Buying House Quandry - Planning Application Found

Profoundry

We are in the late stages of buying a house. We have recently received the Property Information forms filled out by the seller and in this he mentions a rejected planning permission put forward by our future neighbors in 2016. They tried to get planning for 4 houses in a part of their 370 ft garden that runs adjacent to ours.

Any houses by our garden would impact our privacy, noise, traffic and quality of life as we work from home.

Even though this was refused and no appeal has been made, the same neighbour sill lives next door so aturally we are now really concerned that they could try and build in the future. We noted that no one but them has requested permission for new builds down our very long lane.

What would you do and is there anything I can do to ensure they won't or can't build in the future?

Full application here
https://pa.westlancs.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=NZGHL7RH02B00

System

An appeal can only be made within 6 months of the decision date so any application would need to be done afresh and you'd have a chance to object. If the local plan hasn't changed since their application it's unlikely a similar application would be approved, if you want to stop any development of the land you can buy it from the neighbors otherwise there is always a possibility that someone will submit a planning application

Doozergirl

Here's your main reason for rejection:

1. The proposed development conflicts with paragraph 53 of the NPPF, Policy GN3 in the West Lancashire Local Plan 2012-2027 DPD and advice given in the Council's Supplementary Planning Document 'Design Guide' in that it fails to acknowledge the grain and settlement pattern for the locality or respect neighbouring plot ratios, resulting in overdevelopment of the site and a detrimental impact on the character of the surrounding area.

Here is the Design Guide, referred to:
http://www.westlancs.gov.uk/media/98028/spd-design-guide-20081.pdf

Section 2 - Site Layout, one of the very first things you need to consider, has been ignored. They explain what they mean by 'grain'.

Looking at the Location Plan, you can see that there is no backland development in the area. Your neighbour was really taking a chance on something they weren't going to get.

Just because an application has been made, it doesn't mean they stand a chance. It's incongruous with the pattern of housing and the size of plot.

The application was pretty spurious.

If anything was successful there, it would probably involve using more than one person's property (including yours), and building a proper cul-de-sac with access off the side of 535 on the next street, still maintaining long gardens and probably only two new neighbours. It still doesn't really meet with criteria and probably isn't financially beneficial anyway.

There is lower density housing next to your houses, but the planners would still expect a very decent size of garden to be maintained for you and your neighbour.

I wouldn't be concerned.

Reed_Richards

We looked at buying a house in a similar situation (a field to be "developed" into 7 houses and a camp site) except that the application was on-going. Despite the fact that the local council objected, the county council eventually passed the application. This despite the fact that the development was in a conservation area where much less ambitious proposals, like a house extension, had been rejected in the past. So although you can take comfort in the fact that your soon-to-be neighbour's plan was rejected, you never know what the future holds and you cannot rely on planning constraints to be applied consistently over long time periods.

Profoundry

Doozergirl wrote: »

]

Section 2 - Site Layout, one of the very first things you need to consider, has been ignored. They explain what they mean by 'grain'.

Looking at the Location Plan, you can see that there is no backland development in the area. Your neighbour was really taking a chance on something they weren't going to get.

Just because an application has been made, it doesn't mean they stand a chance. It's incongruous with the pattern of housing and the size of plot.

The application was pretty spurious.
.

Really helpful explanation there. Thanks!

bigstevex

We had very similar with west lancs planning on a house we looked at. Basically the seller that we wanted to buy off had applied to build a bungalow at the rear of their 200ft garden. It was rejected on the basis that if they allow one person to do it, the whole street would do it and it's unwanted development. Can't remember the exact terms but that was 3 years ago and no appeal was lodged.

Profoundry

bigstevex wrote: »

We had very similar with west lancs planning on a house we looked at. Basically the seller that we wanted to buy off had applied to build a bungalow at the rear of their 200ft garden. It was rejected on the basis that if they allow one person to do it, the whole street would do it and it's unwanted development. Can't remember the exact terms but that was 3 years ago and no appeal was lodged.

Makes sense and something we said.