Protest? Lawyer? For what?

I am guessing that they notified you to be courteous. Around these parts the only notification is the permits being posted. If they are not touching your property, what do they owe you? I think you are blowing this way out of proportion. It does sound like Builder A is a nice guy though.

Builders in your area are legally required to give notice to abutters that they will be building? I've never heard of such a thing.

My point is simply this -- A little proactive niceness to future neighbors can pay big dividends.

By all appearances, Builder B notified me only because it was legally required. If he was trying to be "courteous", he would have used courtesy phrases like "hope you will not be inconvenienced" or "good neighbor" or "Please feel free to call me" instead of legal phrases like "officially notify". (I didn't OMIT them from the letter above -- They weren't there!) Builder B sent me a legal notice with no 'niceness' at all in it -- even when 'niceness' would have been free in the form of a few polite words. He certainly doesn't "owe" me anything; nor do I owe him anything. So long as he follows all of the applicable rules and regulations, I certainly won't go out of my way to make trouble for him. But I certainly won't go out of my way to be helpful to his crews either.

Conversely, see what a nice impression Builder A made? I've gone out of my way to be helpful to his crews because he made an effort to be nice.

If you've read the recent threads about things like vandalism, tresspassing and spite fences by neighbors, you can see how little things up front can set the tone.

I know it may be an odd feeling with the neighborhood changing and at times a pain, esp. with two different style of builders working next to your home, but I gotta agree with the other posters. I've never heard of builders doing that. Both did a nice thing in their own way. I think I would just be praying for good neighbors, since they are the ones that will be actually living there.

Good luck!

Another good sign for you is that two "tear downs" on your street are being replaced with bigger, more expensive homes. This should add extra dollar value to your home for the temporary inconvenience of construction.

This is just a question, nothing more....
I noticed in your BIO that your husband is a professional remodeler. I was just wondering how he handled notifying your neighbors when you started your own major remodel?

I have to agree with sweeby that builder A did a good job of setting the tone with neighbors and Builder B didn't do such a good job. I do understand Builder B's reasons for going that route as I'm sure he's had issues in the past and wanted to protect himself. However I think the point of notifying in person first at least would make a lot more good will with neighbors and even though this is the builder and not the people building it still is a good point of why things could start off on the wrong foot.

I don't think sweeby is really that pissed about it, just noting the two different approaches and making you think about what common nice courtesy does vs. a legal notice only.

I know I'd be really annoyed about having to go and get anything from the Post Office as it would mean me having to take time off work to get there while they are open as I can't easily get there on a Saturday either. However, if the builder talked to me and told me this was coming I wouldn't be as annoyed as I'd let it sit until a more convenient time for me to go.

Thanks Lyfia - At least someone gets it! But frankly, I was actually a little bit annoyed because I too had to take time off from work to go get this legal notice. And there's simply no reason on earth why notice can't be both legal and pleasant.

For what it's worth, both Builder A and Builder B live in this neighborhood and have children in the same elementary school as mine -- and many of their home buyers also already live in this neighborhood and are 'move up' buyers. So it makes both business and social sense to be nice and cultivate relationships. Both A and B are also in the market to buy more lots for future tear-downs, so yet another reason to be nice about it.

To those who are wondering, I believe in our village that it IS required to notify the neighbors, particularly if there is anything in the building plan that requires a variance. Variances are hard to get around here, and there was no mention of one in the legal notice, so I don't know... For what it's worth, Builder A did exceed his height limitation by 3 feet -- but it doesn't bother us and we're not mentioning it.

Of course, we talked to all of our neighbors in person to let them know what our remodeling plans are, and have conducted regular 'progress tours' whenever anyone has shown an interest. DH has also done several minor repairs for 4 of our 6 elderly neighbors (he volunteered and worked for free) as a way of thanking them for putting up with our mess.

The tear-downs has been a mixed blessing for us. While RE values have gone way up, the market has forced us to do a much larger renovation than we initially wanted to do. The market shift happened mid-way through our remodel, and made a nice, 'regular-sized' home (what we were aiming for) functionally obsolete. Since DH IS a professional remodeler, we opted to follow the market lead and expand, but it's costing a bundle to get to the point where we'll be able to see a healthy profit. And in the meantime, the taxes are eating our lunch!

My guess is that builder A probably gets a lot more business due to referrals than builder B. A little PR goes a long, long way.

My guess is Builder A gets more work simply b/c he's been there actually WORKING for several months and Builder B has yet to break ground. Now maybe that is the owner's fault. Maybe they don't know what they want yet or don't have the financing secured. Who knows, but it still makes me think I'd use A.

Actually, both houses are spec, and rumor has it that Builder B was delayed because he mismeasured the lot and had to go completely back to the drawing board...