to extend my house

[jesterjangles]

I have lived in my current house for 6 years. I love the neighbourhood and we got on with our neighbours.

We have recently decided to ttc4 and we either need to extend our current house or move. We got an architect down who told us that as our house had a low roof?!?, we can't do a loft conversion and the only thing we could do is go over our drive (car port with a bedroom over). We are semi detached as are our neighbours but between us there is our drive and their drive. As far as we are aware, it will cut out little light and won't overlook them at all.

We told them our plans and they said they wouldn't be happy about it. We looked into lots of other things and looked around a few houses but found no other way to do it. We went ahead with the planning permission and when they got their letter, they both came around and started shouting at us. Apparently we are going to make it seem like we live in terraced houses, even though they will still have a full drive in between the new extension and their house. I said that we had looked at other options but this is the only one we could do and they said that we could move.

AIBU to think that if our planning gets passed then I should be able to do what I want on my own property.

cerealqueen It is really going to be a case of having to handle it. We have looked into all the other options and are actually still viewing houses while we are waiting for planning to decide.

scholes24 I am not sure about the reasons why the loft wouldn't work but we have had a few people down and they have all said the same thing. Plus if we go into the loft, the bathroom would be shortened and we would gain 1 room upstairs. If we do the extension, the bathroom can stay the same and we would gain 2 new rooms. All this for the same price.

I wish we could do this without the bad feeling but we can't move as there is nothing about and everything else we either can't do or just seems a silly idea for the amount of money it will be.

Well, you've probably just got to grin and bear it. We did our loft because it was far to expensive to move to a larger house. Felt awkward in many ways with the neighbours, but just had to get on with it. Look at the neighbourhood as a whole. Will the majority of your neighbours be supportive of what you're doing? Are a lot of other neighbours extending for the same reasons?

I know you are right. I just hate bad feeling.

Our other neighbours (attached to us) said that it was fine for us to put the plans in and didn't seem as if they would object but when we were getting shouted at, they said that the other neighbours didn't want us to get it either.

Isitreally is quite right. Scaffolding will be an issue if you want to build out as far as you can.

They can contest your planning application but let the council deal with that, don't get involved.

I do see it from their point of view and thats why we tried (and are still trying) all other channels first although if it was them that was doing it, I really wouldn't have a problem with them doing it and coming onto my property as long as if there was damage it would be fixed. I suppose I am quite laid back about stuff like that. We would actually get our drive done (block paved or something like that) at the same time as doing the extension and have said that we would pay for theirs to be done also if they would let us access their drive. We thought this would be a nice gesture but they shoved it back in our faces. That is up to them but as I said, we have been as considerate as we can be.

We have spoken to a couple of builders who have dealt with this kind of thing before and apparently there is a way around it although it will cost slightly more and take longer.

I'm not sure about our other neighbours. I get on with her quite well and although we don't pop into each others houses, we do chat when we see each other and my DS and her granddaughter play with each other as they go to the same school. I'm sure if she had a problem she would have said so I'm assuming they are ok with it. Might be wrong though and she just didn't have the heart to tell us.

Agree with Isitreally. If I said you could not have access to my drive, I would assume it could not be damaged. It would pee me off even if it was fixed at a later point (determined by you). The extension is your only option but not theirs.

I do get that the extension is only going to benefit me and if we were going to put scaffolding up, ruin their drive for definite then I can see the problem at this stage but we have had advice and can do the extension without going on their property at all. One of our builders actually had the same thing with his own house about 20 years ago and managed to do it without ruining any of his neighbours property. The fixing of the drive if we damage it is really a just in case but I suppose that would also be the case if I went too fast onto my drive, lost control and smacked into the side of their house.

It is completely up to them of course if they don't want us on their property and we have taken measures to make sure this wouldn't happen and if they don't want us to go on their drive and then us have theirs redone later then that is fine too. I was just making the point that we have looked into other ways to extend, at moving house altogether, going on their drive so that things are easier, it gets built quicker and they get a new drive out of it and also at us doing it all from our property and it taking longer by not stepping foot on their drive at obviously more cost and length of time it takes to get built. I don't really see what else I can do.

We have been polite, kept them informed of our plans. It might not even get passed anyway.