What's the law on building an extension that blocks a neighbours window?

Maggie841

Ok, we are going to view a 3 bed house and one of the things that attracted us to it was that we could build a fourth bedroom over the garage. But we drove past yesterday and saw that the next door neighbours garage is attached to the house we are going to see. Also, the neighbours have almost finished a 4th bedroom extension above thier garage with a window overlooking the house we are going to see. So if we were to buy the house and extend above our garage ( like they have) the two houses would effectively meet in the middle and block thier brand new window!
So my question is, Does thier new extension with window effectively stop anyone who buys this house building a 4th bedroom of thier own?

Doozergirl

Their window should be obscured glass because it is side facing. Are you also saying that the window is directly on the boundary line?

Side windows shouldn't stop anyone from building next door.

Maggie841

Thanks, I only drove past so won't see properly until we view it. But from what I could see I think the extension covers thier whole garage and that is attached to the garage of the house we are going to see; so yes it reaches the boundary. So if we bought this house and also extended to our boundry the walls would meet. Would that make it a terrace?!

ProDave

Be carefull.

At the moment is is link detached, or a semi detached(you don't say which). You build an extension that joins your habitable space to next doors habitable space, and it goes from semi to terrace, or detached to semi, and goes down in value.

Maggie841

It's semi detached on one side and I suppose link attached on the other side as the garages are joined.

giraffe69

You might visit first, ask if the current owners have ever sought to do an extension (perhaps if they had anything to say about the one being built next door) and if you are still interested after a look and some answers ask the local planning officer about the possibilities.

mistertea

Look on the local authority's online planning portal to see details of next door's extension. The plans should show the distance of the window from the boundary and any conditions such as obscured glass. You could also see any record of previous applications on the house you are viewing.

Robby1988

It was poor planning on the neighbours behalf to put a side window in, I would have thought you are well within your rights to extend above your garage too.

Problem is... 1) Your going to upset the neighbours straight away & neighbour conflict is stressful. 2) As others have said, you are likely to knock value off both houses by joining the habitable space of the two houses.

I!!!8217;d say the extension is a bit of a non starter, the neighbours got in their first.

Doozergirl

I would look at the planning portal for the application, as suggested.

Planning authorites are often quite resistant to forst floor extensions that create the terracing effect. I'm also surprised that they would allow a window on the boundary as it does cause issue for next door.

ToasterScheme

It sounds like you would finish up having to join the roofs together as well. Very messy.

Silvertabby

Is the side window the only one - or is it in addition to the (more usual) one at the front?