Neighbour's planning application for new build requires underpinning of my wall!

BunnyBurrow

I live in an end of terrace victorian property. A couple bought a small plot of land 3.2m wide immediately next to my property 5 years ago (as previous owner of the land died) and have just submitted a planning application to build a tiny 3 story house on it. Aside from several other issues, their plans state that they want to dig 1.2m down in order to create a lower level. They say this will require underpinning the full length of my wall.

Obviously I am totally against this as aside from being wholly unnecessary from my perspective (purely to fuel their investment opportunity), I expect unnecessary underpinning is a bad idea as if it were to fail in future I would be pretty screwed.

Does anyone have any help / advice / pointers on the following please?

My deeds aren't the clearest, but is it safe to assume that I fully own the end wall given that it is fully part of my house and that they will not be able to underpin it without my permission?

Would underpinning, even for new build purposes (that are nothing to do with me), affect my insurance and value of my property?

Does anyone know whether it would be advisable to get a party wall surveyor to assess it properly for any associated risks? I think they cost between £100-500 so would rather not spend the money unless it would actually support my case.

I will be submitting a strong objection (along with 4 others on my street), so would be good if I can get some facts around this as it feels like a very odd situation.

Any help in this area would be very much appreciated!
Thanks in advance
BunnyBurrow

Flugelhorn

I haven't a clue but am fascinated to hear the answer! presumably if there is no other house attached and the wall is on your land then you own the wall? would the underpinning be taking place on your land?

I would be pretty unhappy if it was my house as bound to cause disruption

BunnyBurrow

Yes, the underpinning would be directly under my wall on my land. It beyond cheeky of them.

I feel maybe I am asking a really obvious question and the answer should be - yes - of course I fully own my wall.

But the fact that they have even put this in their planning application is making me question myself.

Flugelhorn

BunnyBurrow said:

Yes, the underpinning would be directly under my wall on my land. It beyond cheeky of them.

quite... guess they might say that they will be very close to your better to underpin rather than risk the whole thing collapsing.

have they discussed this directly with you? 

Ayr_Rage

If you agree and they go ahead you must inform your own insurers.

user1977

Bear in mind planning permission is merely that, they would still need any other necessary permissions to do the work (e.g. if it requires a party wall agreement and/or to come onto your land). And your planning objections would need to be on planning grounds.

BunnyBurrow

Flugelhorn said:

BunnyBurrow said:

Yes, the underpinning would be directly under my wall on my land. It beyond cheeky of them.

quite... guess they might say that they will be very close to your better to underpin rather than risk the whole thing collapsing.

have they discussed this directly with you? 

No, they have no discussed this directly with me at all. They have made no contact.

silvercar

As far as planning is concerned, they are only asking for permission to do something. Planning is not concerned with who owns what and its impact on other properties, it is only concerned with planning regulations. So whereas you could complain it is out of keeping with the area or over development or insufficient parking for another house etc, planning aren't concerned with building structure. As far as planning are concerned they could apply for a swimming pool in their basement.

When it comes to what they want to do, they have to comply with building regulations and party wall legislation. They are going to need a party wall agreement at their cost, which include them paying for a party wall assessor to act for you.

Section62

BunnyBurrow said:

I live in an end of terrace victorian property. A couple bought a small plot of land 3.2m wide immediately next to my property 5 years ago (as previous owner of the land died) and have just submitted a planning application to build a tiny 3 story house on it. Aside from several other issues, their plans state that they want to dig 1.2m down in order to create a lower level. They say this will require underpinning the full length of my wall.

Do they want to attach their new building to your property, or will there still be a gap between them?

What people say on planning applications isn't always what they intend to do - and as user1977 points out, planning consent isn't consent to start work on someone else's land without their permission.

In your situation my bigger concern (especially if they aren't attaching to your building) would be that when they start work they forget about the underpinning and just dig a big hole instead.  Assuming this plot of land will eventually get developed (even if this application is refused) you are likely to need advice from a party wall surveyor.  It might be worth finding and contacting a local one and ask their advice on what steps you should take to protect yourself now.

BunnyBurrow

silvercar said:

As far as planning is concerned, they are only asking for permission to do something. Planning is not concerned with who owns what and its impact on other properties, it is only concerned with planning regulations. So whereas you could complain it is out of keeping with the area or over development or insufficient parking for another house etc, planning aren't concerned with building structure. As far as planning are concerned they could apply for a swimming pool in their basement.

When it comes to what they want to do, they have to comply with building regulations and party wall legislation. They are going to need a party wall agreement at their cost, which include them paying for a party wall assessor to act for you.

Thank you, this is good to know. It will be out of keeping with the area as it will look nothing like the rest of the uniform looking victorian houses along the terrace.

They have also included lots of supposed examples of extensions etc that they claim set a precedent for what they want to do. But none of their examples are relevant as they are all extensions of people's existing houses and not complete new builds in such a tiny space.

What I will say is their whole application / design / build is completely dependent on underpinning our wall as they need to be able to do that in order to excavate. And they need to be able to excavate to turn it into a 3 storey house so that they can obtain the minimum internal area which they would not be able to achieve if it were 2 storey (58m) given it is only 3.2m wide. So it feels like planning regulations (minimum area) is intertwined with building structure so I believe this point is definitely relevant to the application. I don't see how it can't be, but I take your point. It's a complicated one I think.

Thank you.

BunnyBurrow

Section62 said:

BunnyBurrow said:

I live in an end of terrace victorian property. A couple bought a small plot of land 3.2m wide immediately next to my property 5 years ago (as previous owner of the land died) and have just submitted a planning application to build a tiny 3 story house on it. Aside from several other issues, their plans state that they want to dig 1.2m down in order to create a lower level. They say this will require underpinning the full length of my wall.

Do they want to attach their new building to your property, or will there still be a gap between them?

What people say on planning applications isn't always what they intend to do - and as user1977 points out, planning consent isn't consent to start work on someone else's land without their permission.

In your situation my bigger concern (especially if they aren't attaching to your building) would be that when they start work they forget about the underpinning and just dig a big hole instead.  Assuming this plot of land will eventually get developed (even if this application is refused) you are likely to need advice from a party wall surveyor.  It might be worth finding and contacting a local one and ask their advice on what steps you should take to protect yourself now.

Thanks for this.

It is not clear at all from their plans whether they intend to use our wall or leave a gap. My assumption is that they want to use our wall given that they are saying they want to underpin it. Also to maximise space given the plot is only 3.2m wide they need to make use of every spare inch.

Thank you, I will look into a party wall surveyor.