Neighbour’s garage conversion will devalue our house

We are linked detached and I would be upset if my neighbour converted hers but others in the street have done so and it hasn't devalued any property. If anything because of the increased living space they've gone up in price. I wouldn't do it because in my head they are now terraced.

It is a classic oxymoron. Nothing can be linked (to something) and detached (not attached to anything) so text book definition of an oxymoron. What it's not, is a paradox.

Surely it increases the value as someone who is looking to buy yours will see the potential to improve floor space/room numbers

I think that most people who are thinking of buying a link detached house will realise that if they or their neighbour do a garage conversion then it will make their house a terraced and so this will already be built in to the price of the house.

How are people not getting the difference with it being a habitable room and no longer being classed as “link-detached”?

Well there isn't still a garage between them, so it's not "arguable".

The objection you raised isn’t a valid planning objection. I also didn’t follow your view that it reduces the value of your property. If anything it would show it can be extended in the same way which would increase its value. But regardless, the impact on the value of your property isn’t a valid planning objection.

Nope. She won't. See this explanation:

Which indicates that the houses are: house, garage, house, garage etc; rather than house, garage, garage, house... so only one garage separating the houses, therefore the OP won't have a garage between them if the neighbours convert.

Interesting! Ridiculous, imo, but interesting!

There is nowt you can do, only change the way you feel about it.
Link detached? Semi? Many may look and think "oh good, I can do a garage conversion too.

This wouldn’t bother me in the slightest as a buyer. I’d probably be glad a precedent has been set so I could do mine one day.

Plus in this day and age with the cost of living crisis, housing shortage, mass working from home, elderly relatives not being able to afford to stay living independently etc I don’t think it would be fair at all to stop this sort of development- often converted garages are essential to enable people to carry on living in houses in a degree of comfort.

How on earth would compensation to that effect work in such a scenario? Why on earth would compensation be paid?

This thread has some absolutely bonkers replies. Your neighbour is doing nothing wrong. It was always a risk when you bought the property. The only person who cares about the value of your home is you. Not your neighbour or the council. It’s tough luck.

So what is your solution other than complaining about it? It’s their house, they can do what they want as long as it’s legal.

i came on to say exactly this.

No, planning officers don’t look at deeds. That’s on the person applying to do so.

Years ago when we were looking for our home and going to viewings we went to see a link detached house and were told it was only attached garage to garage. It was really beautiful and had been fully renovated but the garages had been converted so as you say it wasn’t link detached anymore it was a semi. The owner showing us around kind of brushed it off as everyone there had had their garages converted. We went for a more rural fixer upper detached house in the end and I’m glad we did, but as prospective buyer, it was annoying being told by the agent it was link detached and when we turned up to view it actually wasn’t and it was a major reason why we rejected the house at the time. But we did really want detached and only agreed to look at the house because we were told there were no adjoining living space walls. As soon as we saw that wasn’t the case we weren’t going to be persuaded no matter how lovely the house was. So I guess it may rule out a section of buyers for you in the future but not sure about devaluation

It’s already attached 😂

Laughing at the sneering at link detached on here 😂 they are not semi detached because a garage isn't a living space - unless its converted into one. OP hopefully the conversion will have to meet same building regs as an extension, and will have the correct insulation etc.. The worst part I suspect will be the noise ftom the actual build. Go and talk to your neighbours and try and get agreement about the build process, reasonable times etc...

We thought about converting our garage into a laundry /shower room, then I realised it could potentially damage our relationship with our neighbours (joined on the other side of the garage), so we shelved the idea as we really like them!

Wouldn’t the planning permission have already been rejected if this was the case?

This.

Your house was already semi detached

I think our house must be similar to yours, it goes:

Neighbors house
Neighbors garage
Our house
Our garage

We converted ours recently with no issue as it's on the end but we've new people moving in next door soon and it's on my mind that they might want to convert theirs too (lots do this on our street). But I think as long as it's properly Insulated and sound proofed it shouldn't impact you too much - in fact if they kept it as a garage and used it for band practice or using loud tools this would be way worse!

And presumably you are still detached upstairs so your sleep won't be impacted?

Look at your deeds (or their deeds) and see what is said about the garage, as others have said it may not be allowed to change use. You can do this on line at land registry for a small fee. Consult a lawyer if you want to try and proceed with some sort of legal challenge, but probably a waste of money unless you can find some better reason to object.

Can you get other neighbours to object on principle or have they already done it (converted their garages)?

Link-detached with the garage converted won’t make your house a semi! If it goes house-garage-house-garage, it was always a terrace.

Reminds me of estate agent names for London areas: St. Reatham. Clapham Garden Surbub (Brixton). Cruschend (Crouch End). West Greenwich (Deptford). Buh-tuh-ze-ah (Battersea).

Our house was originally link detached with our garage being attached to our neighbours garage. The previous owners of our house built a two storey extension converting the garage into a room and also building behind and above but on discussion with their neighbour (still our neighbours) they split the party wall and brought it several feet inwards making both properties detached with a passage way on our side. They then rebuilt a double size garage on the other side as it is a corner plot. Our neighbours also extended above and behind at a later date although they had to leave the garage integral. So now both fully detached. Is that an option?