he's wrecked our house & wants to sue US?

[polo]

i'm from england so i know the laws will no doubt be different regarding my situation to laws in the US
Basically - I've lived in my house all my life (23 years) and we're a quiet, respectful family and have never had a disagreement with anyone in our street. about 6 years ago, someone new moved into the house next door - i live in a semi-detached property, and he immediately began renovating his house without notifying us. He used a pneumatic drill on the wall dividing our house from his without consent and refused to stop using it after repeated requests from us. This was also a traumatic time for me because my best friend had suddenly died right in the middle of my exam period and I was trying to study for entrance exams for university. He'd drill from 8am til after 5pm - straight through our chimney flue - the only notification we had of this was when several sackloads of bricks came crashing down the chimney and all over the dining-room floor. He did not serve us with the party wall act, he has put fireboard over the hole in the chimney which is now been reduced to a size that means we are unable to use the fire (it is an open fire) and we've been hounding him with solicitors and surveyors etc to rebuild it to the regulation size. He had no right to destroy it in the first place, as the flue is our property, not his (although it does go into his side of the wall) he didn't ask if this was ok, he didn't check with building standards to see if it was ok, and although several surveyors have told him to rebuild it, he has done nothing.
Since renovations, we can hear everything he does in his house - we never had a problem with sound before - when his grown up daughter decides to play the piano, we can't hear our tv unless it is up on full volume.

My parents are retired and now desperate to move away because he has made all our lives a complete misery, but we can't sell our house until this chimney business has been resolved, which has been taking 5 years and counting to do.

My mother has been terribly affected by the stress -has lost a vast amount of hair and has numerous stress-related health issues, and my father was in hospital 2 years ago with heart problems - also no doubt caused by the stress.

Now we have a letter through the post saying he is fed up with us and is wanting to sue US, and is denying damaging our property and saying that he has mended the ceiling in our upstairs rooms which cracked when he was using the pneumatic drill, and that we didn't even have the courtesy to say thank you (?!?? our ceilings shouldn't have been wrecked in the first place)

basically i'm just wondering from a legal point of view how strong our case is and if it would be advisable to countersue for property damage and emotional stress etc....

After the hell he has put my family through for the past 6 years...


Thanks.

If he caused the damage you certainly can sue in small claims or other court.

You can also demand that this construction be done in a reasonable and timely way.

Perhaps get a professional to examine the premises and give his opinion, and then file in court for the costs you need to repair this mess.

It's unclear why you have allowed this to go on for 6 whole years without complaint, and waited until he struck first.

If you have any visual proof of his demolition and the timelines during which they occurred, you may have a good case.

No material possession is worth losing health over. Move out of the house and take care of trying to sell it from the distance of your new residence. Things are NOT going to get better with this guy. As you've seen, it's clearly getting worse.