Hello
I don’t have any plans yet but I simply cannot decide which one to go for under permitted development.
House Victorian semi with public path ( limited opening times) on non joined side. Original L shape so plenty of room for decent side return and just over 3m from joined neighbour boundary.
The logical choice would be a side return to give greater sense of privacy from public path. However…
It would be north facing so could end up feeling oppressive and the side path which is already loooong will become even longer ( don’t want planning to extend beyond original elevation).
The building work for side extensions is more disruptive to family life than a rear extension due to the L shape. I have an autistic child who would be less affected by the latter imo.
Joined side: nightmare neighbours in leasehold flat conversions, asked for party wall agreement they had their gf extension done. they never stuck to pwa. saying that we must have moved fence footings in our favour. The only reason I let it go is because in terms of symmetry, our fence was slightly beyond than midpoint of two semis ( already had been this way for over 20 years according to photos).
Despite stealing a tiny strip of garden and getting away with it, they let us know that they are butt hurt that I made them pay for a pwa and they are likely to massively screw us over financially just to be vindictive. I like the idea of building along the back so that I see less of them.
A major flashpoint is likely to be that planning only let them extend 3m rather than the 4m they wanted because of my input at the time. As a house, I am allowed to extend 4m under permitted development and I would want to do this 😧
From the point of view of future sale, a buyer would prefer the path side closed off so the side return would make it more saleable.
Which would you go for?