Extensions

Our walls and ceilings are cracking following neighbours extension work

Anonymous user 15/03/2024 - 2.46 PM

I live in a semi-detached house and last year our adjoining neighbour had quite a large extension on the rear of their house. The work included completely removing their ground floor wall and inserting RSJs for support of the new building. During the subsequent months after finishing the work the plaster on our walls and ceilings have begun to crack with some being quite large as well as hairline cracks. First they appeared upstairs (1st floor) but now we are also getting cracks in our ground floor ceiling and walls. Our neighbours say they spoke to their builder and he said that it wouldn't be anything to do with their extension but it seems a little coincidental that our plaster has been fine for the last eight years then suddenly starts to crack after their work. Can anyone give me some advice of how I should go about resolving this? Obviously the builder should have liability insurance for such things but if they are not admitting liability, what should I do? Also, if they end up fixing the cracks, should we expect them to paint the walls and ceilings to return them to their original state?