: Nope, not at all going overboard, super nice and understanding, already talked on the phone three times before the first groundbreaking and informed about everything that was within reason. But when there are rude demands, threats with lawyers, and calls to authorities behind our backs, accusations that a demolition would cause silicosis... no, that’s where my principle of “not being schadenfroh” definitely ends. Therefore, the warning to the OP to think about how they want to live with their neighbors; we even would have liked to invite our neighbors to the topping-out ceremony at the beginning, we had great conversations with her husband at the garden fence before the construction... now we’re happy that their house is on the north side without a garden and let the hedge grow tall. Sure, it’s annoying too, guess whose neighbor’s apartment is currently being renovated and who has neighbors with stomping children above them? :) But I know that both neighbors have the right to renovate and to have children, I can continue to greet them kindly, ask the construction workers how long they will be working today, and ask the family to be a bit mindful because the noise echoes quite a bit in the old building and we both have to work... but nothing more, since their apartments don’t belong to me (back to ownership) and so I can’t decide how they have to live within the legal framework. This “I was here first and don’t want to be disturbed anymore” attitude just rubs me the wrong way; the OP’s bungalow was also once built, and the neighbors on the other side probably weren’t happy about that either. If he were to build a house somewhere else now, his neighbors wouldn’t be happy either, maybe also in the shade... who knows :)