Neighbour Extending – Advice Sought

TELLIT01

Bendy_House said:

That's a highly detailed presentation, right enough.

The 'before and after' shots show the shadows on your land as coming from the opposite side to your neighbour, so presumably South-Eastish? That would position your neighb's extension somewhere to your North-West, so - yes - just before the sun drops below the housie-horizon, you will have a shadow falling over part of your patio. At this point, I suspect the sun is too weak and low to crawl over even your existing fence.

Nice effort, bkp, but - personally - your post screams to me 'self-entitlement'.

Those photo's were presumably taken in the morning.  The OP does indicate the position of the sun in the evening.

TELLIT01

It would seem unlikely that the planning application will be denied simply due to reduced light to the garden in the evening.  The only practical solution I can offer is to extend the patio.

980233

Bendy_House said:

Of course it's annoying when a neighbour builds or extends and this impacts on your property/peace/light/views/churlishness. But in this specific case the huge benefit to the neighbour with this seemingly well-designed and attractive extension will only have a marginal 'impact' on the OP, I suspect a lot less than they fear.

I cannot see any reasonable or practical way they can complain or affect the PP for this - it is almost certainly a done-deal - so I think the best advice is to embrace it and allow unfettered access to the builders (within reason, of course), so that they made the best possible job of it with lovely brickwork on that 2m-wide wall. And it'll also enhance your neighbourliness credentials.

Anything else will almost certainly be counter-productive.

Expecially the OP lives in a house with an extension of their own taking away the neighbours light. 

ic

I'd agree that that the "evening sun" as indicated will be so low that you're already sat in the shade from the houses and fence anyway.  For when you do get sun earlier in the day, that will be unaffected.

Top marks for the pictures though, I like them.  If only all posts had this detail!

FreeBear

Most likely, this extension will get planning permission (perhaps with a couple of minor amendments). If you push to have the side built as a party wall with an agreement in place that you can use it at some point in the future (without charge), you are half way to having your own extension.

bpk101

Okay, a little more flack that i was expecting haha - but all good.

Just to be clear, i have absolutely no problem with anyone improving their house and as i said in my original post i don't want to stop my neighbours doing so, I just wanted some advice on whether their plans seemed reasonable and what to do in the event they were not. There's a lot of a great feedback here which i'll try and answer.

980233 said:

It's nothing out the ordinary extension wise. 100% approval incoming. 
Why are you against your neighbours bettering their property?

Again, i'm not. However the height of the pitched roof (4m) did strike me as being out of the ordinary as i thought the maximum height allowed for a rear kitchen extension was 3m? Which in turn raised more questions about whether the plans as a whole were reasonable.

Doozergirl said:

You've shown us a photo of your current extension overshadowing almost the whole back of their house...
But you're worried about them overshadowing you? 

At what time was that photo taken, on what date? 

That's a very fair point, however the shadows are affecting their first floor only which they plan to extend outwards and in line with ours meaning the shadows won't be a problem anymore. I have no issues with their plan to add a first floor extension. Incidentally, i bought my house with the first floor extension already in place... it wasn't something i added.

Photo was taken yesterday at 11.45am. Our garden is south-west facing. 

980233 said:

State of that double storey extension taking plenty of light away. 

Again, not something i added to the house myself but a fair point. 

Bendy_House said:

The 'before and after' shots show the shadows on your land as coming from the opposite side to your neighbour, so presumably South-Eastish? That would position your neighb's extension somewhere to your North-West, so - yes - just before the sun drops below the housie-horizon, you will have a shadow falling over part of your patio. At this point, I suspect the sun is too weak and low to crawl over even your existing fence.

Our garden is south-west facing and during the spring / summer we generally get sun light onto our patio right up until sunset (if not over the slatted fence then through it). Using a few of the online sun calculators available it looks like the extension will mean we lose a good 2 hours of that sunlight in the evening. 

My question relating to this loss of sun was more around the legal implications as i know there's a 45degree right to light rule, i just wondered if the size of the proposed extension infringed on this. 

Bendy_House said:

but - personally - your post screams to me 'self-entitlement'.

Again, i have no issue with the plans so long as they're fair and comply to planning (which is the advice i'm seeking here). I don't want to sit on my hands, not act and have people screaming at me later that i should have spoken up. 

Bendy_House said:

If it's any consolation, bkp, that lovely extension next door will more likely add value to your property.

That's a nice way of looking at it thanks.

Rosa_Damascena said:

The OP can always benefit from the party wall should they wish to.

What do you mean by 'benefit from the party wall'?

Bendy_House said:

embrace it and allow unfettered access to the builders (within reason, of course), so that they made the best possible job of it with lovely brickwork on that 2m-wide wall.

This actually brings me nicely onto a list of more practical questions i have regarding the build itself... i'll put these in a separate comment.

Doozergirl

There isn't a 45 degree rule on the ground floor.  

There's also no rule about maximum heights when applying for full planning permission,  but with permitted development it is 4 metres at the ridge with a dual pitched roof, 2.5m at the eaves.  

bpk101

Doozergirl said:

There's also no rule about maximum heights when applying for full planning permission,  but with permitted development it is 4 metres at the ridge with a dual pitched roof, 2.5m at the eaves.  

Is that true of a terraced house too? If so it makes me wonder why they've applied for full planning if it all falls within permitted development.

bpk101

As mentioned, i have some more practical concerns regarding the build when it does go ahead... some advice would be great:

New boundary wall

With regards to the new boundary wall that will overlook my garden, who’s responsible for choosing and paying for the material my side of the wall will be finished in (if not brick - which i don’t think it will be)?

Boundary line

The rendering of my kitchen (on the right in the photo below) was done in such a way that it’s hard to determine where the boundary line is between the two properties and whether the fence sits directly on the boundary or slightly within the boundary of my property. How do we determine exactly where the boundary line is? Do we need to involve a party wall surveyor and if so, at who’s expense?

If the fence currently sits directly on the boundary line then i assume it means a section of it will need to be removed to make way for the new boundary wall? The fencing (which i paid for and installed) is currently bolted into the rendering of my exterior kitchen wall. Who’s responsibility is it to re-finish my rendering once the bolts come out?

Damage

How do i protect myself against damage to my property caused by the build?

For example there’s a strong possibility that my kitchen rendering could be damaged or cracked as they build their wall out (and potentially remove fencing as mentioned above). Who’s responsibility is it to cover repairs and how can i ensure a like-for-like finish (the rendering i had done is a special silicone render)?

There’s potential for damage elsewhere during the build too, for example we have large glass roof-light above the stairwell to our loft that might get damaged during the build of their own loft.

Should there be a contract in place between myself and my neighbour regarding damage? Or between myself and their builders? How does it work?

Working hours

What are the rules regarding hours of the day / days of the week builders can work on site at a residential property? Myself and my OH work from home and have very young children. Mon–Fri 9am–5pm feels acceptable but definitely not weekends.

Thanks.

Section62

bpk101 said:

Is that true of a terraced house too? If so it makes me wonder why they've applied for full planning if it all falls within permitted development.

Part of the extension will be three storeys, so wouldn't be permitted development in any circumstances.

However, there are also other reasons (in different cases) why a ground floor extension would need full planning consent.  (E.g. if the property was subject to an Article 4 direction or was listed.)  The permitted development rules are more complicated than simply the height.

Having a ridged roof running parallel to your boundary means the additional roof height of 4m is unlikely to make any difference to the amount of sun you'll get because the (vertical) inclination of the sun (at times when it matters) will be greater than the roof slope angle.

Therefore it is the lower (eaves) height which is the critical factor to the amount of shading you'll get.