neighbour stopping extension

tberry6686

Whether the neighbours object to the planning app or not and whether planning permission is granted or not is unimportant if you must have access from the neighbouring property to be able to build. If they say no to that then your extension is finished. You would be able to get a court order for repairs or maintenance only. You will not get a court to order access to let you build a new extension - there is no mechanism to force it.

Marktheshark

Record or tape them asking for cash not to object and they wont be around to object, they will be doing 5 years for blackmail.

Lord_Baltimore

To answer your question, any objection by your neighbour will be considered in the planning process and it may or may not affect the outcome. The real problem is if they refuse access to allow the build if planning is granted in which case, and if there is no other way to do the work, don't waste your money on an application fee.

Homeownertobe

What do you consider appropriate compensation for you using their land to allow you to build? As well as the disruption of a project that you admit you can't even afford to finish?

I'd say £5k was a steal!

Davesnave

You could probably build the extension without going on their land. It's even more likely that you could adapt your proposed extension so you don't need to.

I'm aware of just such a situation, where the extension was built and the objecting neighbours didn't allow access for finishing, because they thought (wrongly) that it was a speculative build.

Roll forward 5 years and the neighbours are now desperate for the ugly building to be finished. The extension isn't signed-off, but the owner doesn't care, as he can't see the ugly bit and has no intention of selling.

Personally, I think a bit of compromise on both sides might have helped, but in the real world that's often hard to achieve.

moneyistooshorttomention

WeAreGhosts wrote: »

If they refuse to let you have access to build then you would need a court order (which may or may not be granted).

Please don't assume that because people are older they are in a "better position".

It wouldn't be granted.

Access to Neighbouring Properties Act gives access to neighbours land to do "maintenance work" and "maintenance work" only. It isn't there to allow for neighbours doing "improvement work" on their property.

The Court wouldn't make any order for this - because its clearly not "necessary maintenance work".

I guess the money this couple are asking for is compensation for the loss of amenity on their house if this extension was put there. Understandable - as it would possibly reduce the value of their house.

Their financial position is "none of anyone else's business". Voice of experience time here = neighbours trying to work out my financial position put my back up big time - and even more so when their conclusion seemed to be that I'm better-off than I actually am. It did have a rebound effect....

FBaby

Go ahead with it, and when you get the application, tell them that you won't build it if they pay you £10K to move instead!

kaya

Casually tell them that if you can't extend you will have to rent the property out to a load of (insert troublemakers of choice here) so you can rent a bigger property elsewhere , and what about permitted development?

I_have_spoken

we would need to go on there drive and part of the garden to do our extension

If you're building so close to the boundary you need access from their side, then the Party Wall legislation may apply. Neighbours would appoint a PW surveyor who takes this to dispute and you'll need to pay your surveyor, the neighbour's surveyor and the appointed independent surveyor to arbitrate. Getting PP could be just the start of costs.

oscarpops

I guess im more shocked that when we had the plans done we went round and went over everything with them, said we would get the side part i.e the part when we needed to be on their land completed as quickly as possible, said they could use our drive for their car etc and they said they had no problems with it. Now theyve done a complete u turn. The words they used were well we wont object if you give us 10k, our reaction then prompted ok well 5k would do it. We have already submitted to the council as they said they were fine now they have backtracked. We wish we didnt even bother now and saved the money we have already spent on plans/fees etc. I have also checked we definitely need to go on their land. We also have enough money to complete the shell, so we wouldnt be on their land for long. They have now requested our drawings which we have given them for the weekend, but its looking unlikely we will get our permission. I dont think some people realise they are playing with lives here, moving isnt an option really either. Just really sad and disappointed now. Thanks for all your replies