Profit from Property

Philip Thomas

Philip Thomas

Was at the Home Buyers & Property Investors Show in Sydney over the weekend. A number of people including best selling author & property entrepreneur Michael Yardney told me the book Profit from Property on adding value & property development was excellent!!!

This is a book that I’d spent the past 2 years writing (in my spare time) & it’s just been released by global publisher John Wiley & Sons.

If you have read Profit from Property I would be really interested in your feedback & comments. You can email me privately via this forum or directly on [email protected]

I value the input from this forum, as there are many brilliant & very knowledgeable contributors.

Kind regards,

Philip Thomas
 
Neighbour Negotiations

alexlee said:
How about providing some free copies for SSers to review, Philip?
Click to expand...

OK, excellent idea. How about I send out 3 free copies "for review" to SSers. To choose who, how about you have a crack at a recent development challenge.

You have a client that’s building his dream home / substantial investment. Next-door lives a neighbour from hell. The neighbour doesn’t want the building to go ahead, yet its been approved. The builder has just taken possession of the site. Access to the site is tight via a shared driveway. The neighbour is real angry & has parked his vehicle across the shared driveway so trucks can’t get in to the site.

As an independent project manager how would you deal with this situation at the start of the project?

Remember what ever you do, the builder has to work next to this neighbour for the next year & a half. Also the owner has to live next to this neighbour after construction.

I’ll send books out for review to the best 3 posts by the end of the week (Friday). What do you think???

In the meantime if anyone that has red Profit from Property & wants to send me their feedback I’d much appreciate it.

Philip
 
The project manager needs to win over the neighbour and get on friendly terms. Apologise for the inconvienience and give the neighbour a gift basket or something (on behalf of the owner). The cost will be more than covered as the development and building process will have less delays.
The owner should introduce himself also, and be very friendly, but not in the neighbours face.
This incident was a result of a disgruntled neighbour who wasn't happy with a new house being built next him. http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/man...d-bobcat-rampage/story-e6frg12c-1225760149957 (I think the offender was the brother of a boy that broke my husband's nose in primary school!)
 
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"rent" use of driveway from neighbour or "gift" holiday for neighbour during most disruptive part of build.
 
I would first offer to take my neigbour down to the pub, and buy them some lunch and a few beers, and talk about why they oppose the development. It may be for some very good reasons which can be negotiated (or compensated for). If the reasons seem to be just because they hate themselves, then there's probably no negotiating. I may gently remind them that it's been approved and he doesn't have much choice, but I would try asking what it would take for him to allow it to go ahead without him being a nuisance, then counter offer until we met somewhere in the middle :)
 
Knock on the neighbor's door....if he answers let him know what he is doing is highly illegal and no matter how angry he is, doing such things is just going to backfire and cost him money. i.e as in being sued for the cost of a load of concrete unable to be delivered to the site.

Give him a chance to vent. take no more than 5-10 minutes of it.

Counter that a new property will more than likely increase his property value and the owner will probably make a better neighbour than if the property became a cheap rental.

Then ask him nicely to move his car. If he doesn't, then see police.
 
Hire some nasty looking russians to have a "word" with the neighbour.

Or find a way to blackmail them. :p

But in all seriousness, sit down have a chat and understand why they oppose the construction and see if you can find some mutual ground.

Because in the end if they are angry with the building, they wont stop at nothing to make the other owner's life hell. Might as well see what you can do to deal with it now.

Calling cops etc isnt going to anything, its just going to make the neighbour be more clever at making the builder's life hell during construction, could be something as simple as throwing tools and materials in the skip bin. Something like that could be blamed on the tradies who were there and didnt know better.

Perhaps some form of compensation or stepping them through the plans to show them how everything is laid out. In most cases, people complain because they are afraid of the unknown. Make the unknown known and there's nothing to be afraid of.

Obviously if they still dont want to listen, perhaps speak to one of their family members who may have some more reasoning.
 
Some excellent suggestions here oh how to deal with this neighbour dispute at the start of development construction.

Here is another turn ......

You builder to start the project off well just knocked on the neighbour’s door to introduce himself. After all the builder will be a neighbour on site for 1.5 years. The neighbour went ballistic & told the builder to f-off, that this building will never get off the ground!!!

The builder copping a bucket load of abuse, turned around & walked away.

As the owners representative PM with a car blocking site access, what would you do????

Philip
 
Philip Thomas said:
Some excellent suggestions here oh how to deal with this neighbour dispute at the start of development construction.

Here is another turn ......

You builder to start the project off well just knocked on the neighbour’s door to introduce himself. After all the builder will be a neighbour on site for 1.5 years. The neighbour went ballistic & told the builder to f-off, that this building will never get off the ground!!!

The builder copping a bucket load of abuse, turned around & walked away.

As the owners representative PM with a car blocking site access, what would you do????

Philip
Click to expand...

Assume this happened before I took him to the pub and smoothed things over? :)

If it happened after, my initial thought would be to get his car towed, but starting a war over a 1.5 year development is a really bad idea.

Getting a lawyer involved and threatening legal action would be my next step. Making sure he was aware that he would be legally responsible for all costs due to delays caused by him.
 
Philip Thomas said:
Some excellent suggestions here oh how to deal with this neighbour dispute at the start of development construction.

Here is another turn ......

You builder to start the project off well just knocked on the neighbour’s door to introduce himself. After all the builder will be a neighbour on site for 1.5 years. The neighbour went ballistic & told the builder to f-off, that this building will never get off the ground!!!

The builder copping a bucket load of abuse, turned around & walked away.

As the owners representative PM with a car blocking site access, what would you do????

Philip
Click to expand...

There's the builder and then there's the owner. The neighbour may not want to talk to the builder, but may be more willing to talk to the owner.

If the neighbour is as unreasonable as stated in this scenario, sending in the wife may be a better option. Its much harder for a person to yell at a female, let alone continue on shouting a female who is crying. For greater effect send in a pregnant female. As I've stated in my previous post, talk to the neighbour's family members as well.

Might also want to do it on a weekend when there are other people neighbours around. You'll need it to help justify the neighbour's bad character if it ever gets taken to court.

Yes this is emotional blackmail, but if the neighbour is still nasty after you've tried to talk to them, talk to the solictor and police and get an injunction.
There is only so much one can do to reason with someone.
 
Philip Thomas said:
As the owners representative PM with a car blocking site access, what would you do????

Philip
Click to expand...

Clarify with solicitor and police all legal avenues available.
Seek mediator from police or govt to intervene.

If that fails, then presume the guy is going to deliberately try and sabotage the building site further. Erect concealed video surveillance and guard dogs out of hours.
 
The neighbour sounds like a basket case. As far as I know, you cannot take legal action against mentally ill people for harrassment like this. Contact police about the matter and see if you can find out any information about this person and your rights. Either get on the right side of this person or sell. My old neighbour (75 year old lady) used to steal my mail, stick nails under the tyres of my visitors cars and bend their number plates, abuse us, prank phone calls, stick a radio outside her window and play it all night - then throw her ear plugs on our driveway, throw dog poo at us. She was well known to police, they would try to talk to her but we could do nothing - not even get a restraining order. They'll probably suggest mediation.
 
Erect a SIGN Saying any illegal parked vehicles blocking access will be towed away.

If the parking continues, do it, get vehicle towed. Unless you take a stand from the start then neighbour will walk all over you.

This is a project that needs to be controlled from the beginning.

Get the Council inspectors on side and make sure you are running the project not the neighbour.

Chris
 
If the neighbour is willing to sit down and talk well and good but at the end of the day you need to get the job down.

If they continue to be obstructive then arrange for a forklift to move the car and advise the neighbour that the building will continue with or without his support.

At the end of the day, you cannot deal with irrational people and the best way is to confront the issue and stand your ground.

Commence legal action against the neighbour to ensure that he cannot access the site and hinder works.

Warn all contractors and be onsite to monitor the situation.
 
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