Neighbour's Planning application, help!

Bendy_House

liuaq said:

Another thing that our neighbours did was to enclose a passageway between their garage and their bungalow so that a small part of their roof now drains into the shared flat roof.
In other words, they have attached our garage to their property.
They say that they have no plans for converting this garage into anything else, but have already turned part of it into an informal utility area with boiler, sink, washer and gaspipe out to a gas barbeque I their patio.
Apparently it is much easier to get approval for change of use of an attached garage than an unattached garage.
Given the past history and their desire to push everything right up to and over the letter of the law piece by piece, what's coming next?

I don't know if the use they're now making of the garage makes it a 'habitable' space, or it just remains a 'garage with a sink'.

It's your call whether to ask Planning about this. Unless folk on here can advise - S62?

And also your call whether to report it. Perhaps it'd be useful for them to have their copybook blotted at the Planning Dept.

But, your call.

liuaq

Cheers, Bendy House: I really don't want to turn them in but equally, I don't want them to mess us about with a "death of a thousand cuts" which I fear they are trying to do.
We've managed to download photos and the floor plan off the estate agent's website from when they bought the property.
I may ask the Planning Officer for advice on the effect of the enclosure of the passageway regarding future development and our right to enjoyment of our property and they can draw their own conclusions from the rest of the plans.

Jaguar_Skills

One other thing to bear in mind is if they do obtain planning permission this does not override any rights of light that you are likely to be entitled to

MalMonroe

liuaq said:

Cheers, Bendy House: I really don't want to turn them in but equally, I don't want them to mess us about with a "death of a thousand cuts" which I fear they are trying to do.
We've managed to download photos and the floor plan off the estate agent's website from when they bought the property.
I may ask the Planning Officer for advice on the effect of the enclosure of the passageway regarding future development and our right to enjoyment of our property and they can draw their own conclusions from the rest of the plans.

Hi, I think you should just write back to the Planning Office, voicing your objections. 

You have every right to do so.

Just as your neighbours have every right to submit any plans they wish to the Planning Office. Doesn't mean they will be approved.

The Planning Office has an obligation to ensure that they are fair to each party. 

If your objections are valid and sensible, it's likely that your neighbours will be denied permission.

You should also be aware that you will not be the only neighbours who have been contacted. When my next-door-neighbours (we left that area though) submitted plans for an extension to their property, we did not object and we wrote to the Planning Department to let them know. (In hindsight we would have objected very strongly as those neighbours just took over the street with all their extensions!)

However, although we were the most affected people since we lived next door, the planning department wrote to all the neighbours in that area, about twenty five of us in all.

You will not be alone in having to submit your objection.

Recently some developers submitted their third application to our council's Planning Dept to build 66 dwellings in our very small, compact and friendly village. They are determined to build on some land here. We in the village don't want them to. And we keep submitting our objections. They are online. I don't care who sees them or who is upset. We don't want our village ruined. One hundred and twenty objections were submitted each time - and our flat isn't cheek by jowl with the area that will be destroyed but we live in the village and we don't want it to be ruined by greedy developers and the council contacted us for our opinion.

Today we learned that their application has yet again been denied. You just have to keep objecting. People can keep applying but if you are vigilant, they won't be given permission.

You can get all the info you need about the application from your council's planning department website. But do keep on objecting because it does work. We in our village are ready for the fourth application! It must be costing those developers a pretty penny to keep submitting, as they are hiring surveyors and solicitors and all kinds of specialists. But we are determined that they will not ruin our village.

liuaq

Unfortunately, we are the only neighbours who will be affected by their plans.
There are planned extensions to the other side which the Planner is willing to approve and I suspect that the neighbour has no objection because they are shielded by a wall of conifers.
This is the neighbour that they had an eight foot high fence constructed against but they have subsequently been on a "charm offensive", allowing them to use their drive to park visitors cars when they had a party.I
As someone said earlier," beware Greeks bearing gifts! ".

Bendy_House

'Entitled' 'devious' 'manipulative'. There's a surprising number of folk like that about.

Woolsery

Bendy_House said:

'Entitled' 'devious' 'manipulative'. There's a surprising number of folk like that about.

It's endemic, but people learn by example and it's obvious where from.

liuaq

A quick update:
The Planning Officer has come back to us saying that they are not going to amend their plans and will appeal and we've asked him what the deadline for objecting is so it's game on!
We obtained our deeds/conveyancing from our solicitor today and the Restrictive Covenants include the need to seek permission from the vendor ( original developer?) before erecting buildings such as porches and garages.It's probably meaningless now, who knows? They only have access to our property for repairs, maintenance and linking services.
I've also played nice up to now about their blankety-blank decorative garden lights which light my bedroom windows up green like it's always Halloween: time to read up on light pollution.