One thing that can be hard to grasp if you’ve never lived on a new-build estate is the sheer amount of ongoing work. You quickly get used to the constant presence of JCBs, workmen everywhere, and construction dust invading every corner of your home. Even if your house is finished, the surrounding site work can be a persistent source of inconvenience and in some cases escalating costs. For instance, the roads on our estate weren’t completed until five years after we moved in. This meant navigating raised ironworks and dealing with damage to car tyres—at one point, we were regularly replacing tyres due to shrapnel left on the roads by contractors.

However, none of that compares to an experience I had just a few months after moving in. The house next door to us had been completed but remained unsold. Apparently, there were structural issues with the bay window, because in the autumn of 2019, the windows were removed, and the builders excavated to address the problem. While the noise disturbance was frustrating, we were already dealing with numerous issues in our own home and had Bovis contractors inside fixing yet another problem. At that particular time, they were replacing incorrectly fitted shower trays (balanced on two screws and silicone sealant, no less—but that’s a story for another blog).

On this particular day, the shared driveway between our house and the property next door was extremely busy. One contractor parked his van on the shared driveway, effectively blocking my car in.

We live on a private drive in a row of three houses, so we share the driveway with our neighbours on either side. The shared drive around our house is our property but needs to remain clear for access. However, despite there being a large drive at the end house, workmen working on the empty property next door parked across our parking area, making access extremely difficult. There was plenty of alternative parking space available, so it’s unclear why they felt the need to block our access. Over a four-hour period, I asked the builder to move three times. At one point, I overheard a workman say to another, “The lady wants you to move your van.” I thought I overheard the workman reply, “What is she moaning about?” and went out to confront him. He argued back and refused to move his van until the end of the workday.

Later, I checked our CCTV footage, and while he hadn’t said, “What is she moaning about?” as I initially thought, his actual response was even worse. When told, “The lady wants you to move your van,” he replied, “Fuck her.” Another workman then said something to him, and his response was again, “Well, fuck her.”

While we understood the need to grant Bovis contractors access to the neighbouring property, we absolutely did not need to tolerate this level of abuse. We had been accommodating to Bovis contractors, even putting up with dump trucks full of soil using our drive (despite there being alternative access available) and vans speeding in and out. However, this incident was unacceptable. We reported it to the assistant site manager, who assured us it would be addressed and that tradespeople would be instructed to use the path on the other side of the Harris fence to access the property at the end of the row. Unfortunately, this new arrangement lasted less than a day.

We wrote and sent a formal complaint email on 10th December to Bovis and then forwarded it to the Customer Service Director on 22nd  January 2020, but it wasn’t until March that we received an apology from the contractor. This is what it’s like to live on a Bovis Homes estate. Sadly, this wasn’t an isolated incident; inappropriate behaviour from contractors has been a recurring problem. But that, as I mentioned earlier, is a story for another blog.