Roof terrace - planning permission

rosemary261

Last year my next door neighbour but one built a 50sqm roof terrace on the flat roof his first floor extension, which is accessed through the flat above, without planning permission. They ultimately applied for retrospective planning, which was refused, and is now in the process of going to court for enforcement. Somehow they have applied again for retrospective planning for the same terrace with some new conditions, and the council is letting them go through the process again. My (and my neighbour's) objections were that it is an overbearing structure, that it blocks our light, that it overlooks into our gardens (and my neighbour's upstairs rooms) and the noise nuisance which we are already suffering. We live in small terraced houses. 

The changes between the new application and the previous one are that they would make a green roof garden on the rest of the flat roof, with access only for maintenance, and that they will change the wooden slats on the sides of the terrace to 1.8m high translucent glass. I am worried that the roof garden will become part of the terrace, which will mean I'm even more overlooked, the overbearing aspect of the terrace, and I am most worried about noise. Do you have any recommendations as to what I can reasonably object to, since technically the translucent glass means they will not be able to see into my garden and I will not lose much light to my patio area. 
Also, do you think it would be worth making a formal complaint to the council. Under normal circumstances the previous enforcement notice would have already have gone to court, but it was delayed due to corona. 

Wanderingpomm

Yes you can still object. Has anyone else in the street done the same? Is it in keeping with the neighbours? You can claim it’s overbearing and there is a high risk of a noise nuisance 

rosemary261

Thank you, I plan to object. No other neighbours have done anything similar. Do you have any advice on objecting to the garden? Do you think the fact that they'll be using glass "walls" makes the overbearing aspect invalid? 
Does anyone have any experience with making a complaint to the council. I spoke to one of the planning officers last week, and she informally told me that it should not have been allowed for them to put in another application, but now it's accepted they have to go through the process again. 

davidmcn

rosemary261 said:

Does anyone have any experience with making a complaint to the council. I spoke to one of the planning officers last week, and she informally told me that it should not have been allowed for them to put in another application, but now it's accepted they have to go through the process again. 

Is there much point complaining? Even if the enforcement was followed through, they're allowed to submit an application for a different proposal.

seradane

rosemary261 said:

Thank you, I plan to object. No other neighbours have done anything similar. Do you have any advice on objecting to the garden? Do you think the fact that they'll be using glass "walls" makes the overbearing aspect invalid? 
Does anyone have any experience with making a complaint to the council. I spoke to one of the planning officers last week, and she informally told me that it should not have been allowed for them to put in another application, but now it's accepted they have to go through the process again. 

I have been involved in a planning application that was refused because there were too many windows on the neighbors side of the house - they were all to be obscured so nobody could see through them but at least in the estimation of this particular officer, the presence of windows was enough that they'd "feel" overlooked even if they technically weren't.

I'm not sure I entirely grasp the details of what they've done/are proposing, but all you can do is make a complaint citing your concerns. If the planning officer doesn't think they're valid, they'll just ignore you, but at least it makes them consider it.

rosemary261

Thank you, it's great to know that "feeling overlooked" could count as a valid concern. 
The point of complaining is that they would not have been allowed to submit a retrospective planning application to a structure that would have already been taken down. They would have had to propose an application for a new structure, which they may not have been as willing to do due to cost. I'm not sure if I will get anywhere with this though. 
Do you have any advice on how to oppose the roof garden? I am very concerned that they will use the excuse to access it for maintenance to use it as an extension of the already large terrace. 
Thanks very much for your help. I was lucky enough to have a garden that wasn't overlooked before, which is rare in a city, and I am now facing constant parties (thankfully stopped with corona, but were awful pre-lockdown). The flat is a 5-bed 5-bath airbnb...

AdrianC

Did they have the freeholder's approval?
Building regs sign-off?

If the council's turned down retrospective once, then it'd have to be fairly substantially different for them to now agree to it. You can see their reasoning for the refusal on the application online - and see whether the new app addresses those or not.

Councils don't turn down retrospective lightly, because of the hassle likely to be involved.

eddddy

rosemary261 said:

I was lucky enough to have a garden that wasn't overlooked before, which is rare in a city, and I am now facing constant parties (thankfully stopped with corona, but were awful pre-lockdown). The flat is a 5-bed 5-bath airbnb...

Do you mean the flat with the proposed roof terrace?

Anyway, does the 5-bed 5-bath flat have planning consent for for change of use from residential dwelling to commercial visitor accommodation?

Often, Airbnb landords get around the planning regulations by saying that the character of the property is unchanged - it's still essentially used as a residential dwelling. For example, families rent it for a week or two and use it like a 'regular' family home.

But if it's become a 'party house' regularly used by stag / hen party groups etc, the character of the property has changed - it's not being used like a residential dwelling - so it needs planning consent for change of use.

Some local authorities also have additional regulations - for example, in London you can only do a maximum of 90 nights of Airbnb rentals, without planning consent for change of use.

You might want to discuss that with the local planning authority.

rosemary261

They are the freeholder (they own the shop below). I'm pretty sure they don't have building regulations sign off, the roof looks old. How would I find this out?
They were refused due to the overlooking and overbearing impact. I think I can object on those grounds again for the terrace, and also comment on the roof etc. Do you have advice on how I could object to the wildflower sedum green roof? I am worried that even if the terrace has to eventually be taken down, they will just use the green roof as a garden, which would be even worse for me in terms of privacy.

rosemary261

Yes, the flat has been turned into a party house. I have informed the council that they are renting it on airbnb, they were also previously refused planning consent for change of use. I'm not sure how to take that from there.
The advice I have had so far from the council is to take it one thing at a time (regarding the airbnb and the building regs), and to deal with the planning permission first, but I'm worried that if this goes through I'll be stuck with it. 

eddddy

rosemary261 said:

Yes, the flat has been turned into a party house. I have informed the council that they are renting it on airbnb, they were also previously refused planning consent for change of use. I'm not sure how to take that from there.
The advice I have had so far from the council is to take it one thing at a time (regarding the airbnb and the building regs), and to deal with the planning permission first, but I'm worried that if this goes through I'll be stuck with it. 

OK - maybe include in your objection that the roof terrace is ancillary to the flat's use as short term visitor accommodation. (i.e. It's a roof terrace for partying at a party house.) And since the property doesn't have consent for use as short term visitor accommodation - it shouldn't have consent for the terrace either.

I'm not sure I agree with the 'one thing at a time' approach - I think that linking both issues gives your case more strength.