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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Aibu-To not feel bad at having grassed next door up?

82 replies

Lifeisacircus · 24/07/2017 17:14

Sorry pre-warning slightly long post.

Next door are a nice couple who have never caused us any problems until now.

We live in an end terrace house and they live in a detached house to the side of us. About a year ago they built a monster shed, which pretty much looks like a small bungalow in their back yard which which faces the "free" side of our house. It has electric,slate tiles and conservatory like windows and doors.I believe they use it as office space but apart from it looking a bit ugly, this wasnt an issue and life went on as normal. That was until about three weeks ago when i came home from work and noticed that they decided to place an extension to this "Shed".

This extension extends from one side of their "shed" and is attached to the free side of our house. So basically i now live in a mid terrace house!

I went round and spoke to them about this and they basically said it wasn't attached to the side of the house and there was nothing to be concerned about.I contested this and said that it was as clearly attached as they had attached wooden plinths to the side of our house to support the structure. They had also attached the grey gravel type roof covering to the roof of the extension and our house leaving a 6 inch uneven and ugly boarder going up the side of our house,so clearly attached.

Anyway I decided to contact our local planning office to see if we had missed any planning application for this. In order for them to look this up they needed next doors address which i supplied and i was told there was no planning applications for this property.

I left it there with them and said i would speak to next door to sort things out and there was no need to get involved from their end.

My DH actually did the sorting out which basically meant he went round and had a nice chat and he agreed that nothing needed to be done. Annoying Af but I left it as the day of their chat we had an offer on our house and the buyer didn't seem to have an issue with it, so why should i bother kicking a fuss up if we werent going to live there for much longer and the new owner wasn't botherd. Had this not happened i would have pursued this further as i deal with house sales and boundary disputes prevent sales all the time.

Anyway next door came round today slightly annoyed as apparently planning have been round and have instructed them to remove not only the extension but also the monster shed! Woohoo! Or so i thought, now DH is annoyed at me for grassing them up!

Really though? They constructed a monster shed without permission and then attached it to the side of our house without permission.

AIBU to not feel any remorse for accidentally grassing them up? I feel sad that they have wasted a lot of money on both projects but at the end of the day get planning and show some respect for others surely?

OP posts:
TheRugbyValkyrie · 24/07/2017 19:07

HollyHollyHo - you might find this link useful:
www.sheds.co.uk/planning-permission/

MyCatIsAPsychopath · 24/07/2017 19:08

Good for you OP!

Mummyoflittledragon · 24/07/2017 19:12

Good on you. People really take the piss sometimes.

TheRollingCrone · 24/07/2017 19:17

I love your "Quentin Blake" diagram. Cheeky fuckers eh?

elevenclips · 24/07/2017 19:17

Fucking pisstakers, attaching stuff to your house Shock. What arrogant twats.

ExplodedCloud · 24/07/2017 19:42

Fgs. It's nothing to do with the OP. There is no dispute. The planning office have dealt with a planning infringement. The NDN may be in dispute with the planning office but not the OP.

BreakfastAtSquiffanys · 24/07/2017 19:52

The OP is not in dispute with the neighbours.
The Neighbours are in dispute with Council planning.

The buyers solicitor or their surveyor would have flagged this at some point.
The OP has pre-empted any problem

Jaxhog · 24/07/2017 20:27

They were taking the p* and got found out. THEY were in the wrong, not you.

Good for your planning department for being quick off the mark.They aren't always this swift or decisive.

Efferlunt · 24/07/2017 20:28

This isn't a dispute surely. It was an enquiry to the planning office which the op didn't take further can't see this needing to be declared

SabineUndine · 24/07/2017 20:35

I think you've done exactly the right thing, OP. I wouldn't call this a dispute either. Too many people flout the planning laws when it suits them. They are there for a reason.

winobaglady · 24/07/2017 22:47

How do you know it was on your 'tip off'?
No dispute if you've not raised it as one.

emmyrose2000 · 25/07/2017 04:51

Don't feel any remorse.

I'm confused though as to how this happened. Was the entire extension prefabricated somewhere else and just attached to your property one day while you were at work? Or did you not notice building work going on on the side of your house in the days prior?

TimeFliesWhenYoureHavingGin · 25/07/2017 06:58

Isn't it possible they could still apply for retrospective planning permission on the first shed?

I can't believe the cheek of them though!

rachrach2 · 25/07/2017 07:38

The previous owner of my house sounds like an idiot - one argument he had with a neighbour ended up with him getting arrested on Christmas Eve, that sounds like a dispute to me and he didn't declare it! Our neighbours are lovely, so I don't mind, but I don't know how this can be checked anyway. OP - you've done nothing wrong.

StereophonicallyChallenged · 25/07/2017 07:57

I think it was MrsDV that had the monstrosity in her garden. I've wondered before what happened about that in the end

Op, if what they'd constructed was reasonable and ok, they probably would have been asked to submit retrospective planning permission. As they've been told to get rid, means it probably wasn't Ok iykwim!

missyB1 · 25/07/2017 08:07

The buyers surveyor and solicitor would have soon picked up on this issue anyway. There's no way the sale would have gone through without the council being informed.

Ceto · 25/07/2017 08:14

What on earth was your husband thinking of? Didn't he realise this would reduce the value of your property? Why should you have to lose money for the neighbours' sake?

MaisyPops · 25/07/2017 08:20

This isn't a neighbour dispute so doesn't need declaring.

It's a planning issue between the neighbour and the planning department.

Serves them right for pushing their luck. Chances like that never know when to stop.

BenLui · 25/07/2017 08:25

I wouldn't be feeling in the least bad, planning laws are there for a good reason.

prh47bridge · 25/07/2017 09:17

Agree with those who say this is not a neighbour dispute. The OP is not insisting that the structure is removed.

Isn't a shed classed as a temporary structure & therefore doesn't need permission?

No. Any structure that is in place for more than 28 days is not classed as temporary.

Most sheds don't need planning permission as they are classed as permitted development. However, if limits on height, size, location and/or usage are breached it ceases to be permitted development and planning permission is required.

Peanutbuttercheese · 25/07/2017 09:24

We looked at a detached house for sale. When we arrived a very large garage was obviously attached to the side of the house and ran the entire length of the kitchen. I looked at past sales on the land registry website house and the house had been classed as semi detached in the last two sales.

I pointed this out to the estate agents, who funnily enough didn't seem to care.

Fluffyears · 25/07/2017 10:00

In three house sales I have never been asked if I have any neighbour disputes, who asks this and where do you 'declare' it.

ExplodedCloud · 25/07/2017 10:10

When did you last sell Fluffy? It's a question on the standard property information sheet that people complete along with info about utilities etc.

ILostItInTheEarlyNineties · 25/07/2017 10:12

Nobody in their right mind would declare that they're at war with their neighbours when selling their house. Confused

JoffreyBaratheon · 25/07/2017 10:17

My ex neighbour built a 2 storey 'shed' from breeze blocks (unpainted, left lovely grey) which blocked out the light for our entire garden, and was there several years (council house, so she not only needed planning permission probably, but she didn't even own the land she built it on). She used it for fixing up motorbikes. I loved her, got on really well with her, so never grassed her up. Even though it blocked the light for the whole garden (It was maybe a 60 foot long building and had 2 floors, but she put this temporary corrugated plastic roofing on so she could claim it was a shed).

When she moved, unexpectedly, the council ripped it down. Took them days.

No-one on this street dobbed her in. Mind you the thicko council officials probably drove past it daily themselves - you couldn't miss it, it was almost the size of a house and she had the end garden, fully visible from the road.

People who moved in since are prize dicks. We dob them in for the slightest thing, all the time, with no compunction.

The moral of the story is - act like a prat, you are far more likely to be dobbed in to the authorities. Act like a reasonable human being? People overlook a lot. Even a hideous two storey breeze block shed.

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