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Next door's conservatory...

We are in the process of buying a semi we love in a great location. The only worry is that next door (joined on to us) has a conservatory extension with opaque glass at the side, siding on to where our dining room patio doors lead out to the patio.


It has been built on the exact boundary line - ie the low brick boundary wall has been removed for the 9ft or so where the side of their extension is. Apparently that is the boundary we are responsible for. The 3ft? high brick wall now begins about 9 ft out from the house, where the conservatory ends. You can see it meets the exact centre of the wall, so a tiny dog-leg where the structure meets their half of the wall.


We know we won't feel comfortable sitting out inches from their glass and hope to erect a fence or at least some trellis nd plant climbers there, but to be on the boundary (our duty to maintain that side boundary fence/wall) it would be smack next to their conservatory glass. We might even want to build an extension (or conservatory with solid wall) there, like so many others have, but in this case it would mean a wall directly against their conservatory glass, so how would they clean their windows / maintain it? It worries me because we don't want to fall out with our neighbours yet definitely need a private sitting out area on our patio, even if we don't put high fences around the rest of the garden. The whole garden is enclosed by 3 or 4ft brick wall and we think we can create some private areas elsewhere with random climbers / trellis / shrubs.


Does anyone have any experience of this situation? I think permitted development allows us to fence by the patio area but that might not win us new friends. One advantage of the situation is that their sitting area is now further down the garden, so as it stands our patio area could feel quite private except for the glass. Any advice will be very welcome. Thanks.
As a fan of THE NUMBER THREAD, our NUMBER IS £22,000 a year = FREEDOM
Amended 2019 - new NUMBER is approx £27k pa nett (touch wood)
Amended 2021 - new NUMBER is approx £29k pa nett - heading that way...fingers crossed!
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Comments

  • emmatthews
    emmatthews Posts: 678 Forumite
    Does the guttering not overhang the boundary?

    In all honesty, that would really put me off of buying the adjacent property.

    Did they speak to the current owners about the conservatory before they built it? If not, then I wouldn't consider living next door to them, regardless of how much I liked the house.
  • dragonsoup
    dragonsoup Posts: 511 Forumite
    Why don't you go and have a chat with the neighbours and raise your concerns? At least you'll know what they are like and how they would feel about your ideas.

    In the longer term the ideal solution would seem to be to have both sides erect a joint conservatory with a brick wall between you along the back of both properties. You could try asking them if they would be likely to agree?
  • giddypenguin
    giddypenguin Posts: 808
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    dragonsoup wrote: »
    Why don't you go and have a chat with the neighbours and raise your concerns? At least you'll know what they are like and how they would feel about your ideas.

    In the longer term the ideal solution would seem to be to have both sides erect a joint conservatory with a brick wall between you along the back of both properties. You could try asking them if they would be likely to agree?

    To be fair I think this suggests the next door neighbours didn't consult with/care about the vendors- who who agree to that! My parents have done exactly as you suggested with their conservatory which works really well - I mean on the flip side, who'd want to sit in their conservatory with next door staring in? How awkward!

    Have a chat with the neighbours and assess if they seem like reasonable people (maybe suggest a few things you might do on your land to increase privacy?) and if they seem out out by any of it get out of dodge!
  • Em, the guttering doesn't overhang the boundary because it's a sunroom style with the guttering on the front. It looks like it's been there a long time, and the people we're buying from have passed away so it's an executors sale (bought it from new in 1959). I don't know if the people next door put it up, or if they bought it like it is now.


    Dragon, we are a bit worried about speaking to them before we move in in case they are horrified by the idea of any change, and say an outright no to anything we suggest, which would mean we would have to pull out and we don't want to do that as we love everything else about it. My H thinks if we do things slowly, like climbers in pots with trellis for a few weeks for them to get used to something being next to their glass, then posts and trellis, with climbers then eventually fence panels if trellis doesn't do it privacy-wise. I've even thought about standing a couple of those shallow sentry box sheds next to the glass, with some trellis in between and let ramblers do the rest.


    Agree the ideal would be shared wall for conservatory / extension, and for all we know they might agree to that though it would mean our entrances to the garden would be at the same level, whereas now ours is set back from theirs by their extension.


    Thanks all for your input.
    As a fan of THE NUMBER THREAD, our NUMBER IS £22,000 a year = FREEDOM
    Amended 2019 - new NUMBER is approx £27k pa nett (touch wood)
    Amended 2021 - new NUMBER is approx £29k pa nett - heading that way...fingers crossed!
  • King_Slayer
    King_Slayer Posts: 262
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    Did they receive appropriate permission for this? Did the vendors oppose this?

    Personally I can think of nothing worst than sitting in my conservatory and looking across at my neighbours. Would find it quite awkward. :eek:

    Get some professional advise about how to go about it. As you suggested you don't want to start off on the wrong foot with your neighbours. :D
  • ellie27
    ellie27 Posts: 1,097
    First Anniversary First Post Combo Breaker
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    Sounds like a bit of a nightmare to me, I wouldnt buy it.

    Having to put up a fence or brick wall all along one side of their glass conservatory just wouldnt be a good way to start.
  • Giddy, yes, it's quite possible they're not happy with current situation either, and we hope to have friendly chats with them over the garden wall when the time comes. It is obscure glass though, so they can't actually see in and they do have those vertical blinds though it still feels exposed.
    As a fan of THE NUMBER THREAD, our NUMBER IS £22,000 a year = FREEDOM
    Amended 2019 - new NUMBER is approx £27k pa nett (touch wood)
    Amended 2021 - new NUMBER is approx £29k pa nett - heading that way...fingers crossed!
  • dragonsoup
    dragonsoup Posts: 511 Forumite


    Dragon, we are a bit worried about speaking to them before we move in in case they are horrified by the idea of any change, and say an outright no to anything we suggest, which would mean we would have to pull out and we don't want to do that as we love everything else about it.

    .

    And if they do object when you've moved in and start to put up fences etc you are truly stuck! You could go ahead regardless of course on your own property but I'd be feeling their angry eyes boring though that horrible opaque glass every time I went out into the garden... that would ruin the property for me!.
  • giddypenguin
    giddypenguin Posts: 808
    First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker
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    Giddy, yes, it's quite possible they're not happy with current situation either, and we hope to have friendly chats with them over the garden wall when the time comes. It is obscure glass though, so they can't actually see in and they do have those vertical blinds though it still feels exposed.
    Opaque glass is a bit different- but I think you're setting yourself up for a bit of trouble if you don't discuss this with them before going ahead - they might severely object to you depriving them of 'their light' - do not underestimate how miserable bad neighbours can make your life. You could be stuck there a long time next to these people, effective communication is your only chance of making it a happy time :)
  • I've asked our solicitor about permissions, but from looking into party wall issues and permitted development, it is likely they could have just gone ahead a few years ago, as long as they served a party wall notice. I think today the glass side would not be allowed, but a while back it probably was allowed. For example I think we would be allowed to go ahead and put a brick extension there as long as we served them a notice. By law they can object but apparently we could still go ahead under permitted development (not that we would though - it's important to us to have friendly relationships with neighbours).
    As a fan of THE NUMBER THREAD, our NUMBER IS £22,000 a year = FREEDOM
    Amended 2019 - new NUMBER is approx £27k pa nett (touch wood)
    Amended 2021 - new NUMBER is approx £29k pa nett - heading that way...fingers crossed!
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