Homeowner is furious at building firm’s ‘invasion’
Wednesday 1st April 2009, 1:00PM BST.
A VICTORIA Avenue resident has criticised a building firm for coming onto his property to inspect his house without permission.
Terry Burton accused J. W. Rihoy and Son of inspecting the structure of his home, taking photos and making notes while on his land without asking him first.
He said the move by the company, which has been contracted by the Guernsey Housing Association to build 58 homes just off Victoria Avenue, breached his privacy.
The matter had now been put into the hands of his advocate, he said.
‘They came onto quite a few properties, looked around, and took photos without getting permission,’ the 56-year-old said.
‘They then sent a letter to people saying they had done it.
‘When I contacted them they said they didn’t have the time to send out letters asking for permission first.’
Mr Burton said he thought the building firm was checking for damage on properties opposite the Sir John Leale Avenue site.
‘They were probably looking for cracks or something like that so we could not say their work had damaged our properties,’ he said.
‘It’s in the hands of my advocate now and he is writing to Rihoy and Son. But the person I spoke to when I called to complain admitted they had come onto my property.’
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Irritating but legal action possibly over the top.
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Terry Burton needs to get over himself. He must have more money than sense if he has instructed his advocate and placed what he has described as things into his hands. He needs to brace himself to place large sums of cash also for the instruction.
The lawyers will always act. They get paid very nicely to boot. Mr Burton could claim a maximum of £50. For this he would need permission to zone his land from the court in advance. In reality he won’t get anything other than a tasty bill from his lawyer.
So in turning something trivial into something major is going to be an expensive lesson for him. Good. Serves him right for being so unreasonable and uptight.
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Perhaps he should go after Google Earth at the same time.
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I agree with Terry Burton for getting angry with the company in question. Imagine what they would do if members of the publc went onto their land to ‘inspect their building’. I am sure they would not think twice about getting a summons issued! Paul who commented 1st April – get over yourself what a stupid comment.
Perhaps Mr Burton will think twice about the matter but one has to protect their own property otherwise before you know it we will all be subjected to the same treatment by various bodies of people and that includes the States of Guernsey.
So in closing stick up for your rights all Guernsey people.
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Rihoys have had experience of neighbours on previous sites suddenly shouting ‘subsidance’ half way through a project. Ok, so they could have asked or handled it better but Burton appears to be being a bit dramatic.
>>subjected to the same treatment by various bodies of people and that includes the States of Guernsey<<
Every piece of land has been shot from above by Digimap. Did Mr Burton compalin then?
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