Neighbour extending their property. Can i do anything about it?

xs11ax

Hi.

I live in a small terrace house with an equally small back garden.

I have just received a letter from the council informing me that the neighbours have applied for planning permisson to build a 2 floor extension round the back.

I already have very limited sunlight in the back garden and the kitchen which faces the back. I am worried that the proposed extension will cause me to lose whatever little light I have. Also with it being a small back garden, I am worried that the proposed extension will be overwhelming and box off my garden from one side.

Is there a way of calculating how much light i could lose?
Do you think I can contest the proposed extension based on the above?
How do i go about contesting it?

Below is a google maps image of both properties. The back of my property faces towards the north. I believe the picture was taken in mid-afternoon.

The red banded property is mine. The yellow is the neighbours.

Cheers all.

missindecisive

if you feel your neighbours proposed extension will block out your light, then write to the council outlining your objection. as i understand it, you are not entitled to a view, but daylight is a right. hopefully someone more knowledgable will be along soon, good luck

olias

look up the local planning dept online or phone them. They will advise you under what grounds you can object to a planning application. It is important to object under legitimate grounds as laid down in their regulations. They will tell you what these are.

Olias

iamana1ias

missindecisive wrote: »

if you feel your neighbours proposed extension will block out your light, then write to the council outlining your objection. as i understand it, you are not entitled to a view, but daylight is a right. hopefully someone more knowledgable will be along soon, good luck

You are wrong. There is (usually) no right to light.

foxgloves

You could find out whether your Parish Council or town council has a councillor whose role is looking at planning applications. Our parish council has one. The reason I know is that our neighbours put in a plan to extend out the back with a 2-storey extension and barely had I received the letter from the council informing me of this, than he was round, knocking on my door encouraging me to oppose it & offering support! We didn't oppose it as our back-facing kitchen was pretty dark anyway and we couldn't see that the extension would make it much worse as we had to use lighting in there most of the time anyway. Luckily we have a very long back garden so the extra shade didn't encroach on more than about an eighth of it. I wrote to the council to say I had no objections to the plans BUT that we definitely did not wish to be overlooked. Even if your objections on the grounds of light don't work, it is worth logging that you don't want your privacy compromised. Our neighbours' build only ended up with one frosted glass bathroom window on 'our' side of the extension, so we were OK with that. Also, I know these are only small things, but if any boundary has to be taken down to facilitate the work (a wall in our case), make sure you have an agreement that they will rebuild/replace when they have finished. The only thing that has ended up annoying me is that the cooker extractor vent in the new extended kitchen is so near to our house that the stale cooking smells come out of next door staright into our kitchen window! We do feel we've actually gained on privacy because the side of the extension & wall that was rebuilt between the 2 properties has given us a very secluded courtyard area BUT I do understand that with a smaller garden, you want to maintain a sense of daylight & some sunshine, so I wish you all the best if you contest it, and if it goes ahead, that it isn't as bad as you fear.

Mojisola

iamana1ias wrote: »

You are wrong. There is (usually) no right to light.

Are you sure? This - https://www.planning-applications.co.uk/righttolight.htm - suggests otherwise.

xs11ax - it would be worth starting to look up other forums that deal with this problem. You may need to look at Party Wall issues as well as making sure that any windows overlooking have to always have obscured glass in them and also that they aren't windows that open onto your land.

A few hours of research now could prevent years of problems in the future!

Owain_Moneysaver

AIUI 'right to light' is enforceable by you against your neighbour, not by the planning authority, and right to light is not a planning consideration.

If other houses have similar extensions then a precedent has been set. If they don't then you can argue that the proposal is out of scale and character with the rest of the terrace, that the overshadowing of neighbouring properties will result in loss of amenity. If the extension will add an extra bedroom then you can argue that this represents an increase in housing density, you can say there will be a shortage of car parking if housing density increases, etc. The local planners will show you Planning Advice Notes, and local Policies, if you can show the proposal contravenes these then the planning committee is more likely to agree it's unacceptable.

barginunter

When this happened to me I took photos out of the effected windows then drew on them what the extension would do to alter the view. You also need to describe how the light wil be blocked off by the extension.
In my case the neighbours had to change to a single storey extension only - not perfect for me but better than the altenative.

ifti

i would object to it also, 2 storey will cause you alot of problems and not just with the sun-light.

temba

My experience of this was from the other side. I was the neighbour applying for planning permission. Actually I went and spoke to all my neighbours about it BEFORE I applied for planning permission, and showed them the plans so they could voice any concerns to me in person before the hassle of planning permission, and fortunately for me, none of them did. That said, I was really worried about the light situation and if it would affect my neighbours. The guy who drew up my plans told me that there was a 45 degree angle rule, so if the view or light from a window will be altered by more than that, then there are grounds for not granting permission. I'm not sure about facts, but he used to be a planning officer, so he knew his stuff. I also looked up previous planning applications in my road, and found that although some down the road had been granted planning permission for the same extension, some had been refused. The grounds for this inconsistency, but in one case it was because they wanted side windows which would overlook the neighbours and this is why it was refused. There is also something about not being able to extend out more than 3 metres in certain situations.

The chances are that if you object, the plans will be revised and resubmitted, (and may end up getting accepted the second time)but having said that, if you are not happy then this is your chance to object. It seemed to me that almost as many planning applications were refused as accepted, so you should object if you aren't happy. You do need a reason though, just saying you don't want the extension isn't going to get it refused.

If you want my honest advise then I would suggest you go and talk to your neighbour. From all my previous experience this is way better than both of you going through official channels and never actually communicating directly.

Good luck.

lush_walrus

Ok, the way to go about this is to write to the planner with your objections, in the letter they will have dated the consultation period and the dates that they will need to receive your responses. You wont be the only person to have received the letter they will have decided on an area who this may have an effect on and also either posted this in the local paper or something to that effect. The key to this is to not be the only objector. Each objection they receive has to be taken into account and bizzarely even if every person in your house writes objecting they are taken into account and logged as being an objection against the extension. If you know other neighbours its worth talking to them and seeing if you can get them objecting too, the more the better on these things. As someone else said bring in the local councillors, its election time they are all vying for your vote and so will quite happily fight the causes of the local people, but only if they feel supporting you is worth their while (in that there are plenty of potential voters who do not want the extension, if its you against your neighbour well clearly there is no gain either way).

It would be considered a minor application, so its unlikely it would appear at committee, however saying that it can do (in which case as it is councilors who vote on it at this stage, it is again worth making this more than your issue now by getting in touch with the councillors in the parish neighbouring parishes and unelected)

If the application fails to gain permission, your neighbour can appeal the decision and the judgement will be re-assessed.

Key words to use in your case are over-development, adverse effect on your sunlight & daylight. If your rear garden faces north and they are on the left of you their effect will be in the afternoon westerly light (but check your orientation now and get that right in the letter if you dont know the planner will and your arguement will loose its momentum if you get this wrong). What are they building it from? is there an arguement the materials are not in keeping with the terrace. Where are the windows, overlooking is a planning policy, if any of the windows can look straight into yours they are onto a looser. Have a look at the plans and understand what is being proposed, if you go to your local council website and go to the planning section, put in the address and the planning application together with drawings will be on the site (unless you are unlucky enough to be in 1 of a few who havent moved online). The point with all of this is that you should not make your arguement personal or NIMBY, no mention of it will reduce the value of your house, your views of seagulls, you dont want to see a brick wall at the side of your house etc etc

On the other matter of Rights of Light, this most certainly is a right (ie the title) it's not a planning issue as it is an aquired right by the existance of your house it does not concern them and is a legal matter. In short if the application is successful and gains permission, if they are going to block any light (to a habitable room, not a kitchen, bathroom or garden but any bedrooms, living rooms, study, dining etc) then you can either serve an injunction (and stop them building any of the building which effects your light) or enter into a negotiation and effectively sell your right to light to them to enable them to build. If you get to this stage, the person to appoint is a rights to light surveyor, who will serve notice on your neighbour on your behalf.

I could go on as this is my area, but I think there is probably enough there for you.