New Build & Sunlight Impact

justinjustice

The council has approved a number of new builds 2 story (7 meters high) which will be built/situated 15 meteres from the rear of our property (5meters away from our rear fence).

The developer company has had a Daylight and Sunlight report conducted earlier this year (pre Covid) which shows a number of our windows that will be impacted by a reduced amount of daylight/sunlight ranging from

43% max impact down to 7% (no doubt there will be significant impact during winter due to the lower position of the sun).

As the plans have already been approved from the council and preparation's for the development under way, does anyone who has gone through similar know if we have any options for compensation?

I only ask as a couple of streets away there is a massive high rise going up and those nearby and impacted by sunlight are being compensated.

DevilDamo

So the LPA were satisfied that in your case, the proposals complied with Planning policies and the daylight assessment carried out was acceptable hence why approval was granted? Is there anything in the Officers’ Report that makes reference to this reduced or loss of daylight impact?

In terms of the compensation aspect, it isn’t something I’ve heard about before. It may be advisable to get in contact with a surveyor who deals with that specifically. 

Doozergirl

A chat with a specialist solicitor in Right to Light issues is in order. 

Compensation may well be due if your windows have acquired the easement of a Right to Light over a period of 20 years or more.    You have the paperwork from the surveyors that they can assess.  You should check your deeds to see if any right to light has been removed for any reason.  

15 metres is painfully close and 43% is a good deal of light.  

There are quite a lot of legal blogs out there about it.  https://www.tughans.com/news-insights/love-thy-neighbour-face-consequences-right-light/

ComicGeek

It's split into 2 separate issues to complicate things:

Planning looks at impact on sunlight and daylight, and there are recommended maximum impact levels for new development - normally exceeding these would be grounds for refusal unless you're in an urban location and you currently have a higher level of daylight/sunlight that would be expected, for example.

Rights to light is not a planning issue, but does provide compensation where your rights to light is impacted by the new development. This is very specialised, so you would need to speak to a rights to light surveyor to review this - it's something that you need to instigate, the developer won't do this automatically.