Advice please. Neighbours planning permission granted, but we were not notified by council

[fruitandvegetables]

We have recently discovered that our next door neighbours have been granted permission for a large two storey extension. The permission was granted months ago and work is due to start later in the year. We did not receive any notification or plans in order to lodge an objection. The proposed extension will affect our aspect hugely and affect light coming in to two windows, completely blocking light to one. I realise right to light is not a thing as such but I believe there is some rule about windows over 20 years old not being blocked?

I'm feeling incredibly anxious about this so please be gentle. Please can anyone advise on what to do, or if anyone has been in a similar situation with a good outcome. I think I need to complain to the council about receiving no plans, I don't know if I need legal advice. Thank you.

I had some work done last year which required PP. The council put up 4 notices on lamp posts within about 50ft of my property on both sides of the road and told me to take them down when the notice period was up.

The copy of the notice is on the planning portal, so you could see if there was one issued and possibly taken down by your neighbours as soon as it went up. They are bright yellow and laminated in my county - hard to miss.

Actually we are on friendly terms, they haven't lived there long and we've had no problems. This has come completely out of the blue and the fact that they didn't mention it in months of saying hello etc leads me to believe they were hoping for this exact outcome, ie that we wouldn't find out until it was passed. Which makes me suspicious about us not seeing a notice outside either.

Agree, don't let them out scaffolding on your land and it.might not go ahead anyway

To be fair, if they felt you’d been appropriately notified, they probably wouldn’t mention it either?

And it’s not uncommon for architects etc to advise you not to talk to your neighbours about extensions etc to prevent misunderstandings…

I think, if they’ve bothered to say hello and be friendly, I’d choose to believe they meant well - if they were intentionally hiding it from you, it’s unlikely they’d have put the effort in to be friendly.

Our council no longer notifies, it's up to the person to register for alerts. Pain in the arse as my neighbour had his notice in his front window, 40m from the road!!!

I’d be tempted to put up a 6’ fence along the boundary before the work starts, that’d stop scaffolders coming onto your land.

Sorry OP but your neighbours don’t have to notify you even though it would have been polite. The council doesn’t either of that is their policy.

Our neighbours had a large extension and we spoke to planning about it as we wanted to talk about one of our own too. General response is they almost never take into consideration neighbours ‘feelings’ or complaints. Why? Because they are generally based on opinion and not on the planning rules of the council.

It feels personal but the council base their decision on the planning rules so I would suggest you have almost no recourse. They will come out and do an evaluation and if light is in their rules they will have noted that in their decision.

Unfortunately if the decision has been made it’s been made.

BUT you do not have to allow them to put up scaffolding on your property.

Look up the planning application on your council's website. There should be a list of which neighbours were notified. If you are not on there you can complain to the planning ombudsman.
Mention to your neighbour that they need to serve notice to you in writing, under the Party Wall Act of their intention to carry out the works. Give them a week and then let them know they will be hearing from your solicitor. You can google "party wall act explanatory booklet" for info.

@fruitandvegetables I have registered for alerts from a council but I don’t get them. Doesn’t seem to work. Yellow notices are on the planning web site with a date. Different councils have different policies about neighbours. Ours has put notices on completely the wrong property too. Wrong side of the road. Don’t expect accuracy!

Regarding your property - they have no right to put any scaffolding on your land. Or have access via your land. They can build from their side. I would also not accept any foundations or footings on your land either.

If your house is within 3m of the extension you need to have a party wall agreement. Do NOT accept the one they give you. You object to it and they are required to pay for your surveyor working for you. You agree no access and no building footings over the boundary. You take photos and you reinstate exactly as before if a fence is taken down. Building up to the boundary is poor practice and what about guttering and roof run off? Make 100.% sure you get your own surveyor and do not agree to overhanging guttering.

Put this in writing to them.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/consultation-and-pre-decision-matters#Public-consultation

As you will see in the above link, the Council has an obligation to either put a site notice up or notify the adjoining neighbours by letter. If a site notice has gone up, they should have evidence of this. Most councils now take photos to safeguard themselves from complaints.

The decision can only be quashed by the courts. Either by the Council and applicant agreeing to do so, or through a judicial review challenge by a third party.

The Planning Officer normally writes a delegated report justifying their decision. I’d have a look at that on the website and see if they properly assessed the impact on your property. If they have, the Council are likely to say that you weren’t significantly prejudiced by a lack of notification. The ombudsman’s may take a different view but they can’t revoke the decision, only offer compensation. Only the courts can revoke the permission

@Shadow321 The site notice doesn’t, apparently, have to be on the actual site though. This is what our council argued. Somewhere where people will see it. So on a gate to a field opposite was deemed good enough. They know it’s time consuming and the pp won’t get altered so it’s a rule that can, and is, flouted. Never seen pix on the planning portal here. The field was 100m from the actual site!

Our council doesn't send notices to neighbours - cost cutting measure brought in a few years ago. Agree with PP there should have bee a notice on a lamppost or similar close to the property.

We don’t have lampposts. Maybe that’s our problem?

There are lawyers who specialise in rights of light claims, often very successfully. I would have a Google, they may even do no win no fee work

If they need access to your land then they need your permission, although I think there are rules about party walls

Unfortunately, I don't think they'd care. Our neighbours build a huge half their garden 'gym' in the back garden (read- illegal extra bedroom) and not only did they not tell us about the application but they gave not two stuffs about the fact the estate agents were describing it as a rental opportunity when showing people around or that the people living in there were clearly moving a bed in. With the planning application specifically it just seems to have been rubber stamped yes as soon as they'd gotten it. I asked if I shouldn't have been given a chance to comment on it and they said no it wasn't necessary. I certainly had no way to get it reopened or removed by what they said. So we've had to live with it. For my own mental health I've just had to try and let it go.

Planning departments usually have a photo of the site notice on file.

Our site notice was displayed on a lamppost some distance from our house. Our neighbours didn’t receive a separate notification. 🤷‍♀️

I realise right to light is not a thing as such

It’s definitely a thing! Right to light is a legal right which is separate from planning. So your local authority can grant permission for a scheme that infringes your right to light as it isn’t their jurisdiction to consider it (although usually they do consider it a little through their own policies).

If you want to progress your right to light infringement case, contact a RICS surveyor who deals with right to light measurements to see if you have a case. It doesn’t apply to all rooms and all windows.

I'm sorry, I really feel for you. Our neighbours are arses and built an large unpermitted extension with a picture window facing directly into our kitchen and with a view into a child's bedroom. Our council doesn't do letters and the neighbour never posted a notice - the lamppost is between our two houses. We saw building work start and from that point highlighted to the council that no notice had been posted including taking regular time stamped photos. They wouldn't instruct removal of the extension as 'not economically viable' once they finally became involved.

You need to challenge at the earliest possible point to verify why this information wasn't shared with you, and could include a strictly targeted SAR to find any letter that should have gone to your home. Your cllr contact would be able to talk you through the local process to verify whether this is a requirement. If by any chance you are within three months of a decision being made on a flawed basis, you can file for judicial review and from experience, the council might finally then sit up and try to explore a negotiated solution.

They are useless though. Honestly I would take the advice above on trying to get in the way as much as possible.

The neighbours don’t post the notice. The council do. Their map reading is often off though.

This is a photo from a planning application on the planning portal. The notice is there (SNOT1 S) but no photo. They can literally put it anywhere!

Arghhhh!!! This almost happened to us, only the party wall surveyor companies had been trawling applications and sent a letter offering their services to us and we were like WTAF!!!! Found the application online for a 6m extension, and because we are on a hill and our property is lower than theirs it would have had a massive impact on our light etc. We immediately objected and won 💪🏻 The neighbour was furious…sent the builder round to try and sweet talk us 😂 but we were having NONE of it. Honestly if they had just spoken to us in the first place I’m sure we could have reached a fair compromise. People can be real assholes... Anyway I trawled other applications online to see what kind of reasons and wording was used when objections were won and used this to plan and write ours. The objection needs to be factual and related to local planning rules. We sent all our correspondence by both email and signed-for letters so we had a paper trail if needed.