If you have a big extension to your home, AIBU to think you should consider the impact on your neighbours?

That would have been a planning consideration though, surely?

Yes. Clearly a comment made by someone who has never had the stress of building work!

My neighbours haven’t even moved it. Definitely no disturbance for them.

God knows when they will as everything keeps getting pushed back as they seem to know as much about planning and building as a toddler does about being doctor.

They moved out, I class that as a disruption to their lives

As if moving out and having to live somewhere else for 6 months while having to go back and forth isn’t an inconvenience

Have you looked at the plans and lodged an objection? Will the works potentially damage your property and foundations

when your own house was built, it likely inpacted someone's view!

Did you not get notice of planning permission? We did when our neighbours put in for an extension. There's was only one story but they had wanted to put a window on the side which would have overlooked our garden. We object to this and they decided not to add the window so the planning could go through. DH couldn't initially see my concern as he said we could just insist it was frosted glass, I pointed out that would stop a new owner changing it and he finally unstood my object. Note the window would have been above our 6ft fence line and looked straight into our garden.

They where lucky that was all we objected to, when DH spoke to them when they were having the work done, they said they really wanted it to be 2 stories but couldn't afford it. I said I really would have objected then as it would have blocked out a large amount of light from our garden due to the way the houses were originally built. And it was a total pain while they where having the work done, their builders where useless and made an awful lot of noise, playing radio so load I could here it clearly in the house even with windows shut. I wasn't to impressed, I don't think they where either as it took a lot longer then it should have.

Views are not protected.
I remember when I had an extension done my builders parked in the lane behind as there was direct access to our garden. They were not blocking anyone. A bloke who lived on the road told him off and said ‘we don’t want your type around here’. The builder was so taken aback he told me.
So you remind me of this man. Don’t like the (temporary) noise and disturbance, but if you ever need work done you’d change your tune.
I used to renovate house, bought at auction etc. They were generally unmodernised and I did the dirty work to bring them up to good standard for first time buyers. I would always go to the neighbours with a bunch of flowers and apologise in advance for any noise or disturbance and tell them to talk to me if there were any issues. But I was certainly still going to do the work.

Losing a view is hard, sympathy on that Putting up with a temporary situation during building is just life. My neighbours had a big build, I accepted that this was just something to put up with. I facilitated it by allowing builders to enter my garden as needed. I have excellent relationships with my neigbours, that is worth a lot.

She's not being unfair at all. These people are selfish and have no consideration for others and their future quality of life.... only theirs.
The same can be said for the councils that allow these horrors.
What new builds have to do with this, I don't know.

The new proposed extension next door meant that what little light we got through our (side alley) kitchen window was vastly reduced. The view of the council was that, since we got very little light anyway, the loss of this light was not relevant. If we had more light coming in, we'd have had a greater reduction and would have been able to block the extension. Completely illogical but that is what happened.

You do. It has to be reasonable though. But they can’t put your whole garden in shade and leave you with an eyesore. The council will ultimately judge it on how reasonable the objections are. I appreciate you may not want the disruption or like to aesthetics but this is why we have laws. We all live in close proximity to one another and we can’t have one person lord it over another. You buy property you should be able to do as you please. It’s not as simplistic as move and buy what you want. Some people just don’t have the means to do that.

I disagree, it has happened to us.

That's not true @angela1952 you absolutely do have a right to natural daylight and any prospective development can be declined if it is proven that the elevation deprives your neighbour of natural daylight.

What you don't have a right to is an unrestricted or protected view. I've seen a housing estate go up in my area, where a property over the road previously had an unrestricted far reaching view of the Severn Estuary. Now all they can see is houses. I am sure they will have contested that development, but will have been told they don't have a right to a view and that their natural daylight is in no way impacted by the development,

Permitted developments tend to be minor constructions such as a conservatory (within permitted dimensions), greenhouses and outbuildings eg a log store. Anything like an extension is unlikely to fall under the constraints of permitted development and in any case, LAs recommend the property owner submits for a review of their proposal, so the Planning Department can advise whether there are risks that will require their neighbours to be consulted, taking it into full planning permission.

Sadly you usually have no right to light and blocking plans is not always possible especially when the new work is "permitted development".

That's right, the only way to guarantee your view is to buy somewhere where your view cannot be blocked. It's a fact of life. Even if you own all the land around you it can be compulsarily purchased.
Sometimes people buy flats with nice views and then they lose them when another block is built - your solicitor has to ensure that there are no planned buildings between you and the view, particularly on new developments.

You can’t just do that anyway. A little thing called planning permission where the neighbours are warned about plans and if they have a good enough reason like it blocks out the sun and changes view they can contest it. Very likely successfully and the neighbour has to change their plans

How on earth does anyone know stress brought on a stroke! Such drama!

People can and will extend their properties, fact of life! Manage your stress better but accepting such things in life!

I would far rather work next door as temporary disruption then a house going to rack and ruin next door that drags the look of the area down and could have repercussions. Friends of friends were semi detached with an uncared for house that caught fire then was left - they got overrun with rats. Why is that crazy?

This has to be one of the craziest posts on this thread.

There is a huge difference between a small extension within permitted limits - say a loft conversion, garage conversion or conservatory and the type of extension described by @angelos02 which is so enormous that the house owners move out to escape the destruction but the poor next door neighbours have at least six months of disruption in the form of mess, noise, vehicles and workmen and are unable to do anything about it. It is a nightmare and @angelos02 will not be able to even enjoy her own garden while the work is underway. To add insult to injury, her enjoyment of her own home is going to be reduced as she will not be able to enjoy the view and, very likely will have less light. You have my sympathies.

Try and look on the bright side people are investing in your area and improving it. The type of people doing this are “get up and go” types. I would rather live amongst people like that than a neighbourhood in decline with properties decaying away and HMOs with as no one spending money on them…

Totally agree - we have a huge building project going on next door to us. New people moved in and didn't tell us their plans to practically re-build their house. First we knew about it was when we got a letter from the council. A huge extension at the back, converting the loft, the garage, new roof chimney breats out and much more. They moved out to live with her parents so they didn't suffer at all. It has even nearly a year now. They also immediately cut down beautiful mature trees and shrubs so now it's just a muddy wasteland. That upset me most of all- we had such a sense of loss of the beautiful view we had. Now also to the left of our patio we have an extremely tall brick wall. They also demolished hold the fence on our side.
You're definitely not being unreasonable. I really feel for you.

Have you seen and appealed the planning permission?