Need basic advice about neighbours extension please

candykisses

To summaris query:

Live in a terraced house.

Back yards are separated by a shared brick wall.

Next door have extended their kitchen so that their extension is actually adjoining the shared wall, ie their window sills are attached onto the wall and their windows open out into my back yard.

The houses were like this when I moved in six months ago and the tenants moved into next door three months ago.

I don't know if the extension had planning permission and if not, if it's been there for years if anything could be done.

Their extension window looks directly onto my kitchen window.

The gap from my window to theirs ia approx. six feet.

The extension is used to house their clothes airer, washing machine, fridge freezer and microwave.

The other morning I went into my kitchen at 6.30am so it was still dark, getting ready to take my dog out for a walk.

The woman from next door was in the extension with the light on stark naked.

Am I within my rights to put a rush fencing screen in my yard about a foot away from their window to obscure it a bit?

Are they allowed to have windows that open into my yard? The landlady said to me once that she was going to send a window cleaner round into my yard to clean her extension windows but I said she'd have to leave it because my dog is quite often in the yard and wouldnt like anyone walking in without warning.

Please help.

casperlarue

If the windows are on the boundary wall between your properties then they shouldn't open over your side....they should be fixed and glazed in obscured glass ( to prevent the nudie views you are getting!)

You could try ringing your local planning department to ask for more advice and if there is anything that can be done. Otherwise the rush screening would be your best bet, along with asking your neighbour is she wouln't mind covering up a bit!

lincroft1710

I'm fairly certain that the extension would never have been given building regs approval (it may not have needed pp), so it is probably "illegal". So you may want to speak to building regs dept of council, but if extension has been there a long time there may not be anything that can be done about it.

168hourweek

Its Illegal
Dob then in
If its a boundrey wall then the line is in the middle

candykisses

Thank you for your kind replies.

My friend has now put some rush screening up for me which is about one foot away from their window but runs across the length of the window and we left it so they can still open their top windows on the extension (which again, open onto my yard)

I am not doing this to be spiteful but the other mornings "display" was the final straw. It makes me feel awkward being in the kitchen with their window so close.

I also have a window at the end of my dining room which, if they stand in their extension they could also see into this window, right through the length of my lounge!

I've just got visions of the tenants calling round tomorrow to tell me to take the screen down, although the only view of theirs which I've obscured is of my kitchen, lounge and yard! I'm such a worrier and think the landlord might call and say they have planning permission for the extension (although it looks years old) and I think they will say that their light has been reduced by the screening, although I think it would let light in as it is more see through than a solid fence but covered enough to avoid embarrassing situations,

I just don't want them to come here and make me take it down. i think I worry too much but someone said you can't block their light but then again, surely I've lost light into my kitchen with tha extension being on the boundary wall.

mynameisdave

The woman that walks around naked... Is she good looking?

tyllwyd

I was watching a homes from hell type programme the other day, and a family had been given a barn which they converted into a house. The problem was that the back wall of the barn was the boundary wall onto a farm yard behind, and the owners of the farm said that the family didn't have any right to have windows onto that yard, and certainly not to have windows that opened onto the yard. So they built a breeze block wall about half a foot away from the barn wall right over the windows and stopping them opening the windows more than a crack.

The dispute wasn't resolved at the end of the show, but there didn't seem to be much the family could do except negotiate with the owner of the farm. They were stuck because with no opening windows in their back bedrooms the rooms couldn't be classed as habitable.

Your screen doesn't seem so bad in perspective!

mudshark

candykisses wrote: »

I just don't want them to come here and make me take it down. i think I worry too much but someone said you can't block their light but then again, surely I've lost light into my kitchen with tha extension being on the boundary wall.

Right to light is a complicated thing and usually needs an expert but IMO you haven't lost any light you are legally allowed but your neighbour could have by you putting something so close to their window. Being able to see right into another property isn't much fun (for most of us ) but it is quite common in built up areas for people to be able to see into a house that's behind as they can be built so close together.

BTW, would be interesting to know if the Party Wall Act was followed as you can't build up to the boundary wall like that without following procedure.