20fence%20paint.

If your fence paint has splashed onto concrete or patio, a pressure washer or a stiff wire brush with some hot soapy water should get rid of the fence paint.

What kind of stone? How much splash?

Expecting a new driveway for a paint splash is bonkers.

I’d be expecting it to be put right right and I’d look very carefully at anyone who thinks they can achieve this by cleaning. That’s not to say it can’t be done but obviously matey’s first attempt has failed and the neighbours already have form for picking idiots.

To answer your question: yes

Cheers. They used HG Tile Cleaner Product 21 and there are still stains.

Expecting a new driveway for a paint splash is bonkers.

I absolutely get the sentiment and it's obviously the most extreme solution and it goes without saying I'd much prefer cleaning to work as it's a less disruptive job. But when you break it down it's not that far fetched - let's say 2m² is impacted and can't be cleaned then you need to replace the 1yo weathered stones with new ones. Which will stand out and look shit for at least a year and possibly forever. I guess you could lift say 4m² and jumble up 2m² of good old tiles with new ones, but then do you just end up with 4m² of shitness?

Basically, how you put us back in the position we were?

It's all just such a ballache. Especially the relationship management part. It's literally like being at work in your free time. Which is a big reason why I'm keen to push it onto people who get paid to do all of this fuckery for a living.

I'd wait for the buyer to ask for something before offering anything up.

Time for your solicitor and your estate agent to earn their fee.

Taking drugs is illegal Jameo, fucking millions of people still do it.

Yeah I've hated project managing our kitchen work, I'd like to leave that kind of stress at work thanks.

You might end up with a new drive surface but it should be the painter's insurance that takes the hit. Obviously he has some... right? /clown emoji
I think you'd be surprised what a decent pressure wash will do - we've spilled all sorts of crap on our patio and it basically comes up new every year.

This is the rational answer. Guess I just needed to write it all out..

I think you'd be surprised what a decent pressure wash will do

The level of destruction you can achieve in the wrong hands is impressive, yes

It’s a driveway, not the Venus de milo.

Sure yeah of course - but you can still wreck drive ways and any other hard surface like tiles, brick, slabs, sandstone with a poorly operated pressure washer. They'll blow out the sand, grout, glue that holds it all together if you don't know what you are doing. They'll also take off any sealing agent should there have been one to start with. They'll take off a layer of the surface happily if you don't know what you are doing.

This morning our whole street suddenly stunk of rotten eggs. I'm ~95% sure it's sewer gas, but we couldn't work out where it was coming from, so I rang Thames Water on behalf of the street. They sent a van out, but couldn't find anything so closed the case.

Some other neighbours have called since and they've said they'll look into it again. The smell came into our houses, people felt sick/faint and apparently it's highly toxic, so it's not great.

Has anyone experienced this? A google isn't coming back with much. Any ideas what might be causing it? And any ideas on how to make Thames Water sort it out?

Leaking gas from the mains?

Are you in walthamstow? There was a post on Walthamstow Life (on facebook) about the same thing

This morning our whole street suddenly stunk of rotten eggs.

Could be the new Banksy

Out of interest, tried some instant home valuations on Rightmove, Zoopla, Leaders etc and there's a variation in values of about $150K. Which just shows they are absolute bollocks!

On another note, there's a semi-detached house on the road that was sold recently. Was a 3 bed, the owners, who seem to be flippers, did a roof extension and rear extension to make it a 4 bed and tarted it up. They've put it on the market for 33% more than any other 4 bed semi has gone for previously on the road (one sold earlier this year) that had similar extensions done to it. Just wishful thinking on their part?