Planning Breach by the neighbour and the council allowed it

[compkeen]

I have had lot of problems with the council Planning department where I ended up dealing with whole of the planning department members including the senior planner , head of the department and the director of the planning , council members, Local MP . My local councillor stood by me since the last 1 year.
I will put a few bullet points so you get some idea in a nutshell bearing in mind that lot has happened before I got to an unsatisfactory end. Reigate and Banstead council needs to be exposed.

• 2013 – neighbour replaced the window without planning permission. I complained immediately. I was pushed by the senior planners to go to mediation, Citizens advice bureau and various legal bodies. Nothing came out of it. They insisted no law was broken and the neighbour is within his right.

• During the course of 3 years a lot of correspondence took place between the council and myself. The head of the planning insisted the matter came under general planning Development Order and kept dismissing me . I took the advice from a planning consultant and Royal Institute of the Town planning . Both of them concluded that a planning breach has taken place and the council should enforce the window to be replaced with non-opening, glazed ,frosted glass. The opening should be ONLY fanlight opening 1.7 meter above the floor on the neighbour's landing .

• Finally in the end the head of the planning admitted that he got confused and did not interpret the law correctly and apologised.

• The neighbour refused to change the window and the council refuses to enforce the replacement despite the planning breach. The neighbour says he was misguided by the council.

• Meanwhile his window being in the upper elevation of his property, facing my property which is only 3 meters away, and he can look into throughout of my accommodation. There is no privacy in the bedrooms, kitchen, all the living areas , garden, driveway.

• I have been living behind closed curtains , with no privacy anywhere, no light, and spending time at work from 7.30am to 11pm until the neighbours have gone to bed every day. This is obviously is affecting my health, my work, and my mental health. The impact is huge.

• Finally the council, after persuasion by me , offered to pay for the replacement of the window but the neighbour disputed and demanded the council pay for all the decorating , that would be disturbed and the whole hall way and the landing.

• The council decided that the damage to the neighbour’s decoration was more important and as a result his suffering was more serious at my cost and decided to withdraw the offer.

• The head of the planning in the council manipulated the issue by holding a private committee meeting between the councillors and the planning committee members. The planning committee was briefed what to say by him. This way they closed the doors on me and my own local councillor , who was ignored and public was not allowed to listen. There was no planning appeal or any enforcement notice ,thus blocking me to go to any institution with my plea.

• The council chose to action the option which was to tell the neighbour to put restrictors which can be moved or taken out and put opaque film on the window panes. Due to the restrictors, a wide gap would be created in the whole length of the middle of the window . Again I was dismissed when I objected saying that this is absolutely unworkable option because the neighbour can still overlook ‘head on’ into my whole property.

• The council has locked the door on me , thus stopping me going to any institution for complain. I despair that I have to spend rest of my days in my own home overlooked with closed curtains and no light. All my human rights are taken away by the Council. If the head of the planning cannot understand the law or understand how to uphold the law, and mitigate the consequences as a result of it, who can we trust in this borough and where can we go.

This happened in 2013. So, in 7 years you have not managed to think of solutions such as net curtains (if there’s a window there is a way to make it work), or installing one way privacy film or anything? Okay.

There’s probably a post on Dadsnet ……
Every time I look out of my window my neighbour is watching me….

I can't believe you've spent 8 years of your life on this battle

All my human rights are taken away by the Council.

No, they haven't.

Your human rights are things like the right to life, not being held as a slave, and freedom of religion.

Planning rule breaches are not covered by human rights - especially not when any privacy concerns can be dealt with by use of net curtains.

I have a front window which goes directly onto a busy road with a bus stop outside. I just have to use blinds for privacy.

@compkeen

Thank You . I will take your advice on board. It would be a solution between nets and one way film. I live in a house on the corner on the main road, the neighbour lives in the first house on the side turning . Hence his whole property flanks all my living accomodation, this includes garden conservatory , dining room , shed , drive way , kitchen ,beddooms . His window his which faces all my living accomodation. top floor . Although I am not stood looking at my window , you cannot help being conscious of the eyes looking your property. My councillor experienced this overlooking and she is only stressed at the fact that the planning officers are not listening and dismissing her too.

If we presume the window was changed, would it solve the privacy issue or could the neighbour still just look through another window or even stand outside looking ?

You could have grown an entire canopy tree by now

It's unfortunate but I think you have really made this a bigger deal than it needs to be.

A lot of houses stare straight into their neighbours - we are on a row of terraces and look right across into the houses opposite and yes, I see my neighbours living their lives.

So what?

If you're bothered about them seeing you naked close the curtains when you change but other than that I'm not sure your neighbours care that much.

You need to move.

Go the the ombudsman:

www.lgo.org.uk/

OP, you are a perfect example of the neighbour from hell.

See I'm petty so I'd probably do something like put a mirror in the window so the sun hit it just right and reflected it into the neighbours window.

This is appalling - how many other illegal plans is that planner passing - are brown envelopes changing hands?. No wonder they get a bad reputation.
Can you afford a private investigator to see if he is relative /friend of neighbour?

You plant a tree. A big fuck of tree. Then move.

I would contact a council ombudsman and if not helpful and finances allow a civil court proceeding.
It may affect you when you goto sell the house so do bear in mind.
I’m not overly familiar with English law but surely your local MP could escalate this possible conflict of interest/loophole in council competence/discretion to parliament.
You can also email to number 10 Downing Street and get a personal written response.

@Yusanaim a bribe what for a window? That’s PD now (8 years later) anyway? Don’t be so silly.

Why don't you get that mirrored film for glass windows. That way he's looking at himself when he looks out, you get full use of your windows and it's a cheap solution

And I agree with pp, you sound like very hard work hence why your neighbors digging his heels in.

Fucking hell, I'd hate to see OPs reaction to a real problem.

Every single window in my house can be looked into by a neighbouring house. The back used to be okay until a developer threw up some house round there. It's just part of living in the world. We have a different window set up in each room depending on the light and how much we care about people being able to look into that particular area.

Is this a middle class thing? The expectation that nobody can see into your Windows?

OP, have you taken this to the Local Government Ombudsman?

The op doesn't sound well.....

@Yusanaim

This is appalling - how many other illegal plans is that planner passing - are brown envelopes changing hands?. No wonder they get a bad reputation. Can you afford a private investigator to see if he is relative /friend of neighbour?

Yes do this. Local planning department passed a similar thing with my friend and in her desperation she hired a PI to find that the family were close relations of the mayor & he had personally intervened to ensure nothing was investigated. My friend wrote a detailed letter outlining the findings and made it clear she would go to the media if the council did not reopen her complaint. Within a year of this the structure was demolished. So it does work.

I think you need to cover your windows with that privacy film. You won’t even notice it, and it will give you total protection.

Sitting in your house, with all your windows closed, feeling like your neighbour is spending 16hrs per day watching you, is no way to live. If it’s really only about the window, buy and install the film. If not, see your GP because you might need a bit of help

I’d put up something like a basketball ring with a massive back board in front of his window. But equally I wouldn’t spend 7 years of my life out of my house in case my neighbour saw my in there. Loads of houses look directly in to other houses and most people manage to live their lives in a completely normal, boring manner.

I understand how this sort of thing can get under your skin, I lived somewhere with noise issues from adjoining businesses once and it really took over my head.

But - we live for about 80 years OP, if we're lucky. You've spent almost ten on this. Even if you're in the right and they're in the wrong, you need to find a way to not let it dominate your life. Nets, trees, whatever. Get out of your house more as well. Move house if that's the only thing that will work.

If the window was put back to how it used to be tomorrow, would all this anxiety go away? Would you be happy living by your neighbour then? If not, cut your losses and move on.

Even when there is a breach of planning control, the Council is perfectly entitled to decide that there isn't enough harm to justify enforcing against it. In fact, they are required to make that judgement. Councils are heavily criticised at appeal - and potentially penalised financially - if they enforce against something that isn't actually causing a great deal of harm.

That does not mean anyone is corrupt, related to the neighbour or making dodgy decisions behind closed doors. It does sound like someone may have made a mistake at the beginning of the process, but eight years in, it doesn't sound as if there is any chance that mistake is going to be fixed in the way you would like.

Eight years of fighting will undoubtedly be contributing to your mental health issues - please find a way of learning to live with the situation.

@garlictwist

It's unfortunate but I think you have really made this a bigger deal than it needs to be.

A lot of houses stare straight into their neighbours - we are on a row of terraces and look right across into the houses opposite and yes, I see my neighbours living their lives.

So what?

If you're bothered about them seeing you naked close the curtains when you change but other than that I'm not sure your neighbours care that much.

I’m assuming you knew that there were already windows looking straight into each other’s homes when you chose to live in your home.

That’s a completely different situation to the OP