Home improvements anger neighbour

Summer Greens residents Gary Williams has complained about his neighbour's construction.

A Summer Greens man has accused the City of Cape Town of skipping public participation procedures when approving buildings in the area.

Gary Williams has lived in the same house in Reaper Green for the past 25 years. He said he had never had issues with either of his neighbours but in the last month or so one of his neighbours had started extending his house.

“I want to know how this will affect the water pressure in the area. This will surely put pressure on the sewage pipes. In case of an emergency, what happens? Is this even legal. I have asked the City of Cape Town these questions, but they can’t give me an answer,” he said.

Mr Williams said he had been told at the municipal office in Milnerton that as long as plans were passed, it was not the municipality’s responsibility to make sure the work was done properly, but he could lay a complaint in the event of a problem.

Summer Greens Residents’ Association chairman Gary Jacobs said there were many instances where residents built on to their properties without notifying other neighbours.

“This is getting out of hand,” he said, adding that the association would hold a meeting soon to discuss the problem.

Mr Williams said his neighbour was leasing the property to tenants and the plans at the municipal office showed he wanted about six rooms in the house.

“This means there will easily be 12 people living there at any given time. I have asked the City of Cape Town about this and why we weren’t notified as neighbours but I was ignored,” he said.

Tabletalk sent a number of emails to the City of Cape Town about Mr Williams’s claims but they did not respond by the time this issue went to print.

Tabletalk also went twice to Mr Williams’s neighbour’s house last week.

Construction workers at the house said they didn’t have contact details for the owner of the property but would pass on a message for him to contact Tabletalk. However, we did not hear from him by the time this edition went to print.