Neighbour has appealed planning enforcement - advice pls

Holy_Molly

House that backs onto my garden (we share a boundary fence) has extended the original property, now privately let for £2,000+pm (London).  Owner has split the garden and built a new house - with planning permission - also to be privately let at circa £1,500 to £1,700 pm. This is a tiny suburban garden, don't be thinking it's acres of ground.  I objected to the new house (from single floor with dormer bedroom changed to single floor with roof storage under advice from the Council) through the Council portal and by letters; Council have since admitted several errors, incorrect information logged, lack of information, etc.  I submitted a formal complaint to the Council after contacting the Enforcement team in September and not receiving a response - complaint logged 27 November 2019;  Council (finally!) responded in December stating the house wasn't as submitted and approved plans, namely that it's "at least 60cm too high".  That's just floor to ceiling, not taking into account the roof; original plans wanted a dormer bedroom which was later (on the approved plans) reduced in size to give attic storage.  Enforcement notice served, neighbour has appealed.  Council have responded to my November 2019 complaint this week admitting errors but stating that their errors wouldn't have affected the granting of original planning permission.
My question - and apologies if it's taken a long time to get to this - despite my asking the Council what the next steps are and not receiving a reply from them - what happens in this appeal process?  The house is built - from my initial contact to the Enforcement team in September to the Enforcement team visit in December the walls are built, the roof is tiled - they've even got the TV aerial on top.  The windows aren't as the plans (stated on documents to be obscure glazed as these look directly into my garden).  I woke in a cold sweat last night wondering if, as the building is up, I'm going to be told that the building can remain as is, not as the planning application, not as the Council approved, roof too high giving the neighbour the chance to apply for a dormer bedroom in the future.
I've lost faith in my Council and shall be taking my complaint further through the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (as their response to my formal complaint) but I don't know if I need to prepare myself to be informed that this is what I've now got to live with.
I don't have the money for professional advice - I'd spent in excess of £1,300 last year in getting a "Right to Light" surveyor who prepared a report on the dimensions of a building that now exceeds that!
I really don't know where to turn.  Advice please and - please be gentle, I'm feeling very fragile.
Thank you

notrouble

The council have served an enforcement notice.

The neighbour has appealed.

The council will review the appeal and may either allow it, or the enforcement notice will remain in force.

If they uphold the enforcement notice, the neighbour should comply by making the property match the approved Plans.

My limited experience is that many people in this position fail to do so, especially where the building is already complete.

The council have the power to do the work themselves and charge the owner for their cost, But councils have very few resources (as you've found....) and frequently take no action.

As I believe there is a time- limit for the council to enforce, you will have to maintain the pressure on them to do so (assuming the appeal fails).

I'm no expert, so I suggest you do some research/reading on local authoriy powers, and Planning enforcement. Most councils have info on their websites, as does the Gov.

This might be a good place to start:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/ensuring-effective-enforcement

ps - the points about use of each building (rented, at £X pm etc) is all irrelevant...)

thearchitect

Notrouble outlines the English position prettry succinctly and I only have two points to add.

Firstly, if you make a representation against the proposal (if you are asked as a third party, which tends to happen up here) then frame it in strict planning terms.

Secondly, if you suffer from insomnia, here is the link for more reading:  https://www.gov.uk/guidance/ensuring-effective-enforcement

m0bov

Do you have legal cover with your insurance?

Holy_Molly

m0bov.  Gosh, I hadn't thought about legal cover with the buildings insurance.  I'll check that now - thank you!
I'm so glad I posted, I probably spent the last couple of hours after reading through the Council response to my complaint wondering what I could/should do next.  
Thank you notrouble for your post - I'd asked the Enforcement Officer what the steps are and had no response - I believe they thought it would be covered in the response to my complaint (it wasn't) as I'd asked directly how this process works.  Apart from telling me it could take up to 10 months I've had not other information, and most internet searches seem to lead to information for those responding to enforcements.  
thearchitect - great link, thank you.  I'll put it next to my bed for tonight's 3am cold sweat ....

Apologies if I went off on a tangent on the private rental - the original house was a family home, left to the now-owner by his father.  To have a 3 bed semi to 5 bed and 2 bed rentals on the same plot ... anyway, apologies again.

m0bov

Get in touch with your local councillor, get them on side, as soon as they start "making member enquiries" the council will take notice.

Tom99

notrouble said:

The council will review the appeal.

An appeal is made to the Planning Inspectorate, who will decide whether to allow the appeal, not the council.

https://www.gov.uk/appeal-enforcement-notice/how-to-appeal 

You should do two things:

1 - Write a letter of objection to the Planning Inspectorate. Make sure you do that by the stipulated date. Encourage any interested neighbours to do the same.

2 - Try to encourage the planning dept at the council to robustly defend their enforcement notice in their submission to the Planning Inspectorate.

If you have exhausted the complaints procedure at the council you can take your complaint to the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman but they cannot reverse a planning decision nor do they comment on whether a planning decision is right or wrong, they can only look to see if the planning department followed the correct procedure. Even if they decide the planning department did not follow the correct procedure they mostly just give the council a ticking off.

'The Ombudsman investigates complaints of injustice caused by maladministration and service failure. The Ombudsman cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it.'

AdrianC

Holy_Molly said:

Apologies if I went off on a tangent on the private rental - the original house was a family home, left to the now-owner by his father.  To have a 3 bed semi to 5 bed and 2 bed rentals on the same plot ... anyway, apologies again.

That's actually viewed as a good thing, generally speaking - greater density of properties means more accommodation, means helping address both the council's legal requirement to the government and bringing them in more council tax.

If the density was too high, that would have been a legitimate ground to object to the original application - but since it was granted allowing those densities, that's not grounds for appeal or enforcement. Now, you have to focus on the differences to permission. The failure to fit obscured glass is an easy win for them to enforce, for a start. Insisting the roof gets lowered - that's unlikely to happen, simply because of the cost of it. Any documented michael-extraction (enforced or not) is unlikely to help them with future applications, so I suspect the dormer is not going to happen.