Neighbours extension - can i complain?

B17Fan

Our neighbours have built a 2 storey rear extension. We never objected, as we were assured in the plans it wouldn't be too detrimental to our light or view. Our House is south facing, so on the plans it states that the shadow of the extension would fall into their garden. It hasn't. Following the trajectory of the sun, for half the day the shadow falls partly into our garden. Even though they applied the 45 degree rule (we're in a terrace) , our back bedroom and our kitchen have lost a degree of natural light. we are having to put the light on in our kitchen more often. This is making us quite fed up to be honest, as they are probably enjoying their lovely bigger house, and it's been quite detrimental to us. Is there anything we can do retrospectively?

jamie_128

No, you dont have a right to light. Yes the law is !!!!!

Ant555

B17Fan wrote: »

Our House is south facing, so on the plans it states that the shadow of the extension would fall into their garden.

I don't see how this would ever have been the case for a 2 storey extension unless there is a large distance between their extension and your boundary (in which case you wouldn't be posting here)

If their house is on your left looking out of the rear then you would get a shadow earlier in the day, if its is on the right then you would get a shadow later on - length of any shadow would be 'worse' outside of the summer months when the sun is lower in the sky.

How far into the garden and beyond the rear of your house have they built?

FreeBear

B17Fan wrote: »

Is there anything we can do retrospectively?

Short answer is no. Whilst you could try legal action, it will cost a fortune and is unlikely to succeed.

B17Fan

Ant555 wrote: »

I don't see how this would ever have been the case for a 2 storey extension unless there is a large distance between their extension and your boundary (in which case you wouldn't be posting here)

If their house is on your left looking out of the rear then you would get a shadow earlier in the day, if its is on the right then you would get a shadow later on - length of any shadow would be 'worse' outside of the summer months when the sun is lower in the sky.

How far into the garden and beyond the rear of your house have they built?

They already had a ground floor extension, which was part of our boundary. It only went off their kitchen, so they have now extended their living room to the same depth - 3.4 metres.
Then they've extended across three quarters of the way across the second storey. They didn't go right across, because of the 45 degree rule.

It says on the planning that the new extension is 2.2 metres away from our house, to minimise the impact or any harm to outlook. Any shade would fall mainly within that cast by the exsisting terrace and single storey extensions. The 2 storey extension would not adversely harm the adjoining neighbours as to warrant any refusal on amenity grounds.

Looking out of the rear of our property (north) their house is on our left. So late afternoon, early evening is when the sun gets blocked. And it takes the natural daylight away from downstairs.

pimento

So does your garden face south (as in your first post) or north (as in your later post)?

You could always build your own extension.

TELLIT01

You would have had to opportunity to object when the planning application went in. Unless the extension is larger than shown on the application there are no grounds to object now.
As for the shadow not affecting your garden - the sun effectively moves 180 degrees between 6am and 6pm so the shadow does the same in a south facing garden. The property to the left (looking down the garden) will be affected more in the afternoon whilst the one on the right will be affected more in the morning.
I say the sun 'effectively' moves to prevent the pedants coming on and saying the sun remains static and the earth is the body which moves.

B17Fan

Our house is south facing, so the rear garden is north facing. wish we had objected...hindsight is a wonderful thing!

Aylesbury_Duck

Don't beat yourself up over it, your objection wouldn't have achieved anything if they built within the permitted rules.

I'm puzzled as to why the plans were wrong when it comes to the position of the sun and shadows. It's not as if the relative movement of the sun and Earth aren't known...

CakeCrusader

My light's blocked by my neighbour's house, and now some inconsiderate fool has almost finished building a house at the bottom of my garden so it's a double whammy! There's nothing I can do about it other than put lots of mirrors in my sitting room in the hope they rebound the light. They probably don't but it makes me feel a little better.