Simple Present. They build a house next to mine. Why is it wrong?

Why is it wrong to say they build a house next to mine? The explanation i got was nobody is building a house every year or every month next to yours.

The correct answer was they are building a house next to mine.

SO, my question is why cant I use simple present to state it as a fact?

I can use simple present to state a fact, right? Ex: I am 6 feet tall(fact). Ex: I like apples(fact). Ex: They build a house next to mine(not a fact anymore)?? Why is it wrong??

Solution 1:

It can work in some contexts. Such as:

I have these neighbors. I tell them they should stay as far away as possible. What do they do? They build a house next to mine.

Or:

Do you know what those idiots do every summer? They build a house next to mine. I burn it down as soon as it's finished, and the following year they just do it all over again.

The first example is just colloquial talk in the present tense, where it's substituting (the tense) for the past.

The second example is a very, very special situation.

Generally, however, the correct way to say it is

They're building a house next to mine. Just to spoil my view, I think.

Solution 2:

Present simple is used for regular actions or for a fact that is always true. If you say:

They build a house next to mine,

it's a temporary situation, not a regular action. Actually they can build as many houses as they want, but they'll stop doing it, eventually.

Here's where present continuous comes to describe the situation:

They are building a house next to mine.

Solution 3:

The present tense is often used with active verbs to indicate habitual or expected actions.
The technical term for this usage is Generic, and generic verb constructions are very common.

Generic verb phrases can use any tense, actually; but the present is most common.

This summer he is reading Freud in the original German.
I was writing recommendation letters all last month.
She drove her car to work last year, but this year she uses her bike.

Like the progressive construction, however, generic usage is only possible with non-stative verbs.
States are already continuous and thus can't be repeated.

Every time he moves, he rents a house. (move and rent are active, so they can be generic)
*Every time he moves, he owns a house. (own is stative, so it can't be generic).

Solution 4:

They build a house next to mine.

in any practical context is used as present non-finite, not usable in simple present context. Its non-finite contexts is mostly in the subjunctive sense.

Non-finite speech is modular. In modular functions, the module could be deployed within a range of contexts regardless of time, number, gender, without modifying its basic structure.

Difference between a tense and the context

For examples, the verbal noun painting as well as the gerund painting.

The Mona Lisa is a well-known painting. The tense of the word painting in such a sentence is in the present continuous. However, the context of its use is as a verbal noun.

He is very good at painting fake Mona-Lisa's. The continuous present form in this sentence is used in the context as a gerund.

Gerund ending in -ings?

What are non-finite contexts

Non-finite means unbounded in time, number, possibly gender. The most well-known and oft-used non-finite is the infinitive.

We came here {to die}.
You need {to stop sleeping around}.
They will be told {to stop sleeping around} tomorrow.

What is subjunctive

Subjunctive is a non-finite context operating in imaginary time. Most of the time, subjunctive contexts are sufficiently constructed using past tenses. Use of subjunctive form

However, subjunctive context is not a tense. It too, like the "real world" context, can have past, present, future, simple, continuous or completed tenses.

For examples,

Dad: What do you do when a stranger tries to abduct you?
- Boy: I kick him in the shin.
Mafia boss: What do your brothers do when you go to jail?
- Mafiosi: They take care of my family.
What do compulsive relatives do when they each want an inch of my inheritance? Well, they build their houses next to mine.
What does the govt do when they fail to grab my land by eminent domain? They build a bridge over my property.