Flying freehold

mazhen

I purchased my property a year ago with a flying freehold ie my lounge is above what was at the time of purchase offices adjoined to and belonging to a residential property. The property has since been sold and the new owners want to turn the offices into a double garage below my lounge. Originally the local planning department said planning permission would be required for a change of use and potentially an environmental survey would need to be carried out to determine my safety from pollution noise and fire risk. The planning department have since renegade on the change of use and say it is up to me to obtain a survey from environmental health . I am unclear as to my position and where I stand in this matter. Had I know at the time of purchase a garage would potentially be under my lounge I would have looked into the flying freehold in greater depth and detail. Any thoughts or help on this situation would be much appreciated . 

davidmcn

mazhen said:

The planning department have since renegade on the change of use and say it is up to me to obtain a survey from environmental health .

What do you mean by "reneged"? Do you mean they've decided planning permission isn't required? What do you mean by "up to you" to obtain a survey from environmental health?

greatcrested

Flying freeholds are always problematic for a variety of reasons, but presumably you knew this when buying.

You can put in a formal objection to the application for change of use, based on a number of specific criteria (not just 'I don't like the idea' or 'it will be noisy') and environmental impact is, I believe, one such criteria. However, the more evidence you can present to back up your objection the better.

eddddy

Just as a little reassurance...

If the conversion does eventually go ahead, it will need to meet building regs, which will mean the walls and ceiling must be made fire resistant - if they're not already.

And if fire proofing work is done to the party wall and party ceiling/floor it may come under the Party Wall Act (but I'm not 100% sure). If it does, you could hire a surveyor to make sure it's done properly, and the neighbour has to pay the surveyor's fee. 

NameUnavailable

What's so bad about a garage under your lounge? I would think it's preferable to another lounge or whatever as noise will be less of an issue assuming it's a garage for storage of a car and the usual misc. junk?

carefullycautious

NameUnavailable said:

What's so bad about a garage under your lounge? I would think it's preferable to another lounge or whatever as noise will be less of an issue assuming it's a garage for storage of a car and the usual misc. junk?

Potentially very cold! 

mazhen

Thank you for replies so far. Typo error planning department first said the garage needed permission then changed their mind and said it didn't. This has led to very strained relations with new neighbours. I now have to contact environmental health and get them to agree to a survey. I do not object in principal to a garage but as one reply suggest this was a heated area beneath my lounge which will now be cold plus as I previously stated all the other related health and safety issues. Do I have any rights?

davidmcn

mazhen said:

planning department first said the garage needed permission then changed their mind and said it didn't. I now have to contact environmental health and get them to agree to a survey. I do not object in principal to a garage but as one reply suggest this was a heated area beneath my lounge which will now be cold plus as I previously stated all the other related health and safety issues. Do I have any rights?

If it doesn't need planning permission then where do environmental health come into it?

I can't see that you have any "rights" beyond what might be in your titles (though I doubt there would be anything there prohibiting garage use). You don't have a right to require your neighbours to help heat your house!