Reasonable use of garage?

[Crusoe]

If he has already had a solicitors letter he has probably invested a few hundred pounds in getting it stopped so unlikely there is a compromise he would accept. If you still want to use it you could go and see him, apologies and say he should have just asked you as you didn't realize he was in during the day and causing a nuisance. See how it goes and if he reacts well you might ask if you would be ok for a few hours on mornings at weekends or if you knew which one was his car you could check if he was out before you used it.

[heebeegeetee]

xjay1337 said:

Where's the popcorn.

Tell him to JOG ON.

Surely, and I'm sure a legal bod will be around, but wood-working is not welding. There is no fire risk.
.

Wood dust is highly combustible. I don't if the OP's wood dust is highly combustible, but as a rule wood dust very much is.

[Devil2575]

REALIST123 said:

D

spikey78 said:

Looking at the age of the house I suspect the sound insulation isn't great, and therefore the noise of a lathe is probably highly irritating.
I think his complaint is 100% legitimate

Me too, though the way he has gone about it may be a little OTT. No need to remove the power supply, IMO, but a lathe turning in there, even if it doesn't sound that loud, is bound to send vibrations through the place.

Me three.

[Vaud]

I think his complaint is legitimate; his method a little too "legal first" but that is his prerogative.

I suggest taking him a bottle of something and having a chat, or invite him round for a cup of tea to talk through how you can resolve.

[Jonleeper]

Just so there are no misunderstandings I have stopped turning and informed the and lord. I have also asked if I can put a shed in the garden so that I can continue .y hobby without disturbing Mr x. It is more his methods than the outcome that has got my back up. Had he spoken to me like a human being g then I'm sure we could have sorted it out between us.

In reply to some of the points I get that he lives above me but are you really suggesting that a small electric motor mounted on a stand and sited on a concrete floor could cause sufficient vibrations to be felt a story above when there is no vi ration in the garage? I get that there is some noise, but not a great deal, but the suggestions that vibration are a problem? Does your washing machine in the kitchen vibrate your bedroom? The balance and vibration of my washing machine as it starts to spin is an order of magnitude greater than my lathe. I couldn't turn on it otherwise!

[spats]

I feel for you OP. You never intended to upset the fella, and clearly his method of trying to sort it shows hes a cock sprocket of the highest order.

Is this the world we are in now, instead of having a chat about the issue, which lets face it is a minor one, instead he goes full wazerk and spends more time and money on getting a solicitor onboard!

I'm sure if he is that much of a light sleeper, he should have purchased a house rather than a flat. Imagine if that was an occupied flat there with kids making noise all day, his silly little head would explode.

[andye30m3]

I'd sympathise with the neighbour although a discussion with you first would have been much more appropriate

around 10 years ago I worked on a number of housing estates with FOG's the floor construction between the garage and flat above wasn't ever substantial enough, from memory there was little more than you'd find between to flats in a block with timber floors.

I remember trying to up the spec of the floors to concrete in a £500k+ fog and the developers flatly refused.

[spats]

andye30m3 said:

I'd sympathise with the neighbour although a discussion with you first would have been much more appropriate

around 10 years ago I worked on a number of housing estates with FOG's the floor construction between the garage and flat above wasn't ever substantial enough, from memory there was little more than you'd find between to flats in a block with timber floors.

I remember trying to up the spec of the floors to concrete in a £500k+ fog and the developers flatly refused.

Going by what you are saying, if this bloke bought a normal flat, he would probably be going Apoplectic with his neighbours everytime they switched the washing machine on!

[Vaud]

Jonleeper said:

In reply to some of the points I get that he lives above me but are you really suggesting that a small electric motor mounted on a stand and sited on a concrete floor could cause sufficient vibrations to be felt a story above when there is no vi ration in the garage? I get that there is some noise, but not a great deal, but the suggestions that vibration are a problem? Does your washing machine in the kitchen vibrate your bedroom? The balance and vibration of my washing machine as it starts to spin is an order of magnitude greater than my lathe. I couldn't turn on it otherwise!

But putting yourself in his shoes - assuming he predates you living there - he signed up to living above an unpowered garage, not a workshop.

[WinstonWolf]

Jonleeper said:

Just so there are no misunderstandings I have stopped turning and informed the and lord. I have also asked if I can put a shed in the garden so that I can continue .y hobby without disturbing Mr x. It is more his methods than the outcome that has got my back up. Had he spoken to me like a human being g then I'm sure we could have sorted it out between us.

In reply to some of the points I get that he lives above me but are you really suggesting that a small electric motor mounted on a stand and sited on a concrete floor could cause sufficient vibrations to be felt a story above when there is no vi ration in the garage? I get that there is some noise, but not a great deal, but the suggestions that vibration are a problem? Does your washing machine in the kitchen vibrate your bedroom? The balance and vibration of my washing machine as it starts to spin is an order of magnitude greater than my lathe. I couldn't turn on it otherwise!

Have you thought about sitting it on some anti-vibration pads?

[Rude-boy]

OP i am a property solicitor and feel for you somewhat but also know the issues that the guy upstairs is talking about in reality (rather than their go through the lease and look out all that might remotely apply to you as a breach thereof.)

I can not give you any legal advice on this as i have not the information to do so but can give you a few hints. Above all the one that seems to me to be the issue you can't bat back is that the garage is supposed to be used for the storage of private motor vehicles.

I am not 100% the power and so on points have any validity but could not confirm this until I knew who the LL was as well as when the power was actually laid on, etc. The fixation point might also be a red herring depending on how it is actually fixed (demise is all on this point, as is that actual manor of the fixing).

Bottom line is that i suspect that they will be able to 'force' you if they have to and so i would plan the shed or new property asap.

I also agree that the bloke is a unit for not talking to you first but it is my personal and professional experience that the only people who don't talk first fit into one or more of three headings: tt, scared of neighbour or tt who is also scared of neighbour.

Getting solicitors involved day one before you have broached the subject with 'the other side', without good reason, is the surest way to protract things and get people to dig their heals in.

[Riley Blue]

If we equate the sound of a wood working lathe to a washing machne on 'spin', I definitely wouldn't enjoy living above my washing machine at the end of its cycle. I can hear it my bedroom two floors above, so I too would complain though not initially in the way the OP's neighbour has.

[teabelly]

Get someone else to run the lathe while you go and hear it in the neighbours house. Then you'll know exactly how much of a disturbance it is. Then you'll know whether you are being reasonable in using it at all.

[xxChrisxx]

Jonleeper said:

In reply to some of the points I get that he lives above me but are you really suggesting that a small electric motor mounted on a stand and sited on a concrete floor could cause sufficient vibrations to be felt a story above when there is no vi ration in the garage? I get that there is some noise, but not a great deal, but the suggestions that vibration are a problem? Does your washing machine in the kitchen vibrate your bedroom? The balance and vibration of my washing machine as it starts to spin is an order of magnitude greater than my lathe. I couldn't turn on it otherwise!

It could very well be. Do you have it isolated, or just sat/bolted directly to the floor?

It's not just about how much noise/vibration the device makes. It also has to do with the structural path that is transferring the vibration to whatever is radiating the noise.

A washing machine bangs and crashes about, but it's not bolted to the floor so is free to move.

[gshughes]

I think you have done the right thing in stopping wood working in the garage, but you could maybe have some fun and cost him some money (which he deserves for going legal straight away), by replying to the letter in an ambiguous way, which would in turn necessitate a reply from his solicitor and so on ad infinitum?

[xjay1337]

gshughes said:

I think you have done the right thing in stopping wood working in the garage, but you could maybe have some fun and cost him some money (which he deserves for going legal straight away), by replying to the letter in an ambiguous way, which would in turn necessitate a reply from his solicitor and so on ad infinitum?

If you were being purposefully obtuse would you not end up charged for costs?

[Retroman]

I wonder if your neighbour would prefer it if you had a Subaru Impreza Or Harley Davidson with a large bore after market exhaust entering & exiting the garage during the night.

That wouldn't be breaching any of the lease agreements at least.

[Dromedary66]

Retroman said:

I wonder if your neighbour would prefer it if you had a Subaru Impreza Or Harley Davidson with a large bore after market exhaust entering & exiting the garage during the night.

That wouldn't be breaching any of the lease agreements at least.

he probably would as that would be for 30 seconds a night rather than for 4 hours every evening.

I am with the neighbour here - bang out of order.

[spats]

Dromedary66 said:

he probably would as that would be for 30 seconds a night rather than for 4 hours every evening.

I am with the neighbour here - bang out of order.

No its not. The only thing bang out of order is the bloke crying to his solicitor because he is unable to have a simple convo regarding the issue!

The OP was not doing something he knew to be an issue, he did not know the guy did shifts either and has stopped now he knows its an issue.

The likelihood is if he came and spoke to the OP this would have been sorted out.

[Targarama]

littlebasher said:

You could pretty much guarantee it was going to lead to complaints about me opening the garage during unsociable hours, running the engine as i put the car in and out of the garage and just about every other use of the space.

You did the right thing. Whoever bought probably didn't think.

Just imagine the noise in the flat above when starting up a TVR/other noisy sports car and driving in/out of the garage! Or your kids playing table tennis in the garage? Crap over-dense development which many councils seems to let happen to make up their new-property numbers.