- This topic has 6 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 3 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
SWe have been living in our home for over 12 years, and recently, the vacant plot next to us was sold. The new owner has begun construction on their house, but their negligence has caused significant inconvenience and damage to our property.
For context, there was a wall between our house and the neighboring plot, which was mutually built by us and the previous owner to maintain a reasonable distance and prevent future disputes. However, during construction, the new owner’s workers handled the process recklessly, causing the wall to collapse towards our property. This resulted in damage to our windows and a portion of our wall—during monsoon season, no less. For a week, we had to prevent rainwater from entering our home until they eventually repaired the damage, and they did so without any acknowledgment, apology, or responsibility.
The current owners do not reside here; they live in a rented apartment, and the person managing their construction, a woman based in Delhi, has shown little to no concern for the situation. While our windows were eventually fixed, the construction site remains unclean, with cement marks and debris scattered around. Although we understand that construction naturally creates dust and dirt, we expected at least some level of responsibility and engagement from the owners or their representative, which has not been the case.
The issue worsened when, due to the collapsed wall, dirty water started seeping through our walls and into our bedrooms. Despite multiple requests, the neighbors kept delaying the reconstruction of the wall, even asking us to share 50% of the cost, which we refused. After three months of stalling, they finally rebuilt it, but it was done inadequately—unfinished vertically. To make matters worse, their workers placed large wooden logs from our roof to their house for support without our permission, causing minor roof damage. When we confronted the laborers, we understood it wasn’t their fault since they were merely following orders, but the property owners and their representative never addressed the issue or took accountability. They haven’t even visited our home once to assess the damage.
Our attempts to communicate with them have been met with dismissive behavior and arrogance, seemingly because of their financial status. While we prefer to avoid conflicts—especially with long-term neighbors—we are now frustrated beyond measure. We also have multiple upcoming family events, and despite repeated requests to clean up the area and repaint the damaged portions of our house, they have remained indifferent. Instead, their representative in Delhi has been condescending towards my mother, and the wife of the property owner even had the AUDACITY to say, “App hamko kitna pareshan kri hai” when my mother called the woman again, as if we were the ones causing issues.
We have been patient and understanding for months, but this is now beyond tolerable. Even other residents in our colony, construction workers, and bystanders acknowledge that these people are in the wrong and should be held accountable. These people are too egoistic for some reason.
Given this situation, what legal options do we have to compel them to take responsibility for the damages and complete the necessary repairs? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
(I have photo proofs of the dirty water seeping through the wall and the broken wall + debris)
-
-
-
RThe same happened to me so do these things
1. Convey the issue to them verbally first. See that you have a audio/video recording of this too. If they can be reached only through phone, then record the call. Wait for a week.
2. If they don’t act, then go file a complaint in the nearest municipal office clearly mentioning the lot number and the inconvenience caused to you. You won’t get anything from it but, the municipality will send a notice and it will mark the owners to some nice extortion from those useless govt employees in that office. They will loose a minimum of a lakh over this.
3. Also get this into the notice of a few journalists in that area. The most enterprising of them will call and threaten them that they will write a news article on rampant construction̈ malpractices (they won’t and can’t) and will extort another 30k.
4. The idea here is to bleed them moneyy and waste their time on these useless things. All these will stop. -
-
-
HEnsure that you have well-documented proof of all damages to your property caused by their construction work if you intend to seek compensation.
It is unlikely that they will compensate you voluntarily without legal action. You should first send them a legal notice demanding compensation and to address all issues faced by you. If they fail to comply, you will need to file a civil suit to claim damages, along with a prayer for an ad-interim injunction against the construction activity.
-
