Our three years of hell living next to £200k ‘monster mansion’: Neighbours say owner ‘used fleet of DPD vans and couriers to help build home’, beams smashed through walls – and they had to play loud music to drown out building noise
A nightmare neighbour who illegally turned his home into a ‘monster mansion’ blasted holes into the property next door and hired colleagues from a delivery firm to help with construction, it is claimed.
Gurwinder Singh knocked down his own semi-detached house in Willenhall, West Midlands, before spending years building a ‘huge’ four-bedroom property which made his neighbours’ lives ‘hell’.
Locals described it as being ‘like a Travelodge in the middle of a housing estate’ while others branded it a ‘monstrosity’ and ‘an eyesore.’ The council has now ordered it to be demolished.
Residents told MailOnline today that Mr Singh worked with parcel company DPD and that they would repeatedly see the firm’s vans dropping off building materials, before men in DPD uniforms got to work on the build itself.
The woman living next door also complained that they put holes into her bedroom wall and that she was forced to blast Queen throughout her house to drown out the daily jackhammering, often from 8am to 10pm.
Neighbours described the ‘monster mansion’ as ‘out of place’ and like a ‘Travelodge in the middle of a housing estate’
Gurwinder Singh had permission to build a modest extension onto his 1960s house but went one step further and demolished the entire building
READ MORE: ‘Even the workmen looked embarrassed’: Couple whose new driveway was blocked with bollards to stop them parking on it say it’s made the pavement LESS safe
Julie Cox (left), 61, has joined her neighbour Amanda Cousins (right) complaining about the bollards, which she says have restricted an already narrow pavement for her mobility scooter
The woman, who wished to remain unnamed, said: ‘It’s falling down inside. It’s been up like this for three years. They started demolishing the original house as soon as they got in there. They paid £180,000 for this.
‘I was sat in bed reading a book one day and then I heard this banging and this beam had gone into my bedroom wall…
‘They started jack hammering this wall at 8am in the morning until 10pm at night… I used to put Queen on to drown them out!’
She said she often saw DPD vans coming to and from the property.
‘I think what they do is they have a franchise with the vans and they can do what they want with the vans,’ she recalled.
‘They were delivering building materials in the vans and then hosing them down when they were done. I wouldn’t want my parcels being delivered in them.’
She added: ‘It’s coming down for sure. They came on my back garden when I was out after they knocked my fence down and used my ladders without asking.
‘Anyone could walk through the house and get onto my garden. He told me the building in the back was a garage but I asked if he had a flying car as there was no way to get to it and it was so small.’
Walsall Council last year served Mr Singh with an enforcement notice ordering him to tear the property down following complaints from nearby residents.
Now, the council has again said Mr Singh must tear his new property down after dismissing the homeowner’s appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.
Neighbours say they hope the row can finally be resolved after three years of trying to get the house on the corner of Sandringham Avenue and Arundel Road demolished.
Mr Singh initially had planning permission for just a modest extension to the 1960s house in 2020 but went one step further and demolished the entire building.
It is thought the brand new house would have cost in the region of £200,000 to build – and would have been the biggest property in the area.
It is believed the new property (pictured) would have cost around £200,000 to build
Gurwinder Singh knocked down his semi-detached house (pictured) in Willenhall to build a four-bedroom ‘monster mansion’
Maz Ecclestone, 52, who lives opposite the ‘monster mansion’, said residents branded it the ‘DPD house’.
She told MailOnline: ‘We think he works for DPD because he wears a DPD uniform and all of the building materials came in DPD vans.
‘We call it the DPD house. We saw him transporting metal girders in the vans. One time they fell out of the back and onto the road, they had to wait for a crane to come and pick them up. It was quite comical.’
She added: ‘It’s been awful, its been like it three years. Especially for the lady next door. They knocked the party wall down without the agreement in place. They put a metal girder through her bedroom wall while she was sat in there.
‘She had rain water leaking in and had to have new carpets. He says he doesn’t speak English, apart from the time I had a row with him and he spoke English…
‘I just don’t know how he’s been able to build so much before someone has said anything to him.’
Maz Ecclestone, 52, who lives opposite the ‘monster mansion’ (pictured before and after), said residents branded it the ‘DPD house’
Neighbours said they ‘rallied together’ to object to Gurwinder Singh’s monster mansion
Christine and Cliff Stevenson live on Arundel Road. The couple have lived in the area for 53 years.
Christine said: ‘DPD is basically who built the house. It was a succession of DPD vans. I think they were building it in between shifts, they still had their jackets on while doing it.
‘They’d turn up and do a couple of hours shifts. Whether he was in a manager position, I don’t know. There was one stage where they had proper bricklayers, they had hard hats on.
‘The ones that demolished the original house, that was something to behold.
‘They were sat there kicking the walls down. The actual bricklayers did the house walls. His friends did the rest…
‘I looked at it the other day and I said it was like being in jail. It’s depressing. The council have said that they might turn it into a green space at some point.’
MailOnline has contacted DPD for comment. Mr Singh declined to comment.
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