What It’s Like to Live Next Door to a Construction Site and How to Deal with It
Massive industrialization and capitalism transformed agricultural farms into cities with high-rise buildings. People no longer invest in detached houses with a nice little garden in the backyard. They live in condominium buildings with common spaces for recreation, storage, and parking. In the past five decades, we’ve seen small towns turn into big industrial parks with malls, 20-story apartment buildings, and commercialized leisure activities.
If you’re living next to a big construction site or even if your neighbor is about to renovate their building or apartment unit in Utah, your rights should be recognized. For example, installing specialty piping — especially welding it — should come with security measures such as a big net covering the sides of the building or home. This will prevent the sparks from getting into your property and possibly causing welding fires.
Lawyer Consultation
There are lawyers who specialize in construction law. Seek a lawyer before speaking to your neighbor or the real estate developer so that you know which of your rights are being violated by a construction site. Your neighbor has a right to fix and build on their property. But that does not mean that you don’t have the rights to protect the safety and security of your property and your family. The lawyer can help you navigate the tricky rules of construction projects. Make sure to consult one before entering into any kind of agreement with your neighbor or a property developer.
Pre-construction Condition Survey
There should be a pre-construction survey by the contractor doing the construction next door to you. The purpose of the survey is to determine the condition of your home and whether your property will not be affected by any drilling that will happen on the construction site. For larger buildings that need deeper foundation, the contractor has to study the needed additional reinforcement so that the houses or buildings surrounding the construction site will not collapse or bear cracks.
Insurance
The owner of the construction site should include you in the insurance policy. Otherwise, you could be a personal liability in case the construction affected your property’s foundation and structure. This is a pretty straightforward negotiation, and it shouldn’t be much of a problem if both parties will agree to recognize each other’s rights.
Remuneration
In extreme cases, you can get paid to move to another apartment while the construction is ongoing next door to you. The owner of the construction project will be the one to shoulder your expenses for the time being. Of course, this is a big nuisance to you. But by trying to accommodate your neighbor, you’ll create a more harmonious relationship in the future. This is just a minor setback, anyway, compared to having to listen to all the construction noise going on.
Cities and apartment buildings have rules and ordinances on the level of noise allowed at a particular time of day. As long as the construction site follows these ordinances, it is really up to you to adjust your schedule to make living beside a construction site work. While having to deal with a construction site near you is annoying, these are the things that you have to live with when you’re staying in either a highly-developed or developing city.
