Should we have known about this planning permission?

Jue_xx

We bought our house in Feb 2010, the house next door to us sold in the middle of 2011.

Last Friday we received a letter from our local council informing us of a planning application on next door's property for a 12m x 7m 2-storey building, workshop and double garage below and living accomodation (living room, bedroom, bathroom and kitchen) above. The building was to be built right up against our southern boundary, totally overshadowing our newly installed greenhouse, vegetable patch and a good part of our garden. There was no mention of the proposed height of this building on the website so we popped round to speak to our neighbours, who seemed genuinely surprised because they had re-applied for permission from March 2008 that had lapsed. The house that we bought went on the market in April 2008 and we had absolutely no idea there was planning permission in place when we went through the buying process.

1. Should the original permission have been raised during the conveyancing process when we were buying our house? The previous occupants must have known about it. We have a copy of our local authority search and it only mentions applications referring to our property, not neighbouring ones. It was not mentioned at all by our solicitor.

2. Will the fact that permission has been granted before be used as a precedent for this application?

3. Is there a chance that, months down the line, this new building could be sold off as a house?

4. Can they apply for planning permission without disclosing the proposed height of the building?

Fuzzyness

not sure about 1)

in respect of 2) the fact that planning permission was granted before will have meant that the principle of some form of development on that site was considered acceptable. from what you have posted can you clarify whether your neighbour is looking to extend the life of the planning permission that they currently have for the workshop with living accommodation over it? or is this a totally new planning applicaiton and development?

3) if granted and built the future occupier could look to change the use of the building to a house. as described above the first floor is already living accommodation.

4) no. the submitted plans have to be scale and from this you should be able to work out the height of the building. DM me a link to the application (reference number, local planning authority, etc) and i'll have a look if you want.

RAS

1. It depends if you instructed your solicitor to search for application in adjecent properties or not. Friends of mine discovered a supermarket with night-time loading bay was to replace the scrubby field the other side of their boundary after purchasing. They had not instructed the solicitor to search beyond the curtilage and had no come back.

Jue_xx

Thanks for the replies, here's the link:
(link removed)

We don't have a problem with them putting a building a garage, and even an annexe if they want to - the gardens are quite large and there is room for one. We just have a BIG problem with the 2nd storey! There's a brick garage sized outhouse there already, we wouldn't mind if the new building stayed that height, but we've put so much work into our garden, siting a greenhouse and vegetable patch at the other side of the boundary, due north of the proposed new building, and the whole area would be in deep shade.

I thought the local authority search covered planning permissions, but it only came back searching the one we were buying, which is pretty pointless really.

Fuzzyness, the original planning permission, applied for by the previous occupants of no. 116, lapsed in March 2011, so this is a fresh application for the same thing (with a few modifications) on the same site. I'm just so glad they hadn't started to dig the foundations! I bet our new neighbour wishes he had, he hadn't realised we knew nothing about it and he's probably kicking himself now for not making a start because he knows we're not happy.

I'm guessing the previous occupants of our house didn't object because they knew they were about to move house! We wouldn't mind at all if they kept it to single storey.

System

The original application should have been mentioned as part of the sellers pack. If it was awarded in March 2008 then the planning notice that would have been delivered to the neighbours should have been fresh in their minds.

As this is a totally new application rather than an extension request (albeit probably using the same plans) then there is no comeback on your sellers as the original application was never implemented. The original application has not affected you or your house in any way.

Fuzzyness

Right. you've got two things going on here. firstly your neighbour is looking to extend living accommodation into their exisitng roof and secondly you've got a new build garage/workshop with accommodation over it in the rear of the garden.

what they are trying to do with the workshop is replicate a similar design as that of the dormer bungalow at the front. There isnt a section across the site but i would hazard that the workshop wont be any higher than the existing dormer bungalow.

in terms of what you can do about it, as it is a new application you need to submit an objection on the grounds that the proposed workshop will have an overbearing impact on your garden and that it would consequently have an adverse impact on your amenity and enjoyment of your garden. whislt none of the windows in the living accommodation will overlook your garden i think you need to play the overbearing card. you could ask why do they not relocate it to the other side of their garden (which on plan looks there are no houses). you do appear to have a shed in your garden. how large is this?

finally you could also object on garden grabbing grounds but suspect because something was approved there before this may not be a strong arguement.

and lastly, how do they propose to access the workshop? is there a new road/access to be created as no details appear on the application drawings. query this to.

Fuzzyness

it does look like you have a big tree in your back garden. is that still there?

Thrugelmir

Jue_xx wrote: »

The building was to be built right up against our southern boundary,

Do you live to the right on the plan or behind the proposed developement?

Jue_xx

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Do you live to the right on the plan or behind the proposed developement?

We live in the L-shaped house alongside. The land at the other side of no. 116 and at the bottom of the gardens is a primary school and school fields.

Jue_xx

Fuzzyness wrote: »

it does look like you have a big tree in your back garden. is that still there?

Yes, in fact we have several mature trees - a HUGE monkey puzzle, a mature willow and at least 6 tall poplars.

Jue_xx

Fuzzyness wrote: »

Right. you've got two things going on here. firstly your neighbour is looking to extend living accommodation into their exisitng roof and secondly you've got a new build garage/workshop with accommodation over it in the rear of the garden.

what they are trying to do with the workshop is replicate a similar design as that of the dormer bungalow at the front. There isnt a section across the site but i would hazard that the workshop wont be any higher than the existing dormer bungalow.

in terms of what you can do about it, as it is a new application you need to submit an objection on the grounds that the proposed workshop will have an overbearing impact on your garden and that it would consequently have an adverse impact on your amenity and enjoyment of your garden. whislt none of the windows in the living accommodation will overlook your garden i think you need to play the overbearing card. you could ask why do they not relocate it to the other side of their garden (which on plan looks there are no houses). you do appear to have a shed in your garden. how large is this?

finally you could also object on garden grabbing grounds but suspect because something was approved there before this may not be a strong arguement.

and lastly, how do they propose to access the workshop? is there a new road/access to be created as no details appear on the application drawings. query this to.

The shed marked on the plan in our garden is actually a derelict greenhouse and brick shed. We cleared the greenhouse away when we first moved in, I was gutted as in its hay-day it would have been a stunning bespoke cedar greenhouse on a low wall. It had heating pipes and everything but the previous occupants let it go to rack and ruin. We couldn't afford to replace it like-for-like so put an aluminium one in its place.

The brick shed is also derelict and we have plans to put a new roof on it some time down the line.

Access will be between the 2 houses. It looks blocked off on the plan but there is a narrow driveway down the side. In fact they already park their cars in the back garden, which I find a bit bizarre...