AIBU - building work

[84wood]

Hello

I’d really appreciate a wider view on a difficult situation I am.

We recently moved to a new road just before lockdown in a very good area. It’s a small road of detached houses. We intended to do some immediate building work as the house isn’t right for us but the location is great. We’re planning a double storey side extension. We took professional advice to make sure everything we planned was within the building rules and also to limit the impact on our new neighbour. We did not want to come across as cheeky and pushing the rules. We also phoned the one elderly neighbour impacted to talk through our plans saying we’d obviously try and keep inconvenience to a minimum. We didn’t approach others because they are elderly and we are all in lockdown. They are also not impacted by the proposals. In any case they are all objecting and it has become very awkward, especially as they are objecting without any planning basis. For example, one neighbour is demanding we have our front area a certain way. I am at loss what to think. We’re the sort of people who live and let live. We’d certainly never dream of commenting about how a neighbour should arrange their parking. I don’t know what to think or how to handle.

Have we been unreasonable?

Thanks

Well a little. A double side extension on a detached house is likely to change the look of the houses and street more than say a kitchen extension which is why it's harder to get planning. Planning isn't guaranteed so you've been a bit silly if you bought a house hoping you could do exactly what you want.

Putting in an application during a lockdown straight after you've moved in probably isn't the best way to start off. Would have been better to get to know people first.

Some extensions are eyesores. Our neighbours extension is horrible but we agreed because we're pushovers. We don't like our neighbours at all, they could have done quite a lot differently.

The thing with building extensions is that to get what you want always impacts negatively on your neighbours. Don't expect people to be excited about your plans, it can be hell to live with and will spoil what they have always known.

You've gone to a lot more trouble to communicate with your neighbours than the arseholes next door but one to me, who inflicted a summer of extreme noise, dust, vehicles, damage to trees and general disruption with their extension building activities last year, they didn't explain in advice, apologise or care about the noise and damage they were causing, so I say good luck to you.

I think ideally you would have dropped a note through everyone’s door. But equally you need to figure out who has reasonable concerns and who is taking the piss.

So concerns about overlooking/light/access/noise are all reasonable even if not strictly under planning law. It would be nice to try and address those concerns.

Telling you what your parking arrangement should be is unreasonable. People who are trying to push the boundaries should be met with a firm response or they will be causing you problems for the entire build.

Our building project has required a lot of people skills. DH is the one who deals with our one neighbour and he does an amazing job. I just don’t suffer a certain type of person well but he manages the situation so we have avoided any serious issues.

Thank you for your replies and comments. Retrospectively I wish we had written to the other neighbours who aren’t directly impacted. We couldn’t have done more for the neighbour actually impacted. When we hear about if we get planning or if we have to compromise or appeal, we may write then.

For various reasons we couldn’t wait but that’s another story.

Thanks again. Very much appreciated.