New neighbours extension plans

[Greenfingeredsue]

Hi all

My current neighbour has died. Now probate is completed her house is being sold.

Her son has prospective buyers. He has mentioned in passing to me that they want to extend the property out the back. I am wondering wtf they can’t just buy a house that meets their needs?

The gardens are quite big so there’s plenty of room for them to do this. However, we don’t want them to.

We need a new shed, so my husband has suggested we build a new one with a greenhouse on their side right as near to the boundary as we can, next to the house.

We’ll do this once contracts have been exchanged so we don’’t scupper the sale, plus they would have to get planning permission.

My only concern is that the new neighbours could force us to dismantle them so the builders can work?

Is everyone insane that’s saying “how would it affect you”? Having lived next door to someone who took over 10 years to do their extension I can answer their question. Every weekend banging and hammering. Every evening drilling and sawing. Sorry to be gloomy but our neighbour was a nightmare. To the extent I think is ban people doing their own builds. I live on a lovely quiet street now but at the end of it (far from me thank God) half built house folks are there on a Sunday afternoon making a racket with the radio blasting out. The poor pensioners next door now have a house looming over their lovely garden and must be imprisoned in their house every time the neighbours get to work on their building site of a home.

This is probably the most horrible poster I have seen in a long long time. Normally posts on here are about the horrible neighbours, don’t think I’ve ever seen one where the op is brazenly admitting to being the horrible neighbour

We had a ground floor extension built (as large as we could get within PD). I am trying to think what great noise and disruption that created for our neighbours.

No access for a digger so trench for footings was dug out by hand - sound of shovelling

Cement mixer for concrete footings (a couple of days)

Brick and block laying - normally one man on his own, no radio, whistling, chatting. Cement mixer run occasionally for mortar but small quantities mixed by hand.

Roof took a few days - two builders, just normal 'work talk'.

After that any noise was inside the extension.

No great noise or disruption for anyone.

If the seller is aware that the OP is going to be difficult , should he not inform the buyer ? I am not a lawyer but I thought there was a rule about this ?

Is...this a reverse?

There’s something odd about it, for sure.

For someone who is so vehemently opposed to a potential extension, and is so openly spiteful, she really hasn’t bothered engaging with the thread in any meaningful way, so it certainly raises questions as to the purpose of the thread.

Why not try and get on with the new neighbours?

If they build astride the boundary, you get a free wall to build on afterwards, the sensible resolution
Unless your in certain areas or they already have had permitted developments on that plot, they won't need planning permissions either.

Very unreasonable and controlling

We recently had an extension built and our neighbour kindly let the builders place their scaffolding on his driveway / back yard area. In return, the builders laid him a new patio area / pathway outside his back door (once our side extension was up), and he was very happy with the outcome. So yes, we did cause him a load of inconvenience for a few weeks, but now he has a new path / patio to enjoy, and with more privacy as our side wall has no windows in, and he is not overlooked there at all. So it can work - we just ensured we talked to him all the way through. Also helped that when he had some work done a few years previously we were happy to sign the party wall agreement and didn’t give him any hassle either.

@Greenfingeredsue

The son (Who I get on well with as I did with his late mum) told me. He said the prospective buyers are going to knock on my door to see if we’d object to the extension. He knew I probably would but asked me not to tell them this until the sale is complete!

Please don't lie, be honest with them The buyers have done nothing wrong and are being courteous It was unfair of the son to ask you this He will be long gone with the money while you pick up the pieces

Provided your green house and shed meet with guidelines in height Of the roof and location In relation to border, you can build it no problem. The new owners could not make you take it didn’t either of it meets these rules.

We were in similar situation to you in that elderly neighbour died, house sold and new owners planned extension. In our case, a small bungalow into a LARGE 4 bed house that included rooms in the loft. The new house (was built around the bungalow, they didn’t actually completely get rid of the bungalow) is much larger than by 5 bed house. The house is built on the border because the original single story garage was in the border. It’s 3 meters from our house.

We tried to object but because the windows that would be blocked would cut light considerably. This was it taken into account because it was downstairs loo, upstairs hall, bathroom, glass door in the kitchen (we’d put in a full glass door to get light into ling narrow kitchen that only had a sliding glass door at the end).

We also objected due to privacy. We suddenly had all these windows looking directly into our garden, into the upstairs hall and main bathroom. apparently you have not right to privacy.

The council themselves required the plans amended because it made my house look like a terraced house (it’s that close!) So at least the side next to my house is somewhat sloped and not a direct match to my roofline.

So nothing you can do If the council approves their plans.

Be aware that even if you don’t want it, you may HAVE TO have scaffolding in your property with builders paying to attention to boundaries, coming and going on your property. Plus dropping all sorts of building materials and debris. In our case, they even stuck scaffolding through our trellis in the fence and broke our fencing. Yes, ultimately got fixed but I had to sit and watch it like that for 6 months.

With this in mind, think very carefully about putting a green house near the boundary as it’s likely to be damaged, ruined by debris/paint etc getting in the glass and the light forever blocked.

wow..... you sound horrible. The new buyers will get planning permission more than likely whatever you do. They may not even need it if the extention is small. If you do what you plan to do then you may end up with real nightmare neighbours. They might be rather angry and bitter forever tbh. They could make your life a nightmare for YEARS over this. Think loud misic all day banginh shouting bbq strategically placed to cause you issues with the smoke. they could block you in constantly with their car and pretend not to be in or to hear the door when you knock.... lost goes on. I have had nightmare neighbours and it wasnt actually my fault.... if you do this it WILL be your fault if you get nightmare neighbours. something tells me you are not going to listen to anyone and will go ahead. you are petty,mean and frustratingly selfish OP feel sorry for them

do you even know what the extension would involve? Could be a single storey , a conservatory... Might be huge, might not impact you at all. Just have a chat with them. Not really much you can do unless there's a planning application so you can raise any concerns. Although in my experience it makes no difference.

They cant make you take something down in your garden for their builders. Also why wait until after they exchange - best do it now so they know surely.

Greenfingersue - you sound like a nightmare neighbour ! They haven't even bought the house yet and you are trying to make life awkward for them. Wait until they have actually bought and submitted the plans and then have a pleasant adult conversation with them. They could be nice but they clearly won't like you if you're behaving like this already. Give them a chance before you judge.

Well in answer to the person who said the man next door has a legal obligation to let the buyers know that their next door neighbours would oppose an extension... how the hell would they be able to prove that he had ever asked them or had a conversation about it?

Like ours, the house next door has stairs. Up to the front door then after going down the hall, there is a narrow stairwell into the kitchen then more steps down to the garden. Not easy to carry materials through. However, I have asked a friend who is a surveyor and he says we have no legal obligation to let them use our side entrance or allow the builders access through our property. If necessary he will be acting for us.

I spend time and money on my garden and I don’t want it ruined.

And the time putting up a new shed and greenhouse will cause minimal disturbance compared to that made by builders spending months over an extension.

You don’t actually seem to be understanding, OP.

You putting up a shed and a greenhouse is not going to stop your neighbours building an extension.

And are you not actually going to address the fact everyone thinks YABU then, OP?

@Greenfingeredsue

Yes if it you can not allow side access but I do think you are catastrophising at the moment based on the word of your old next door neighbours son (whose motives in this seem odd to be honest and not on your side) because you have NO IDEA what kind of extension they would be after and one suspects planning permission would be given. The likelihood is it might be something like these which may not need planning permission anyway

www.granddesignslive.com/resources/building-an-extension/760-5-house-extension-ideas-you-can-build-without-planning-permission

When my parents bought their house there was an argument going on with the people they bought it who didnt want to help the old neighbours with their garage extension. A 10 minute conversation with them by my parents solved it and they now both have garage extensions with a shared wall.

You have every right not to want your garden ruined and I would definitely get something signed to that matter.

Go in with an open mind and realistic requests (that your garden and privacy are respected) and a mutual solution can be found I think

Go in like this and lots of money could be wasted!

Yes but the difficulty and extra expense might stop them building an extension!

@Greenfingeredsue

Yes but the difficulty and extra expense might stop them building an extension!

There is no difficulty or extra expense. It won't stop them.

You'll just end up with a messy side of the wall because you won't let them finish it neatly.

And I think the real issue is that you do have genuine concerns about how an extension will affect you OP and your garden. Concerns that I think you have escalated out of control into being unreasonable.

Wanting your garden not to be ruined and the extension not to affect your privacy are valid and reasonable concerns that you should be protecting and addressing. But not by trying to stop it or ruin it or deny access to them.

Start of by talking to them when they come round about what their plans are and your concerns and take it from there. If you ruin the sale and they back off so be it that is not your problem. But be sensible and allow for compromise

@Greenfingeredsue I meant extra expense on your side fighting this when you dont even know what you are fighting.

I think the NDN son has set this in motion because he wants it solved. You have no loyalty to him whatsoever but you will have to live with the new people. TALK to them see what they want and come up with a solution without being completely unreasonable

@Greenfingeredsue presumably they have factored in the cost of the extension when they decided to buy the house !

@Greenfingeredsue

Yes but the difficulty and extra expense might stop them building an extension!

There won’t be any extra difficulty or expense.

Yes but the difficulty and extra expense might stop them building an extension!

Or perhaps you could stop being a selfish, entitled nightmare of a neighbour and move to the middle of fucking nowhere.

It would be better for everyone.

You sound like a nightmare neighbour. It's perfectly fine for them to buy a house with the intention of extending. Its ridiculous that you are planning to put in place structures to be obnoxious.

I think you need to sit yourself down for a minute and question why you are being so bitter towards people you don't even know yet. It's not healthy.

Because the buyers have had a builder have a look at the Next door property. He has specifically asked if they will be able to access the back from our property and mentioned how difficult it will be to bring materials through the house due its layout. And he said it would be more expensive if they have to build from the inside.

Well they are going to have suck it up!