Nice people thread part 3- Nice as pie

michaels

WE already knew all about the objection as they also involved the local councillor resulting in it getting called in to the planning committee despite there being nothing (planning rules wise) wrong with it.

Since we have the work started we have had to park our cars on the road and one of them was keyed plus other near neighbours don't seem to be speaking to us any more so it seems suburban jealousy is still alive and kicking.

Doozergirl wrote: »

You wait until they just start walking in! H always pretends to be 'the builder' to see what people's real opinions are.

The first big project I had anything real to do with, I arrived to find people in the back garden looking at the extension slab. The whole house was open, but I walked in through the front door, with a key. They just started talking to me like I was nosing too and it's perfectly normal for multiple people to trespass on other people's property

"Lovely isn't it. Shame it hasn't got a garage"
"Yes, that's because they didn't have cars in the 17th Century. Now gerrof my land!"

Have you looked online yourself to see if you had any objections?

Doozergirl

michaels wrote: »

Since we have the work started we have had to park our cars on the road and one of them was keyed plus other near neighbours don't seem to be speaking to us any more so it seems suburban jealousy is still alive and kicking.

That's horrible

GDB2222

Davesnave wrote: »

Yes, if we can't get the price we want, we'll keep the land and the couple who want it as an allotment can rent and keep it maintained.

The access on foot was fine, until the council made the area a residents' only parking zone, but so far the wardens have been OK about us sticking a 3.5tonne van there for loading.

You're under no pressure to sell, and if you get some cash out of it, how will you invest it? Surely, CGT is not a big issue, as you each have a £10k nil-rate band?

LydiaJ

I've used planning portal websites to find out about stuff both here where I live and round where my parents live. Both councils have good sites that I can get loads of info from.

The trend seems to be that people with smaller houses are all building extensions to make them bigger, whereas people with big houses are splitting them up into lots of little flats, and people with normal sized houses in big gardens are knocking them down to build lots of little houses on the plot. :think:

There's a property a few doors up from my parents that used to be a pair of big semis. They've converted the cellars and the lofts, and it's now 14 flats. :shocked:

There's a development round the corner from me where they're putting 10 houses on a plot that used to have one. They're filling in an old railway cutting that used to go through the garden of the old house. There are 38 objections from local residents - access, traffic, house designs (pig ugly) out of keeping with the style of the area (mixed but compatible styles), massively increasing housing density literally within yards of an AONB, covenants on the whole of the old railway line forbidding either building on it or raising the level of it, and serious concerns about flooding (in a town that's experienced catastrophic flooding within the last few years). All ignored, and the project going ahead. :mad:

Meanwhile some unfortunate immigrant shopkeeper was prosecuted recently because he hadn't realised he'd need planning permission to move the door of his shop two feet forwards to be level with the shop windows (like all the other shops in the row) instead of recessed into the body of the shop. I was walking past that shop the other day and was pleased to notice that the door is still in its newer (much more practical) position, so evidently they didn't actually make him put it back as they were threatening to.

Oh, and when I wanted to do an extension on a house I wanted to buy, they wouldn't let me put windows in the end of it - they would have overlooked the neighbours, apparently. Actually, they would have looked out onto an enormous leylandii hedge, beyond which is an electricity substation, beyond which is the side of the neighbouring house. :huh:

Also, I couldn't just make the house wider, I would have had to make the extension look subservient (or whatever the word is) by moving it back a metre. This was in spite of the fact that the house opposite (the only other one of the same shape) had already been made wider the way I wanted to do the one I was thinking of buying. I even put in my outline application that I would be "restoring symmetry to the street scene". But no, they just told me that the opposite house's extension had been done a long time ago and wouldn't be allowed now. :wall:

Still, it all worked out for the best. I didn't buy it, so I didn't have the hassle of doing the extension, and in the meantime, it kept me busy house-hunting-wise for a few months, during which time this house came down in price to a level I could afford. And this one's already been extended, so I didn't have to do it.

Why do planners have such insane priorities?

neverdespairgirl

PasturesNew wrote: »

It's Britain. Take the standard picnic equipment: an umbrella.

There should also be a standard, "If wet, in the church hall" option for any British picnic.....

vivatifosi

Morning all!

Just got great news. Having applied for 20 Olympic events and knowing that we only won tickets for one of them, have now found out that it is for athletics and although we don't have tix for the final, we'll probably get to see Usain Bolt running (fitness permitting) in the Olympic stadium. Very excited! The day we have won tickets to has sold out entirely across all price bands, so brilliant news as we would not have got another chance. Good luck to anyone else waiting on ticket news today.

Davesnave

LydiaJ wrote: »

Why do planners have such insane priorities?

My BIL has been self building and received an enforcement notice before he'd even finished the outside, no doubt generated through the many complaints of a hostile neighbour. This concerned the building having reclaimed stone quoins rather than being rendered all over at the rear. Originally he'd been told reconstituted quoins would be too 'severe,' so he informed them he'd use aged ones instead, received no reply, and so went ahead. At that time the council were more concerned about the rendering, because it was a new product. They needed samples, which they received, then months later they suddenly said they weren't sure, but by then it was up. It looks like render.

By then the architect was scatching his head, and so was my FIL, who has taken ten years to produce a book about the architecture in the village, which runs to hundreds of pages. The village has dozens of buildings with stone quoins. A new development there has loads. As Tom Jones once famously said, 'It's not unusual.'

Anyway, the instructions given by the council for compliance made interesting reading, because had they been carried out, they'd have led to some weird changes to the main facade. The officer concerned had somehow reversed the building, so west was east, north was south etc. Perhaps BIL should have gone ahead and followed them!:rotfl:

A revised application has been submitted...... BIL has almost lost count of the number of interventions, warnings abut when he can do work, stop notices etc that have come his way. Meanwhile, the council's planning dept was still rated as 'poor' at the last assessment.

I believe an independent inspector is to rule on the quoins. Life goes on.;)

Davesnave

GDB2222 wrote: »

You're under no pressure to sell, and if you get some cash out of it, how will you invest it? Surely, CGT is not a big issue, as you each have a £10k nil-rate band?

We would probably just put in in a S&S ISA. Not too worried about CGT since Silvercar put me right on that.

We have to spend a fair amount on our present property in the next few years, but how much depends on whether we're treating it as an investment or a forever place. At present one of us thinks one thing and the other has different ideas, but it's too soon to say who's right.;)

I'll put up the plan of our house some time, so you can all tell us what to do with it!

LydiaJ

Davesnave wrote: »

I'll put up the plan of our house some time, so you can all tell us what to do with it!

Oooh yes please. :j

Sympathy to your BIL.

Davesnave

LydiaJ wrote: »

Oooh yes please. :j

Sympathy to your BIL.

Next week then. Bit busy this week. I was going to wait until the architect had done his stuff, but there's no particular reason to do that.