Neighbour’s garage conversion will devalue our house

No, I got a bit confused. You'd only know if the converted house was the one you were buying.
I wonder though - if a linked garage is now a living space, then it is no longer linked, but attached (semi, or terrace I guess). So you might have row of what was built as linked detached, but (where the garage has been converted) might now be a mix of linked and actually joined.

@PeedOffNeighbour does their garage join onto your living space or to your garage? I’d be less bothered if it joined onto my garage. I’d be really cross if it was living space!

It is and will be a semi-detached. It won’t necessarily go down in value.

Easy to assess losses - get a few estate agent valuations and ask each how much value is affected by becoming a semi & how much would be gained by making it detached , general figures

Do estate agents' particulars normally give you the specifications of a neighbouring house, though?

You can certainly look for any signs of its having been converted, or indeed knock on the neighbour's door and ask them if you desperately want to; but you still can't know about any informal usage of the garage now - or about any plans for usage (informal or officially converted) in the future, by the current residents or any future ones.

Ultimately, if it's a deal-breaker that somebody might be using an attached part of their house as 'living space', your only option is to not buy the house.

When we were looking for a house, we found a really lovely one that ticked virtually all of our boxes, except for it was next to a large plot of grass, which we were concerned could eventually be built on and seriously detract from the spacious, airy feeling and character of the house. We didn't buy it for that reason, and indeed, the plot does now have several houses crammed into it... but even if it were still a plain plot of grass, we still wouldn't know that it could never be built on in our lifetimes.

Indeed. Prospective buyers would need to read the spec carefully to check whether the garage has been converted.

...which is very commonly used as/converted into a living space nowadays, whatever name is used for the room.

The 'link' means that the houses are attached by something other than a living space, in most cases a garage.

Another thing is that people don't just value (truly) detached houses for their perceived lack of noise from next door, but also for the ability to walk/drive around the whole of the property - for maintenance and access reasons.

Even if you have two link-detached houses with two garages between them that are only ever used to store Christmas decorations, their presence will still prevent you from being able to get to that side of your property or through to your back garden that way.

But 'semi-detached' is not a value judgment; it's just a statement of fact. It means that one side of your house is not attached to anybody else's property, but the other side is - which is clearly the case here.

Even if you disregard the fact that parts of the properties are clearly attached, just because they happen to be designated as garages, those garages could be used for absolutely anything - including a grandparent or adult child using it as their own living space separate from the rest of the family - whether officially converted or not.

The one thing that they are very unlikely to be used as nowadays is as garages to store cars.

Incidentally, if garages 'don't count' when it comes to being attached, how would you describe a row of garages - whether privately or council-owned - if they aren't connected to houses? Would you genuinely describe these as 10 detached (or maybe link-detached) garages?!

We are also link detached, I would also be concerned but not for property value reasons but noise. Not sure there is anything you can do about it however.

But they are literally Semi - Detached.

One side of them is detached, one side of them is attached. Hence half (semi) detached.

If I see a house described as 'link-detached', I roll my eyes. It's a glorified semi/terrace. I am no less likely to view it than if it was truly detached. And even if it DID devalue yours, that isn't a reason to deny planning permission

they should read just be called “linked houses”… would make it easier!

Did you not look at the grounds for planning objections? You can't just make up your own reasons and expect an objection to be considered.

Locally where are a lot of semi link attached houses.

When permission is granted to extend above the garage or store they have to leave a gap removing the link. It leaves maybe an inch or two so the houses do not become attached. Have you checked their plans to see if that’s the case?

Interestingly, I've noticed in some of the older parts of our town (and others), there are quite a lot of what would originally have been detached buildings (houses or shops), but which are now terraced.

It's extremely obvious from the very different styles, shapes and higgledy-piggledy looks that later additions must have been built right up to an existing building's wall - in some cases centuries later.

I don't know whether it was just a case of people doing whatever they liked and anybody else can get stuffed, in the absence of planning laws; or maybe it was seen as a positive thing, meaning that the cold wall that you had previously had to pay to heat will now be insulated by a whole new building?!

How can you not get it though? You have neighbour bedrooms behind the walls of your bedrooms, they don't.

This is also a link detached so those that are calling them semis, you really aren't making yourselves look smart.

I agree. Sorry, I was being flippant in my earlier post.

There are link detached opposite my house a row of 7 houses all joined by their garages. Mine is a semi detached and I have the same sized house and a huge garden on three sides but the houses opposite go for more money than my semi. Just don't get it. Would I swap with one opposite to get to call my house link detached, nope, not on your nelly!

Ridiculous! How do you think you would enforce that? Who is going to decide how much imaginary value the house has lost?!

Linked detached makes no sense as a term. It should be linked attached.

Incidentally, why are they known as link-detached, when it would make a lot more sense to call them link-attached?

Is it detached? No.
Is it attached? Yes, but only by one or two parts that were originally built as (a) garage(s).
Ergo 'link-attached'.

Presumably estate-agent speak trying to make them sound grander.

Link detached will not be listed as terrace in property searches.

Oh the carpets…yes!! Same…so crazy and always brown!! Why!? It’s like brown and red were the only colours in the 70’s/80’s 🤣🤣