Neighbours hate us because of extension.

[SummerHathCommeth]

We’ve lived in our house for 5 years. We have two sets of neighbours on one side who we get on very with well. The ones on the other side not so much. They moved to their house 6 years ago are recently retired with DC who have left home. We have 4 children and need to extend as desperately more space.

We spoke to them telling them our plans before we applied for permission and were surprised when they put in a very long objection stating it would affect light to one of their side windows at certain times of the day in winter and that we could see into their property from our skylights.

We got permission and have begun building but the tension is palpable, it’s sucked all the joy out of it. They have stopped speaking to us and are actually quite hostile shaking their heads every time they see us and the woman confronted DH telling him how underhand we’ve been. They have never been particularly friendly to us or any of the other families but this is making life very stressful.

Their (extended) house is 15 meters away from ours with two gardens, two hedges and a road in between and also at a much lower elevation. Our skylights will be 9 foot above floor level so we couldn’t see out of them even if we wanted to.

Are we being unreasonable?

Have you infringed their “right to light” if their house is at a lower elevation? This is a separate legal matter to planning.

No it doesn’t cast a shadow at all

They objected. Planning discounted their objections.

Ignore them. They’re small and silly

@SummerHathCommeth

Thanks for all the replies, seems to be quite a common theme for many!

We have built up to roof height and it doesn’t cast a shadow at any point in the day. They were worried that it may do at certain times of the day during winter but I don’t think it will do that either. We honestly wouldn’t have done it if it was going to cause a massive impact.

I think they are probs in a better position to assess how it affects them than you 🤷🏼‍♀️. It sounds like you needed the extension. They made their objections clear, and you went ahead anyway. Fair enough, you needed it and were entitled to do so, but it is also totally understandable that they resent you for it and don’t feel like engaging in pleasantries. You didn’t consider their feelings, why should they consider yours?

I don’t blame your neighbours being pissed off at building work. We’ve had 18 months worth of it from our neighbours. It’s messy, it’s disruptive and annoying.

However you’ve been given planning permission and you are doing nothing wrong. No one is entitled to light, that’s what we discovered when our neighbours extended.

What I would say is let them know when something is happening that might effect them, ie, brick dust going everywhere and covering their cars (we were never warned of this when bricks were being chopped up and our cars were covered in brick dust several times).

At the end of the day, you’re only doing what you’re entitled to do, and what they’ve done themselves. I would just try and keep the lines of communication open with them and encourage your builders to be as neat and tidy as possible. Your neighbours will just have to be tolerant and patient. It won’t be messy forever. Good luck.

They might be upset about a summer of loud miserable building works for no benefit to them - surely you can appreciate that? They have a right to have emotions.

They live on the other side of a road to you?!? 15 meters away?! Mental.

You've followed the correct process and are entitled to build your extension.

Smile and wave when you see them 🙂

@MistyMargaret

I honestly think people who have noisy and not strictly necessary building work done during the pandemic are slightly unreasonable. With people working from home and essentially trapped with someone else's noise it can be hell on earth. If you need to get a leaking roof mended or similar, that's a different matter. It's necessary. But with the best will in the world, your extension could wait, couldn't it? (Yes I have been shielding, stuck at home, and my neighbours are noisy cunts who build for fun.)

Builders need to work. We live in a very small village and any building noise tends to reverberate round. There is usually at least one property being worked on but they keep to the prescribed hours and it’s ok. Now the dog that was left in the garden to bark all afternoon is a different matter!

Not an extension, but neighbours of ours got building work done during Lockdown. I was wfh and noise was incredible, especially if I had to phone clients. Went on at weekends so couldn't enjoy sunny days in our garden. I gritted my teeth throughout, but it was annoying

Didn't fall out with them though.Actually they are anti social barstewards anyway, now I think on it.

You have been through the planning process, they objected, you were granted permission. Hardly underhand .

Yes building work is a pain, but that's tough.

Shaking their heads when they see you? They sound terrifying!

Almost exactly the same thing happened to us OP except our extension was just a side return, but you’d have thought we were erecting the Shard in our back garden.

Now we don’t speak; couldn’t care less. They’re totally mental.

You submitted your plans, they submitted their objections and your plans were approved in spite of those objections. You have nothing to feel guilty or unhappy about.

The whole point of their behaviour now is just to make you feel bad. It's about being sore losers, not about legitimate objections that you bribed someone to ignore or something. Don't let them steal your joy! If you meet eyes I'd ignore any looks or 'head shaking' and just give a cheery wave and walk on. If they confront you, I'd simply walk away before they got more than 3 words out.

Insane!

Start a rumour that you’re planning to have periscopes installed so that you can get a 360 degree view out of your skylight - just for a bit of sport …

I would get T shirts printed for your family:
I Love My Extension

They’re being ridiculous. Try not to worry and forget about them.

We had similar when we built a shed in our back garden to replace the brick one which was falling down. It was slightly bigger with a slightly bigger pitch to the roof. The people behind complained. I wouldn’t mind but they have a conservatory on top of their ground floor extension so they come out of their bedroom into it and can see directly into the back of our house. The council came and looked at the shed, shook their heads and left again.

I hate our neighbours because of their extension. Genuinely hate them. It's so close to our property, but we were nice about it and accepting that they need more room for their family. However, their approach to the whole thing has been awful. Not giving us any notice of work actually starting, builders continuously blocking our driveway, constant noise when trying to homeschool and damage to our property which they couldn't be bothered to rectify let alone apologise for. There is doing things the right way and there is doing the utter minimum required by planning. What are you doing?

Initially I though you were in a terrace or something. They are insane at that distance, you aren’t impacting them at all! Ignore.

The only thing that would annoy me would be if the extension blocked the light. Having lived in a house where a neighbours extension did just this, it’s miserable. Our living room went from being bright and sunny to being in shade all day.

No @sueelleker - it had been there too long for the council to take enforcement action. But it was hilarious when the planning officer turned up - you could hear the shrieks from several streets away!

She blamed us of course but I only rang the council because she threatened to call them about our building and I wanted to understand where they stood re the extension and her windows.

They sound utterly ridiculous. You done everything right and it was considerate to show them your plans in the first place. Our neighbours (semi detached) didn't show us their plans, just started building without giving us a party wall agreement, smashed their steel through to our side! There is still holes in our wall now. Not to mention you couldn't fit a fag paper in between our fence and their extension.

Unless you're getting a submarine periscope fitted I'm not sure how they reckon you can see their property out of skylights

You have planning permission, they had their chance to object and it didn’t go their way... of course they are annoyed but that’s not your problem.

Do get some binoculars tho for when you’re spying on them through the skylight.

I honestly think people who have noisy and not strictly necessary building work done during the pandemic are slightly unreasonable. With people working from home and essentially trapped with someone else's noise it can be hell on earth. If you need to get a leaking roof mended or similar, that's a different matter. It's necessary. But with the best will in the world, your extension could wait, couldn't it? (Yes I have been shielding, stuck at home, and my neighbours are noisy cunts who build for fun.)

What about builders being out of work indefinitely then?

And why should everyone put their life plans on hold because some neighbours might be working from home