Neighbouring building advice

wiogs

If the worst comes to the worst I would be planting some big trees opposite those windows ASAP.

2013yearofthehouse

EssentialParadox wrote: »

Hi thanks for the replies so far. Very helpful!

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


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!

In my friend's case, two different parts of the party wall act applied - changes to the physical existing party wall (an existing brick wall that straddles the boundary and is jointly owned) and a new wall to be built along side the boundary.

So I'd say the new wall that was built up to the boundary is roughly the same situation your in. Basically the wall was built entirely on the neighbours side including the foundations, by using eccentric foundations rather than by building the foundations on my friend's side, as that would have meant removing some of her patio.

Thanks for clearing up the sizes - thought my eyes might just have been deceiving me!

phead

The only thing you can do is to get a court injection to stop work, you will need a solicitor to do it, anything else is waste of time.

If you cannot afford this option and have muscle available then pull the fence and move it flat against the building, and if they move it put it back.

2013yearofthehouse

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'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.

My friend's neighbours were given planning permission to actually put a window in a party wall, with clear glass, because they didn't deem it to overlook the garden.....they failed to realise it would overlook the house within 3m though! It even would have opened out on to my friend's garage roof.... also preventing her from building above her garage like they were theirs. Imagine....two houses, joined by their garages, the neighbours wanting to extend the party wall (that joins the garages together) upwards to add a second storey, above the garage, and the planners deciding they can put a window right in the middle of it, directly overlooking my friend's gargae roof (and house attached).

The party wall was to be 2 storey single leaf block work supporting the new floor and gabled roof, which is not only structurally silly, but it hadn't even occured to the planners that the new section of party wall would be exposed on one side on the upper level....a grey block work wall wouldn't exactly be inkeeping with the rest of the brick house (and they were so keen that the new front and back walls be in bricks that matched the existing house!) haha was all quite funny really (and fortunately all sorted by the surveyor later!)

Mark_Mark

phead wrote: »

The only thing you can do is to get a court injection to stop work, you will need a solicitor to do it, anything else is waste of time.

If you cannot afford this option and have muscle available then pull the fence and move it flat against the building, and if they move it put it back.

Really?

Wouldn't an injunction be better?

EssentialParadox

Doozergirl wrote: »

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.

Thanks for the helpful and supportive reply, Doozergirl. I live in south Devon. There is a lot of space around, and the 'before' picture is quite typical of scenery around here, so I'm also quite surprised the council would swing from one extreme to the other.

I didn't think to ask about supplementary planning guidance. Is it something all councils have available, and available to the public? I'll certainly have to look into that further.

Also great suggestion on legal support through home insurance, we hadn't thought of that.

Dan-Dan

Have you done anything with any of this advice in the last two days??
Speed seems to be of the essence?

Doozergirl

EssentialParadox wrote: »

Thanks for the helpful and supportive reply, Doozergirl. I live in south Devon. There is a lot of space around, and the 'before' picture is quite typical of scenery around here, so I'm also quite surprised the council would swing from one extreme to the other.

I didn't think to ask about supplementary planning guidance. Is it something all councils have available, and available to the public? I'll certainly have to look into that further.

Also great suggestion on legal support through home insurance, we hadn't thought of that.

Have a google for 'supplementary planning guidance' or "SPG" or "residential design guide" and your local authority name. They all have different names so a phonecall might be better.

I'm not presuming you live in Exeter but chapter 7 here deals with Residential Amenity. In terms of privacy, Exeter demands 15m from window to window within a 45 degree angle (house to the left) and a distance of twice the height of the blank wall to habitable rooms (the house directly to the rear). They don't seem to count the eaves, which is a shame as they are going to overshadow habitable rooms.

http://www.exeter.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=12730

You need someone to come out and check that the houses are being built as planned and, if the design of this is correct and they contravene the council's own planning guidance, then you may have to go to the Local Government Ombudsman. I have no experience, but planners are, on the whole, nice people and there will be processes that thy would need to provide details of.

That's why I think legal help may be useful.

On the other hand, the build may fit within their guidelines - in which case you have my deepest sympathy as the design is appalling and clearly detrimental to your property. I''m pretty fatalistic about these things - we need more houses, but they do need to at least acknowledge the neighbours!

EssentialParadox

Dan-Dan wrote: »

Have you done anything with any of this advice in the last two days??
Speed seems to be of the essence?

I agree. Unfortunately I wish the council's planning department also felt this way… I first contacted them almost two months ago when it was just footings, and despite them doing a site visit and despite numerous call-backs they have not told me their findings; "Oh I need to ask my boss but he's got meetings all week", etc. It's incredibly frustrating! Especially when the builders are continuing work despite the planning enforcement officer having told me they didn't give them a go-ahead to continue work on the site yet (apparently they have no power to stop them.)

In the mean time I've found out the contact info for the council formal complaints department, the builders, and local councillor and am drafting up letters to each of them.

Doozergirl wrote: »

Have a google for 'supplementary planning guidance' or "SPG" or "residential design guide" and your local authority name. They all have different names so a phonecall might be better.

I'm not presuming you live in Exeter but chapter 7 here deals with Residential Amenity. In terms of privacy, Exeter demands 15m from window to window within a 45 degree angle (house to the left) and a distance of twice the height of the blank wall to habitable rooms (the house directly to the rear). They don't seem to count the eaves, which is a shame as they are going to overshadow habitable rooms.

http://www.exeter.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=12730

You need someone to come out and check that the houses are being built as planned and, if the design of this is correct and they contravene the council's own planning guidance, then you may have to go to the Local Government Ombudsman. I have no experience, but planners are, on the whole, nice people and there will be processes that thy would need to provide details of.

That's why I think legal help may be useful.

On the other hand, the build may fit within their guidelines - in which case you have my deepest sympathy as the design is appalling and clearly detrimental to your property. I''m pretty fatalistic about these things - we need more houses, but they do need to at least acknowledge the neighbours!

Thanks, I had a quick search this morning. Exeter is very close to us but Teignbridge is our council and it appears they have do have Supplementary Planning Guidance on their website — http://www.teignbridge.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=8829 — but I haven't been able to find anything specific to these circumstances yet…

There is guidance relating to 'design' of new housing developments but doesn't mention neighbours, but then there is planning guidance relating to a homeowner making a house extension, where I found this helpful bit of information:



…but I don't know if that only applies to an extension or new builds. I'll continue looking though them.

//Edit: I can't seem to find on that page anything that relates to new builds. Just the 'design' of new builds and the construction of a homeowner extension. Hmm…

Dan-Dan

I wish you luck , i really do , it looks bloody awful