Incorrect measurement of my land on neighbours planning application

pebblebeach8

Hoping someone can help me with understanding these plans.  My elderly neighbour's son is in the process of obtaining planning permission to build 2 x semi detached houses on an existing bungalow plot (according to the plans the plot is 18000 wide - assuming mm).  

I knew this would always be a possibility so I will have to put up with loss of light and a bigger building next door.  The issue I have is that on the plans they show a red boundary line with some measurements on and if I am reading this correctly then this is the distance between my bungalow and the existing boundary line/fence.  I don't know much about planning laws, and it can take 2 days for the planning officer to ring me back.

On the plans it looks like I have 798 between the back of the property and the red line and 1307 at the front of the property.  The front measurement is correct, but I measured the distance between my side wall and current fence and it is 1000.  The figure they quoted (798) would go right through my back gate.

Also is anyone able to tell me who made these measurements, as no-one knocked on my door and asked to measure?

Thank you in advance.

Section62

pebblebeach8 said:

Hoping someone can help me with understanding these plans.  My elderly neighbour's son is in the process of obtaining planning permission to build 2 x semi detached houses on an existing bungalow plot (according to the plans the plot is 18000 wide - assuming mm).  

I knew this would always be a possibility so I will have to put up with loss of light and a bigger building next door.  The issue I have is that on the plans they show a red boundary line with some measurements on and if I am reading this correctly then this is the distance between my bungalow and the existing boundary line/fence.  I don't know much about planning laws, and it can take 2 days for the planning officer to ring me back.

On the plans it looks like I have 798 between the back of the property and the red line and 1307 at the front of the property.  The front measurement is correct, but I measured the distance between my side wall and current fence and it is 1000.  The figure they quoted (798) would go right through my back gate.

Also is anyone able to tell me who made these measurements, as no-one knocked on my door and asked to measure?

Thank you in advance.

There are several ways of measuring distances without entering land - for example one of these could be held on the fence line to measure the distance from the fence to your house wall.

https://www.toolstation.com/dewalt-dw055pl-xj-laser-distance-measurer/p69360

Equally, modern total stations (theodolites) can do what is known as 'reflectorless measurement' which means they can measure distances and positions in adjacent land without the need to access that land.

WIAWSNB

I'm going to guess that their red boundary lines represent their best judgement/belief of where the true boundaries lie, and not necessarily where the current fences are located. Fences can be a crude indicator.

What do you know about your current fence? How long has it been there for? How much of this can you evidence? 

pebblebeach8

WIAWSNB said:

I'm going to guess that their red boundary lines represent their best judgement/belief of where the true boundaries lie, and not necessarily where the current fences are located. Fences can be a crude indicator.

What do you know about your current fence? How long has it been there for? How much of this can you evidence? 

It has been like this since I moved in 23 years ago (2002), it is my neighbours fence and it has been replaced several times, but always in the same place.  Also I put my back gate in when I moved in and the measurement on the plan would indicate I wouldn't have been able to do this (current plan measurement means it is 2/3 way through my gate).  Also I measured the gap and it is 1000mm (my side wall to current fence).  Found my plans (dated 1971, when my bungalow was built) and it looks like  there should be 3ft gap between my wall the neighbours boundary.   

Section62

WIAWSNB said:

I'm going to guess that their red boundary lines represent their best judgement/belief of where the true boundaries lie, and not necessarily where the current fences are located. Fences can be a crude indicator.

What do you know about your current fence? How long has it been there for? How much of this can you evidence? 

It looks like an OS basemap onto which the proposed building outline has been overlaid.  So the boundaries can't be relied on to be more accurate than about 1 metre.

grumpy_codger

Assuming that the bondary is a straight line and  1307 figure is right, draw a straight line from this point to the back corner of the garden - you can use a long thin rope for this. This will give you the bondary position where your gate is. Any inaccuracy at the back of the garden will result in a much smaller error near the house.

WIAWSNB

pebblebeach8 said:

WIAWSNB said:

I'm going to guess that their red boundary lines represent their best judgement/belief of where the true boundaries lie, and not necessarily where the current fences are located. Fences can be a crude indicator.

What do you know about your current fence? How long has it been there for? How much of this can you evidence? 

It has been like this since I moved in 23 years ago (2002), it is my neighbours fence and it has been replaced several times, but always in the same place.  Also I put my back gate in when I moved in and the measurement on the plan would indicate I wouldn't have been able to do this (current plan measurement means it is 2/3 way through my gate).  Also I measured the gap and it is 1000mm (my side wall to current fence).  Found my plans (dated 1971, when my bungalow was built) and it looks like  there should be 3ft gap between my wall the neighbours boundary.   

That's all helpful stuff.
You are waiting for a response from Planning?

WIAWSNB

I guess there's no actual suggestion that they expect or intend to encroach on your fence, but it could mean that they'll build closer to it?

GardenBirdWatcher

Looking at the plan, to me it looks like the measurements aren't actually at the corners of your building, unless they have a very strange way of showing where the measurement represents on the plan.

The 1307 figure appears to be a measurement from the boundary to a point that is an intersection of a line drawn across from the bottom most extent of your building (your porch on the left handside) and a continuation of the line of your righthand wall. Similarly, the 798 seems to be the intersection of a continuence upwards of the wall with some random position a similar distance up from the corner of your building

Section62

GardenBirdWatcher said:

Looking at the plan, to me it looks like the measurements aren't actually at the corners of your building, unless they have a very strange way of showing where the measurement represents on the plan.

The 1307 figure appears to be a measurement from the boundary to a point that is an intersection of a line drawn across from the bottom most extent of your building (your porch on the left handside) and a continuation of the line of your righthand wall. Similarly, the 798 seems to be the intersection of a continuence upwards of the wall with some random position a similar distance up from the corner of your building

What they've drawn is fairly standard practice dimensions for an engineering drawing - it isn't clear because they haven't adopted a uniform approach with the gaps, but there are meant to be 'extension lines' from the corners of the buildings to intersect with the 'dimension line' - the intersection being highlighted with the thicker diagonal line.

I think it is probably just coincidence the 1307 measurement 'dimension line' is in line with the front of the porch.  The 1307 figure should be placed below the 'dimension line' to make it less cluttered, but someone used to reading engineering drawings would understand what the figure was for.

pebblebeach8

Thanks for answers so far, not sure if it makes any difference, but my "front door" is actually down the side alley, about halfway down.