Neighbour's overbearing extention

DottyThistle

I'm looking for some advice please regarding the overbearing extension my neighbour is currently having built.


My neighbour was granted planning permission last year for a double storey wrap around the side and back extension. I objected at the time because I believed it would overshadow my property, limit sunlight in to my house, and would be an overbearing extension. This was rejected and the report stated it complied with the 45 degree guide. I accepted the decision at the time thinking the council's decision was final and I would just have to put up with it. The back garden faces East, and I am on the adjoining North side of the semi-detached property. It's a small 1930s 3 bed with a medium sized back garden, and all the houses a quite tightly packed in.


The building has now started with no warning. As I feared, it is overbearing. It partially blocks the view from the upstairs window, and the bedroom is darker. The garden is over shadowed and my conservatory is pretty much in darkness from about mid-day. What was a nice bright airy house is quickly becoming a dark depressing prison. I look at the growing extension from the back and think "who would want to buy my house now". There is constant mess and disruption, which I would put up with if they weren't creating such a permanent monstrosity.


I don't believe the council fully appreciated the affect it would have on my property and me. Their report focuses more on their own council owned bungalow on the opposite site and not adjoining. My other fellow neighbours are constantly commenting about it and saying they can't believe permission was granted.


I appreciate people need more space and extensions are the cheaper option. I am not unsympathetic to the needs of my neighbours, but I feel they have shown absolutely no consideration for me at all, and are not interested in the affect it is having on me. We got on fine prior to this, but they are now completely focussed on their own needs. Is there anything I can do?


Thank you for responding.

Doozergirl

Do you have a link to the planning documents? Postcode?

You'll probably find that any future buyer of yours is oblivious to the difference that the extension makes. The fear of building is usually the worst, the reality only affects the people that knew what was there before.

On the flipside, your conservatory is also an extension and you don't own the right to that sunlight simply because you got there first with putting windows in the garden. We are all entitled to extend our homes within reasonable limits as dictated by planning legislation, including you; if you similarly extended, you'd be back to the same levels of view and light.

Aylesbury_Duck

In summary, no there's nothing you can do, unless the extension differs from the plans that were approved. As Doozergirl has pointed out, you don't have a unique right to light for your conservatory simply because it was there first. The distances, heights and angles for light to existing windows will have all been taken into account during the planning permission process.

Assess the situation once you've lived through the initial disruption and a few seasons so you can see how bad it really is and if you can't live with it, move elsewhere. There is no point suffering in a house that isn't right for you and the resentment will eat away at you.

ComicGeek

Google rights to light - this is a separate issue and not planning related. Planning policy accepts a reasonable reduction in daylight and sunlight, whereas rights to light looks at it differently. It can be very expensive to pursue with specialist rights to light surveyors and court injunctions usually needed - and ultimately it may just delay the works and provide compensation, rather than preventing the extension.

AndyMc.....

ComicGeek wrote: »

Google rights to light - this is a separate issue and not planning related. Planning policy accepts a reasonable reduction in daylight and sunlight, whereas rights to light looks at it differently. It can be very expensive to pursue with specialist rights to light surveyors and court injunctions usually needed - and ultimately it may just delay the works and provide compensation, rather than preventing the extension.

Who’s going to be paying the compo?

Doozergirl

AndyMc..... wrote: »

Who!!!8217;s going to be paying the compo?

The next door neighbour.

OP should check their deeds. Sometimes they don't allow someone to claim the right to light when they're sold off by the original landowner as plots.

OP is going to have to pay for an assessment and for representation. Outside London it often isn't worth it, hence not many people really know about it or understand it. As an example, after assessments and based on a property value of £3,850,000 in central London where the 45 degree angle rule just can't exist, our client had to pay their neighbour £10k for some light lost to two rooms. If your house is worth 10% of that then it is unlikely to cover fees.

Mojisola

DottyThistle wrote: »

The building has now started with no warning.

Haven't you got a Party Wall Agreement with the neighbours?

DottyThistle

Thank you for your constructive responses.


To answer a couple of points:


1. The house is in Yorkshire and was worth approx. £225K when it was valued about a year ago.


2. We don't have a party wall agreement.


3. We both had a conservatory at the back. Both where there before we moved in. Theirs has been knocked down for the extension.


I've sent a letter of complaint to the planning officer with photos showing the impact of the extension, and the damage they have caused to my property during the on-going construction. I've mentioned the right to light so thank you.


I agree they have a right to extend, but surely they don't have the right to block the light coming in to my home, or enter my property without permission and damage it just so they can have their extension. This is still my home and worth fighting for.

Aylesbury_Duck

We don't have a party wall agreement.

the damage they have caused to my property during the on-going construction.

I agree they have a right to extend, but surely they don't have the right to block the light coming in to my home, or enter my property without permission and damage it just so they can have their extension.

This is significant new information. There are things you can do to combat this.

Doozergirl

You need to contact a party wall surveyor. If indeed it isn't too late. Are they out of the ground? ie. foundations poured and using bricks?

None of your current issues have anything to do with the planning office. Not the "right to light" which is not a planning issue, and not damage to your property or coming onto your land which are both party wall issues.

Your involvement with the planning office is over unless they are building something other than to the plans.

DottyThistle

Unfortunately the full height of the extension has been built. Brick at the bottom with breeze block on top. All that’s left to put on is the roof. It’s gone up so fast.