Conservatory - Clear Glass No Privacy

Tongue

Neighbour has a conservatory with clear glass built right on the border of my property and I'm well cheesed off with it.
They erected a fence on MY LAND but I didn't give them permission and have asked them to take it down. (It was a see through fence anyway so regarding privacy was totally useless)
What can I do legally to get them to use frosted glass and give me some privacy back?
They have got blinds up now but they can and are opened altered on a daily basis.
Any help would be most appreciated.

molerat

How close to the border is it. If actually on the border line I would speak to the council planning dept.

pelirocco

cant you put a fence up between your properties?

dld2s

I am in a house with a conservatory, seemingly originally the builders put it to close to our neighbours boundry I don't know the ins and outs but they had to move it around a yard from where they originally had it (you can see where the brickwork was taken down/replaced) so you may have a case, it is Scotland I live so may be different elsewhere

Came across this:
Zero setback is rarely permitted anymore because of fire safety and noise abatement issues. The actual minimum setback requirement depends on your local zoning code and classification.

Your local building codes office (usually listed in 'County Government' phone book listings) and provide you with the specifics.

Note that additional requirements may be present if your home is within a 'Planned Community' or under some other additional covenant(s

Read more: http://www.justanswer.com/questions/9r8n-near-boundary-line-build-new#ixzz0R6NlDNUw

angelavdavis

If they have built up to the boundary, you definitely need to speak to the local planning office. My understanding was that, by law usually a restriction to build within 1m of the neighbouring boundary. However, having dug around on the net, I found this article which discusses this issue which surprised me with its result (see ref 15):

http://www.conservatoriesonline.com/planq.htm

It looks like Scotland has this 1m restriction but not England and Wales.

Viper_7

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/england/genpub/en/1115315205815.html

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/planningandbuilding/partywall


Belive your situation comes under the parity wall act, if you read up on it, looks like your neighbours have been a little naughty.


I'm sure your neighbours wouldn't be too happy if you built similar but with a solid wall also right up to the boundary - so they won't have access to clean it etc- which won't really bother you being a solid side wall, plus gives them something nice to look at!

Seems to be little argument these days for privacy and "right to light" etc

angelavdavis

Viper_7 wrote: »

Belive your situation comes under the parity wall act, if you read up on it, looks like your neighbours have been a little naughty.

Yes Viper, I agree this was what I also thought, but it was an eye opener reading the article I found - I wonder if its because conservatories are deemed "temporary structures" or something similar?

Viper_7

Indeed - they are classed as Temporary - hopefully one day they will require planning regs as one can pretty put up any monstrosity even if it's bright pink with yellow spots.

PasturesNew

Invite some friends over, place out some chairs facing the conservatory, issue popcorn and watch them like a telly.

Come the weekend, if not before, they'll have screened themselves off with frosted stick on sheets.

tanith

If they refuse to do anything I'd put a fence up as close to the glass as I could manage.. then hang bits of old rags down their side of it so it looks really ugly...

angelavdavis

Have been digging some more - it looks like the law was changed in 2008! It appears that previously, extensions could not be built within 2m of boundary, but this seems to have been changed (madness if you ask me):

2002 planning rules summary
2008 planning rules summary