Help - Planning permission on next doors property

sheraz2

true-blue wrote: »

Next door have converted theirs into bedsits, we do have problems with noise etc, my girls for instance often sleep downstairs in the front room to avoid parties on the third floor....

The problem of noise is not exclusive to flats and bed-sit type properties though! You could have had the same problems possibly if it was a simple residential property.

Melissa177

Not wishing to be a pedant, but if housing isn't "affordable" at it's current prices, who is buying it?

I read an article at the weekend stating that the amount of houses that are rented total 11% of the national housing stock. This has remained constant over the past ten years.

I look around, and I see plenty of "affordable housing". I also see fewer people who are prepared to compromise on where they live, versus previous generations who were.


Is the house in question adjoined to the OP's property, out of interest?

quick-learner

Doozergirl wrote: »

Are there any other houses converted into flats in the street? If there aren't, then it can be quite hard to set precedent. What is the parking situation like? When we convered a house to flats, we needed 1.5 parking spaces per flat to get PP. Just to give the example, for four flats we could get four on the drive and two comfortably on the pavement outside the house.

Flats will not devalue your property at all.

There are only specific items that you can object to and you need to stick to these points to ensure your objections are clear and to stop yourself from looking like a NIMBY. I will try and find a link for you.

Thanks Doozergirl, no no other houses in the road are split into flats, parking is one outside the house, garage and hardstanding to rear. The rear spaces are intended for the ground floor flat, but access is through a rough and uneven lane with no lighting so may be of putting to park there.

olly300

I don't see a problem either especially when I have friends' and relations who live in houses that were converted into flats with neighbours next door on both sides who live in houses. The people I know who live in such properties don't have children so the only social problem you are likely to have is that you don't see them because they are childless. In addition if the property is converted into flats (and more properties follow) the value of your house should go up because there are less houses of your type in that area.

quick-learner

Melissa177 wrote: »

Is the house in question adjoined to the OP's property, out of interest?

Yes it is.

Doozergirl

http://www.wirral.gov.uk/planning/objections1.asp

Best link I could find

"The Council can only take into account matters which are directly relevant to the planning process e.g. impact on light, traffic and visitors, privacy, noise, pollution, and provision for car parking. Matters that are normally not relevant include boundary disputes, loss of business, loss of a private view or the devaluation of property or alternative proposals."

An architect a few years ago said there were seven things people could object to and he listed them in relation to the planning application we had made. I suppose he had a list in his head because he needs to address those issues when he's designing something.

true-blue_4

sheraz2 wrote: »

The problem of noise is not exclusive to flats and bed-sit type properties though! You could have had the same problems possibly if it was a simple residential property.

Common sense tells me you're right, dont take my post as one of complaint, Im just pointing out that it can be swings and roundabouts.

Melissa177

quick-learner wrote: »

Yes it is.

I suspect my major concern in that case would be the building work that went on and that affected your common walls. I've heard horror stories about people doing building work on adjoining houses, and walls being accidentally knocked through!

I don't know if you're in London, but conversions are very common. I don't think I'd want to live in a converted flat myself because of the noise from people above/below travels through a conversion much more than a purpose-build block, but I wouldn't be too worried if I was the neighbour. If lots of houses were converted to flats on your street, I'd expect there to be traffic issues (anyone who has driven through west London will know what I mean!)

peter999

quick-learner wrote: »

No other house in the street has been converted, so we don't really want it start now to be honest, so perhaps we do have a sense of NIMBY it's not just me all of us feel the same

This may be first sign of big changes in your road.
Yours may be the first of many to be converted.
In a few years many more houses may be converted.

Get in quick, convert your house & make a killing.
That's the way the property market works.

I fear your fighting an irresistible force.

peter999

olly300

Melissa177 wrote: »

I don't know if you're in London, but conversions are very common. I don't think I'd want to live in a converted flat myself because of the noise from people above/below travels through a conversion much more than a purpose-build block, but I wouldn't be too worried if I was the neighbour. If lots of houses were converted to flats on your street, I'd expect there to be traffic issues (anyone who has driven through west London will know what I mean!)

Quite true.

They tightened up the regulations regarding the noise insulation between flats due to the dodgy conversions in the 80's. I've met someone who did a conversion in a detached property and then had to spend more money insulating the property because the existing ceilings and floors where not up to building regulations in regards to noise pollution.

The traffic issues are generally due to people living in properties of any size having more than one vehicle.