Planning permission

KittenChops

KittenChops wrote: »

I contacted my local council when new houses were being built two doors down from us as the works were starting earlier than they were supposed to. I was told it wasn't binding and was only advisory...

Doozergirl wrote: »

It'll depend on where you are. In London, they're very strict with builders. It depends on resources and the number of people affected, I should think.

We live in the south east, in a large town, less than 10 minutes walk from the town centre. Most of the houses round here are Victorian terraces, tightly packed together with the odd (ugly, imo) new build crammed into any available space - so certainly not in the sticks or only affecting a handful of households. The only thing the council could say was to suggest I kept a noise diary - but considering they said the conditions were only advisory, I didn't see the point...

seven-day-weekend

The people who may in the future buy your house will buy it with the new building already there. They won't have ever known it not to be there. Therefore I don't see how it will affect your house price at all, and in any event, this is not a reason to refuse the planning permission.

I do think it wrong that your vendor lied however, and hope you can get some sort of closure on this matter.

Thinkthin

My main gripe is that IF I had known then I may not have bought this house. Not being overlooked at all was a factor in buying it.

hennerz

Doesn't your son get woken by the light without blinds?

Thinkthin

He has curtains. At the minute we are not overlooked .

If the council do.not consider light loss and privacy, what's the point in sending letters?

Davesnave

The council do consider such things on an individual basis, but they have already done so and decided that the benefit of havng another home outweighs the disavantage to anyone livnig in your house.

More often than not, the building of a new house, or houses, negatively affects someone, but we have a housing crisis in this country and a finite amount of land. With planning, it's usually a case of choosing the options which cause less harm/loss of farm land/ habitat etc.

The only way individuals can be sure of not being built behind, or losing a view, is to do as I've done and buy the land. I don't control the full 360 degrees, however, and although I'm out in the countryside, even here there's nowhere that's 'safe' from development of some kind. For example, if he could show a business need, the farmer who owns the land to the front of my house, could build a whacking great cow barn 200' long, without even needing planning permission, and he could do it in a very short time span.

When I lived in town, I bought a house that was heavily overlooked because it had a large garden. I placed trees strategically in the garden and within a few years the overlooking was no longer a noticeable feature of the property. I suggest you look at ways to ameliorate what you see as a privacy issue, and implement them.

suburbankid

Hi,

I had this happen to us on our purchase in 2011

The first i knew about it was3 months after purchase, the guy from the house behind informing me that he was cutting down my trees, as they risked his foundations.. The boundary fence also belonged to me, but he insisted that he was removing that, replacing it with his house wall ( it gave him an extra 12 inchs of living space ) .. Needless to say, it wasnt the best way to win me over lol..

In fairness, apart from his abrupt demands, he had followed the proper planning process... but the sellers failed to disclose the application. My next door neighbour confirmed they knew about it, as they had discussed with him..

I went down the legal route, got specialist valuator out before an after extension etc -and then solicitors sent letters to the seller etc looking for compensation.

However, my neighour refused to provide a statement for the solicitor, as he didnt want to get involved. At that point, the solicitors advised that without evidence that they lied in the TA6 form, there was nothing they could do. Apparently they worked on the balance of probability, ie there had to be a 51% chance they would win.. Without any evidence, they wrote a few threatening letters, but were not prepared to go down a costly court route.

5 years past and we sold the house.. In the end, it didnt really bother us, or affect the value.. But this was an extension, not a new dwelling.

Couple of things you could look into though.
Legal cover with your home insurance - they will appoint a solicitor if they feel you have a case.

Right to light - Cant recal the exact rules ( 21 years comes to mind ?? ) , but worth a look at depending of age of property and how the new house affects you
Boundary walls act - not sure how close it is to your propery

Planning notification sent / received.. The council sent out 14 notifications of the planning application. The council provided me with a list of properties these were sent to. My solicitor said that if i could confirm 13 of the 14 were received, they may well be able to argue that the probability was all 14 were received. This didnt work for me, as 10 of the 14 letters went to an old mill.. And 9 of the 10 people had left as the owner had defaulted with the mortgage

Have a conversation with neighbours / guy building the new property and see if they every had a chat with the seller about this - than get something is writing.

Sorry you are in this position, and i sympathise, as i know how annoyed i was 5 years ago