Four-storey block too close for comfort

• Date: 31 March 2021
• Published date: 31 March 2021
• Author: Tara Isaacs tara.isaacs@inl.co.za
• Publication title: Tabletalk

The occupants of three houses on a single neighbouring plot in Blaauwberg Road say the four-storey block is too close to their boundary walls and its balconies invade their privacy.

Recently a piece of scaffolding from the site fell through the roof of one of the homes. The developers, however, say they are permitted to build up against the boundary walls, according to plans approved by the City of Cape Town.

Patricia Bond, 57, said bulldozers had started demolishing the three houses on the plot next to hers in January last year without consulting her.

Construction had paused when lockdown started in March but had started up again four months later and the developer had demolished the boundary wall for her and her neighbour. She had complained to the developers and they had agreed to rebuild her wall in two days but had only done so a month later, leaving it unpainted and unplastered.

“We were without a wall for a month and the property next door was open with no temporary fencing around it,” said Ms Bond.

Her neighbour, Dawn Jorgenson, said she had paid private builders R10 000 to rebuild the wall because her dogs had been confined to a small space in the house.

Ms Jorgensen said her garden had been damaged and four trees had been chopped down and left among the rubble.

Ms Bond's daughter, Monique Stockigt, who rents the third property on the plot, complained that a balcony from the block had a “good view” of her backyard.

On January 21 this year a scaffolding board crashed through Ms Bond’s roof.

Ms Bond said the developers had fixed it but the roof now leaked when it rained.

Ms Bond said she had invited the developers to have a look at the balconies encroaching onto her property and shoddy workmanship but they had turned her request into a joke.

“I called them about the balconies and they said it's a great way to keep conversation or jump over for a braai.”

Cars and carports were damaged by falling debris and construction vehicles were parked on her property, she said.

“This is my investment. I have worked all my life towards this property and it was damaged in the space of months,” she said, choked with emotion.

Ms Jorgensten wants the developers to refund her R10 000 and check that debris from the construction site doesn’t fall onto her property.

Ms Bond demanded that developers move the black back from her boundary wall, fix her leaking roof and move the balconies to face in another direction.

She accused the developers of not being transparent about...