Construction Next Door and the Rights of a Homeowner

I live next door to an older building that is in the process of being rennovated.   Over the past few weeks the work on the building has increased on the exterior with sandblasting what looks to be paint off of old bricks.  As a result, our whole front yard where our car is parked is covered in a thick layer of dust everyday.  Today they attempted to hose off the street section in in front of our house and even put their hose over our gate and hose off the back of our car.. The attempt while based in good intentions seemed halfhearted and has only ended up making our car muddy with the dust.  In addition, every time I come home, I feel like I’m breathing in this fine dust which is more of a concern.   I’m dreading when they start on the back of the building which is covered in peeling paint and overlooks our garden plot.    My question is, do we just suck this up and wait for this to be over or do we have any rights as homeowners for the construction company to be more responsible for helping clean up their work when it impacts us and is there anything they could be doing to while their working that would lower the dust in the air.

shashikanand

in Construction 13 years and 4 months ago

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daveinbedstuy | 13 years and 4 months ago

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Speak to both the owners and the contractors and tell them that the situation cannot continue.  Chances are there are no permits.  Use that as leverage.  There’s a 100% chance that all that dust is lead based.

Goatcrapp | 13 years and 4 months ago

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Have you actually spoken to them?  This forum is in love with “call 311” and “call DOB” and other passive advice options, but have you actually spoken to your neighbors, and/or the contractor they have employed for this job?  Sometimes it’s as simple as a conversation, to get things resolved.

shashikanand | 13 years and 4 months ago

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Thanks for the replies.  We have called 311 who told us to call DOB where we made a complaint but no one has replied.

eman134 | 13 years and 4 months ago

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call 311

jockdeboeraia | 13 years and 4 months ago

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Sounds like they are not following the requriements for lead based paint. Take in itself is a huge fine.

Putnamdenizen | 13 years and 4 months ago

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Um.  Have you spoken to them?  There are ways they could/should mitigate this.