Neighbouring building advice

EssentialParadox

I've had quite a lot of good advice from these forums before and I hoped there might be someone who has experience with neighbours building next to them.

Our neighbour sold his farmland to a developer who is building a large estate. We were obviously not happy about it but we understood he can sell his land if he wants. I've been out of the country for a couple of years and my mum is disabled living here with my grandmother but once I came home I found they're building right up to her garden fence! They're blocking out all the light and putting in windows that overlook our garden…

Before:


Now:


It feels as though her garden is being surrounded by the buildings, and they're blocking out almost all the light in her garden and to her plants (and I assume once the roof is put on that building, the garden will be blanketed completely in shadow.)

The developers also cut down some of our own trees which we planted at the back of our fence, and they've started building on our land — The fence is not the property boundary, it extends half a metre behind:



(I've asked them to move this building but they've refused.)

The biggest issue for my mother and grandma is the privacy issue with the house on the left: the windows are looking right into our garden — If you'd believe it, those windows are on the building's 'ground floor' and yet it somehow looks over the top of our 9ft fence.

And this is after my mother and grandma have politely dealt with all the noise and rubbish blowing into their garden. I've got in touch with the council planning department but they've told me that "the proximity of the buildings is accurate to the submitted plans" — apparently all they can do is make sure they're building in accordance with the plans, and the developer building onto our land is a civil dispute and not their responsibility.

My mother and grandmother are obviously upset about all this. We don't really know if there are any regulations or laws on this kind of thing. The planning department suggested we look into the Party Wall Act but it seems as though it only applies if you have a brick wall around your property (not a fence).

If there is anyone who is knowledgeable on this kind of thing, any advice would be helpful on where to look or get help. It's stressful because they're building so fast and we're worried that once it's built, it'll be too late.

I_have_spoken

Didn't I see this in the Mail?

AFAIK there's nothing you can do, the Council members on the Planning Committee will have been 'bought and paid for' by the developers.

You could give the developer's some aggro by contacting one of the shyster companies that get involved with party wall issues.

Gloomendoom

Having been in a similar situation, albeit on a smaller scale, I can only sympathise. Councils seem quite happy to grant planning permission without checking exactly where boundaries lie. I pointed out the discrepancies before planning was granted... to no avail.

In my case the owner/developer was willing to compromise.

In your case I'd be tempted to move the fence back to the boundary line, or as close to it as you can get.

Mark_Mark

Why didn't you put the fence on the boundary, how long has someone else been tending to your land?

Just like your 9' fence, the developer has planning permission to build. The time to object was before permission was passed.

2013yearofthehouse

The neighbours of a friend had their planning permission granted despite the proposed building being on my friend's land. As the above poster, the council told her it was a civil matter, but they did write in the permission that a party wall notice was required to be served and my friend simply employed a party wall surveyor who got the building works moved off her land.

The overlooking and blocked light would/should have been looked at by the planners so you probably can't change that now, but the building work being on your land is something you do have some say in and could be changed. Unfortunately having your fence not at the boundary could have caused some confusion (did you not have any marker on the boundary?). If a party wall notice had been issued then you could have done what my friend did, but since you've left it until they've started work, I think you'd probably have to get an injunction to stop the progress (they wouldn't have to stop all work, just the work covered by the party wall act). They would then have to serve a party wall notice and then you could get a surveyor and an award could be drawn up.

I may be wrong, so happy for someone else to correct me :-)


Edit: is your fence really 9ft? Looking at the scale of things, it doesn't look that tall.
Also, where exactly does the property line fall in relation to where they're building? You say half a metre from the fence, but the red line on the drawing looks to be drawn further away than that. It's possible that if just the foundations are on your land, but the actual wall of the house is on their land then this may be deemed ok.

EssentialParadox

Hi thanks for the replies so far. Very helpful!

I'll try and answer a few of the queries:

I have spoken— I hadn't seen that Daily Mail article… It's not our house but weirdly similar situation! The article itself is helpful.

Gloomendoom— We are considering contacting the developer to see if they can compromise too. They surely can't consider this 'ok'.

Mark_Mark— The fence wasn't put up to our boundary because when we built the house 7 years ago our planning permission said we needed a line of trees at the back to try and make a more natural boundary from our house from the rest of the land. Ironic now.

2013yearofthehouse— That's a really helpful reply, thanks for the post! I'm curious, do you happen to know if your friend had a wall along their boundary? Some people have said the Party Wall Act deals with all boundary disputes but others have told me it only applies if you have a physical wall along the boundary.

We did have a timber line along our boundary put there by a surveyor (it's partially visible in the photo, but was torn out by the developer along with the trees). You're right that the boundary line I drew in the pic is not quite accurate, I realised later it's about where the wall line is. And yeah, I checked the fence today it's about 7-8ft, sorry for the confusion!

A major issue with the planning permission is that we have a misleading map the developer sent us of the planning proposal (intentionally or not I don't know) showing that gardens would back up to our boundary. We were fine with that, but it turns out the one they submitted to the council had additional unmapped buildings right up to the boundary instead.

I think we might have to try writing to the developer first and then ultimately appeal the council's planning decision. It's hard to know all the laws though…

Hintza

Try and cause them as much grief as possible with a view to them buying your house. Personally I would just want out of there asap.

Doozergirl

In your situation I would call an speak to the Planning Office and ask them to come out and visit you, with a copy of their Suplementary Planning Guidance and ask them to look at these houses and explain to you how the siting of those houses complies with that guidance. In fact, please email them the first picture.

As a very simple start, those side windows looking into your garden at the very LEAST need to be obscured glass. I know for a fact that those buildings would not pass my local authorities rules on several grounds - each local authority is different and I know that mine are strict but it may breach some planning guidance and has slipped through the net with the size of the development.

I cannot believe that the amount of light being blocked to the garden, so near to the house is acceptable! I'm very shocked at it. Where is this?

As far as your land boundaries go, it isn't a planning issue but perhaps you have legal assistance with your home insurance? You are into litigation territory with that - the developer is not going to move anything without the big guns being produced.

Gloomendoom

Doozergirl wrote: »

As a very simple start, those side windows looking into your garden at the very LEAST need to be obscured glass. I know for a fact that those buildings would not pass my local authorities rules on several grounds - each local authority is different and I know that mine are strict but it may breach some planning guidance and has slipped through the net with the size of the development.

As you say, all planning authorities seem to have different ideas about what is acceptable. Mine would be perfectly happy with those windows with plain glass.

I would be checking the plans to make sure that the levels are correct and as approved though.

Doozergirl

Gloomendoom wrote: »

As you say, all planning authorities seem to have different ideas about what is acceptable. Mine would be perfectly happy with those windows with plain glass.

I would be checking the plans to make sure that the levels are correct and as approved though.

I'd be interested to see a link to your local authority's planning page?

We all need to respect our neighbours privacy and amenity to some degree. What concerns me with the front of te two windows is that it seems to belong to the same room as the window on the front elevation and is therefore a habitable room which should really have no windows overlooking, let alone obscured glass. These rules don't apy to ground floors but there seems to be a big discrepancy in ground levels on either side of the fence meanin that the privacy of the existing house is completely compromised. The 45 degree rule should be applied which means no windows within (21m in my LA) and a 45 degree angle of any habitable window of the existing house.

I'd be speaking to my MP if a council felt it appropriate to place clear glass windows looking directly into the side boundary and garden like that, let alone at that ridiculous proximity to the house.

Gloomendoom

Doozergirl wrote: »

I'd be interested to see a link to your local authority's planning page?

We all need to respect our neighbours privacy and amenity to some degree. What concerns me with the front of te two windows is that it seems to belong to the same room as the window on the front elevation and is therefore a habitable room which should really have no windows overlooking, let alone obscured glass. These rules don't apy to ground floors but there seems to be a big discrepancy in ground levels on either side of the fence meanin that the privacy of the existing house is completely compromised. The 45 degree rule should be applied which means no windows within (21m in my LA) and a 45 degree angle of any habitable window of the existing house.

I'm speaking from personal experience. I objected to a planning application that had windows overlooking my garden and looking directly into our kitchen/diner window. I mistakenly believed that there was some universal minimum distance. 21m seemed to be common, 18 metres was the smallest I could find. The distance in my case is about 15m. I presented all this to the planning department but was told that as they actually had no minimum distance, I had no grounds for objecting.