building site vs building site

Hi,

Im a Uk based newbie freelance web designer and I wondered if anyone could give me some advise about a big problem which is developing around me.

I had been happily working from home building websites for people. I live on the 3rs floor of a terrace, but now a large developement has begun work on all the adjoining properties. This is 3 to the left and 12 to the right... all with workmen drilling and banging and knocking down walls from 8am till 5pm everyday. Its driving me mad, I cant concentrate on my work. Do I have any rights? I mean, obviously the work needs to be finished, but would I be able to get them to pay for an alternative office space for me or something, anything?

Thanks in advance,

Julian

The only thing we can do is tell you if you have the rights or not, i mean if you have your own house, surely you must be of some adult age, its only common sense to talk to the 'higher' people, instead of asking about it, we can give advice yes, but we cant exactly ring up the builders ourself n tell em to **** off.. lol

Think about it

Your work is building web sites, the building contractor's work is building homes. So long as it is during normal working hours (eg 8am-6pm, not sure on the legal time zone) then there is nothing to stop them working and making noise.

Is there a local library (with WiFi), a good friend's place, a Starbucks (not very quiet) or somewhere else that you can go to during your 'working' hours? Another less ideal solution could be to buy a really good pair of headphones and work along to some nice loud Tchaikovsky or Strauss.

jloo: Yes I own the property, but I see no point in having a go at the builders, as Salathe says, "the building contractor's work is building homes" and the work needs doing. Also I need to find out where I stand before I approach the developers as they will otherwise just fob me off with legal jargon.

I was hoping that because the banging,drilling,smashing,radio1 etc is stopping me from working I would be able to ween some compensation out of them. But it seems not... they say its going to take at least a year too!

hmmm....

There are noise regulations here in New Zealand. People have to apply for resource consent before building, and if you object to a developer building right next to you, you have your chance to make submissions during the consent process. Then, if they are excessively noisy you have a right to contact noise control to get the issue (hopefully) rectified.

Personally I would suggest some high grade headphones, or some grade 5 earmuffs and ear bud headphones (I wear these all day at work - 9 1/2 hours)

You could sound proof your house