Neighbour/Council Issues

delorean

I'm fairly sure I don't have a leg to stand on here, but needed to vent a little and would appreciate your feedback on whether I'm simply being an overly-sensitive twunt...

Here are the photos I'm referring to later in this post:

https://imgur.com/w1UvTMT
https://imgur.com/wtlY8Tu
https://imgur.com/4vt3haS
https://imgur.com/QGKMyD6
https://imgur.com/xME9A4e

  
First up let me just clarify that this is in no way a dig at my neighbours since I know this isn’t their doing.

My next door neighbours had a driveway put in just before Christmas, but didn’t drop the kerb at the time (I believe the driveway was provided by the council and they weren’t able to drop the kerb at the time).

We live in an end of terrace house which we own, and there is a clear separation between our house and the neighbour concerned.
Yesterday, I arrived home from work to find that the council had been and dropped their kerb.  In doing so, they had decided it would be best to drop the entire kerb from the edge of my property all the way across to my neighbours – effectively making one long driveway entrance.  Although not my preferred way to have done this, I have no real issue with them doing that.  personally I’d have preferred a small raised kerb section separating the 2 driveways, but hey ho.

Where I have an issue is the way the workers have tarmacced the area, having removed the grass verge in front of my neighbours house and dropped the kerb.

As you can see from the pics, they have come out at an angle which crosses over the invisible 'border' between our houses .

I am fully aware that my boundary stops at the end of the gravel driveway and that the area in question is technically the pavement which is obviously the council’s.
 
So my problem really boils down to the fact that the new tarmac area comes (partially) across in front of our house and gives the visual impression that next door’s driveway entrance begins on our property. 

We’ve been carrying out work to our house with the intent on putting it on the market in the next month or so, but this is going to look pretty shite on the estate agent photos.

The night time photos were taken last night when I got home and saw it for the first time. 

I look a daylight one this morning (the one with the wheelie bin!), and the ‘before’ shot is an old photo (2016) taken from Google Streetview.

Am I being unreasonable here?  Part of me feels that perhaps I am…

I guess ultimately I’m just annoyed as this has come right at the time when all of our available funds have been put into doing the house up and we don’t have anything to allocate towards redoing the tarmac.  I feel we should have been informed that this would affect the front aspect view of our house.

I’m assuming I have no grounds for complaint because the tarmac is on the ‘pavement’ area.  Would this annoy any of you?



(and yes, I know my drive needs weeding - that's a job for this weekend! )

PolarityMan

Annoyingly in a years time when its faded a bit it prob wont be that obvious, pavements typically have loads of patching all over them, I think the fact it is so fresh is highlighting it.

Having said that given you have ample parking anyway I do wonder if its going to be something that real potential buyers are going to care about.

fftc

I can sort of understand why you are annoyed, but I think it's making a mountain out of a molehill.
The Council did the easiest job they could as leaving one section of raised curb between the two driveways would have been more complicated. Given the number of slopes it would have left on the pavement I wouldn't be surprised if there are rules about how long a raised section between two dropped curbs has to be.
Secondly, once a few rain showers have washed away the dust from the new cut it will be a lot less obvious. You could even get a brush and hose out to speed matters up.
Thirdly, the pavement is not yours.
Fourthly, the weeds in your drive are a bigger problem!

You know all this already of course!

Shrews

The tarmac won't be an issue. But if you spend £200 on some nice stones and flower tubs for your drive area, it'll probably put £1k or more on your property.

From the site below

"Most buyers will decide if they do or do not like a property before they even get out of the car and it can be hard to shake off negative first impressions created by a poor or unattractive exterior."

https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/20-sure-ways-to-add-value-to-your-home/

Not saying yours is unattractive by the way, just that when you're trying to sell you can put a lot of money on the property just by spending a small amount and in your case I don't think the tarmac is that much of an issue. The compromise with the council could be to just resurface the path outside your home to 'square it all up' a bit

strumjoughlamps

if they would have left a dividing kerb it looks like your neighbour wouldn't have had easy driveway access from the left. that's how it looks in the pic anyway.

Mark1960

I think you may be over reacting a little IMHO. The new tarmac will fade, and soon won't be noticed. If you want to speed that up, just sweep the pavement infront of your property from left to right sweeping towards the new tarmac, then continue over the new tarmac, and the dust swept onto the new tarmac will very quickly "age" the new tarmac, so it all looks very similar

PolarityMan

Mark1960 said:

I think you may be over reacting a little IMHO. The new tarmac will fade, and soon won't be noticed. If you want to speed that up, just sweep the pavement infront of your property from left to right sweeping towards the new tarmac, then continue over the new tarmac, and the dust swept onto the new tarmac will very quickly "age" the new tarmac, so it all looks very similar

Are you suggesting relic'ing the pavement?

delorean

Thanks guys, yeah I had a feeling I might be over-reacting a little, I think it's mostly frustration because we were hoping to have it all ready to sell within the next few weeks.


I love the idea of relic'ing the pavement though - that'll make it worth more surely?  

steveledzep

As already said, the new tarmac will age.  I agree with @Shrews , you should concentrate on making the approach to your property more appealing to a buyer.  Don't think they'll notice the tarmac if your driveway is saying "come inside and take a look".

CarpeDiem

I don't think a potential buyer will be too concerned. I'd be inclined to ask the agent to take another photo of the front of your house after you've completed your planned weeding, and without any vehicle on the drive. They can then see clearly how your house looks and that your drive is large enough to park more than one car. GLWS!

mrkb

You don’t own the pavement at the end of your drive, so I don’t see the issue.

randella

delorean said:

Thanks guys, yeah I had a feeling I might be over-reacting a little, I think it's mostly frustration because we were hoping to have it all ready to sell within the next few weeks.


I love the idea of relic'ing the pavement though - that'll make it worth more surely?  

If you're anything like me when selling your house, you're probably magnifying things a little.  I'm dreadful for it, omg are they going to spot the wood filler in the fence, will those kids who once stood under the streetlamp opposite and smoked a joint seven years ago be there when people visit, will the walls cave in?

Your house looks tidy to me, a bit of work with a few buckets of water and a yard brush should make that tarmac less conspicuous.  It wouldn't put me off.

Weed the drive, hide the wheelie-bins, you'll be right.

Best of luck with the sale, I know what a horribly tense time it is

Paul_C

If prospective buyers glance at it then just fold your arms and glare at them, they won't mention it then.

octatonic

(With my landlord/developer hat on).
It is a non-issue- no one will decide against buying your house because of this.

I would concentrate on decluttering and staging the house inside, cleaning up the house outside.
Anything exterior can be sorted out by the new owners and they will mostly likely not notice it at all.

Most owner/occupiers shouldn't be present when showing the house as well- as they are only likely to draw attention to things like this (that more than likely won't be noticed by the prospective buyers) by way of an apology.

You have to realise that when someone first goes to your house they are mostly only seeing the big picture, not the small issues that might be there.
It usually takes 2-3 viewings to get the details and agents are good at patter, so any issues can be deftly dealt with, assuming you have a good agent.
Also, most people are thinking about the things they will change when they get in there, so all the little things you are worried about simply won't be an issue once you paint, rewire, remodel, knock down walls etc.

The tarmac will fade with time and will be unnoticeable, although hopefully you will have sold before then.

Funkfingers

What he said.

Estate agency photographs are notorious for giving a selective representation of the truth of any property. They should be able to do exactly the same for you.

In my opinion, any potential house buyer who would be snotty about the appearance of the lowered kerb and relaid tarmac pavement is probably going to turn up his/her nose at the prospect of the entire street. 

Converting front gardens to off-road parking is increasingly common. Stick around long enough and your neighbour on the other side will be doing it too.

ronnyb

We had the contractors working in our street last year laying the Virgin fibre optic cables in the pavements. They cut channels and when they'd finished tarmaced over. It looked horrendous afterwards but is hardly noticeable now it's weathered in.

Lestratcaster

We're still awaiting our kerb to be dropped after a saga lasting well over 6 months with the local council. The neighbours on one side has has had a driveway as well so I'm hoping we don't have a similar issue! Also as we are in a controlled parking zone permit bay type road it'll make the remaining parking spaces quite interesting as they're scrubbing off the lines for 1 bay, in our dead end part of the road we live in a terraced house of 6, where each house has a car, some 2. So in theory there's 7 spaces for about 12 cars when visitors come over.

Modulus_Amps

Thats a nice driveway your neighbour has had done

I totally get why you are peed off, if you don't want it to affect your property desirability then you need to make your actual property more appealing to the eye.

We are hoping to get an offer on our house tomorrow, I spend days out the front pressure blasting and painting the front to make it look as nice as I could.

randella

ronnyb said:

We had the contractors working in our street last year laying the Virgin fibre optic cables in the pavements. They cut channels and when they'd finished tarmaced over. It looked horrendous afterwards but is hardly noticeable now it's weathered in.

I think if you live in any sort of urban area, the chances of finding a stretch of pristine tarmac have to be vanishingly small.  United Utilities seem to be the prime pavement molesters round my way - I understand people want water meters, but for the love of god could they not find someone with basic tools, hand/eye co-ordination, and the ability to both dig holes *and* fill them in afterwards to put the things in?

Iamnobody

No problem there at all. They’ve had to come out at that angle to properly construct the footway where the verge was and replace the tapered kerb that was previously the extent of your dropped crossing. As others have said when it weathers it wont be hardly noticeable.

This will not affect the sale of your house.

57Deluxe

I would be more pissed off with the fact that their outside megawatt search light is permanently on!