SO upset - planning permission granted

[Bloomingpink2023]

Hello. Ive posted here as well as in legal for advice. I hope that’s ok. I am so so upset about this and feel so angry about this as the whole process just feels so underhand.

Yesterday, I was approached In a cafe on the street I live by a man asking if I lived at my address and what floor I lived on. He didn’t introduce himself or explain why he wanted to know. He then said he knew I lived there as he had seen me on my terrace!!! I declined to answer until he explained that he was the owner (freeholder) of the entire building next door.

he wanted my contact details and my freeholder’s. Said he was planning an extension and loft conversion and needed to discuss a party wall with us.

I said you won’t get permission as you’ll block my light and he told me he had already been granted permission. I thought he must be lying as I was never notified or consulted about this and I’ve never seen anything.

I went home and he was awarded it! I called up the council (London council) and it turns out they no longer have to inform neighbours directly. They said they placed a press notice in a local newspaper (which is not my local newspaper in any case for my area) which I should apparently be reading?? They also said they put a site notice up. When I asked where that was, the officer couldn’t say. I never saw any site notice although I walk up and down my street multiple times a day.

I asked if I could appeal it and the officer said there was nothing I could do now as it was granted. I could only oppose it on a point of law on procedure if I believed the process hadn’t been followed correctly and I would have to appeal it in the High Court in the Royal Courts of Justice. I’m not sure I can even do that, as the permission was granted 8 weeks ago.

I’m deeply deeply upset about this. The proposed extension will block off most of the light into my kitchen and bedroom. It will also mean I am overlooked on my terrace and in my kitchen. And it will also kill off a number of climbing plants that are growing up the trellis which is on my boundary line where they are proposing a massive wall.

I’m just so upset and wondering if there is anything I can do. I just hate how underhand and sneaky the whole thing has been. The council officer did say it was suspicious for this neighbour to approach me to agree works after it the permission was granted and it wasn’t the normal way he would’ve done it but then said it’s a flawed system and he’s had similar complaints.

I feel like this neighbour has been allowed to hide behind the new process of this council not to inform me directly, and has deliberately done this knowing I can not challenge it.

I know my neighbour clearly wants to start work soon which is why he wants to issue this party wall notice.

please please could someone let me know if I have any way of challenging this or what I could do.

I cannot believe the council never wrote to me once given how I will be impacted but apparently that’s their process now and it would seem there’s nothing I can do about this.

Yes that is a possibility if the other window is seen to be sufficient.
Nothings ever simple is it.
Good luck OP

If they had to contact neighbours the council would not be able to accept well stuffed envelopes from the person seeking planning approval. It's a joke really but it's not surprising.

terrible horrible advice.

you want the OP to LIE, but everyone is up in arms that the neighbour acted in an underhand manner ( which he did not!)

@Bloomingpink2023
I'm an architect so I probably know a bit more than some about these things. I really would recommend checking out your rights under right to light - the web page I put in my previous post is a good starting point although there are lots of others who will advise about this.
Your case sounds very much like one of the case studies that we looked at in which they blocked the development from going ahead.
This is separate from planning and has more of a case. Planning may still be valid as the rules are so appealing planning would be fruitless and frustrating (believe me anything planning related is frustrating!!!) and even if you can't prevent it from happening you may be able to reduce the impact or get compensation for loss.

Absolutely this. He prob appointed agents who did the process for him.

@Albiboba The issue with the house is that there was originally a small extension to the house so the daughter and later carers could support the parents. Planning consent was granted for this many years ago on condition it would never be a separate dwelling. The original owners kept to this agreement - they were honest people.

There is a steep entrance to the private road and all the original houses have a garage and a dedicated parking space. The newly created house has neither. It was granted planning consent on the basis they could not park in the private road, the residents ignore this and park on the entrance which makes exiting the road very difficult and it could block larger vehicles such as ambulances - many neighbours are elderly. None of the neighbours brought up the issue of children, the people fronting the application did as this as it formed part of their argument to expand the newly created house. Finally, it seems pretty poor to me that a couple living in a three story house in London are paying Band A Council Tax, less than a single person living nearby in a one bed flat - surely we should all contribute a fair amount?

I'd approach all other affected neighbours and pull together a joint objection or appeal.

Mention the site poster not being there, ask others to confirm. Object about the newspaper the notice was in not being local. All sounds dodgy.

That might explain why I haven’t received anything in the post about the neighbour’s planned extension. They mentioned it vaguely and that no doubt the planning permission letter would be sent to us. That was months ago.

@Bluekerfuffle Look at the local authority planning portal, you should be able to search by postcode.

Which London borough OP? I'd be interested to know after a recent experience I had with our local planning department.

When you get the party wall agreement, the neighbour will probably "encourage" you to use their surveyor, as it will save them £. You are under no obligation to do this and can appoint your own at their expense. If you do use theirs, make sure you ask them to invoice you directly so that their contract is with you and then your neighbour can reimburse you.

You can also get things written into your PW agreement - when we extended our neighbour asked for a trellis to be put up on the new wall on her side. The other side asked for the wall to be rendered (over beautiful London stock bricks !) but we did both and bought the trellis neighbour a climber plant of her choice to go on it. Perhaps you could get the new wall rendered and painted white to reflect light into your room. You could ask for your plants to be removed professionally and reinstated elsewhere perhaps.

When our neighbours extended, we said we wanted a delay of a month as their works were due to coincide with my due date (they only presented the PW agreement at the last minute). I was able to do this within the terms of the PW agreement (I think you can delay for 6 weeks) and they had to comply, which saved my sanity.

Our other neighbours eventually extended and caused damage to our interior wall (significant cracking). Thank goodness for the PW agreement as neither of us needed to get involved and the surveyors sorted it out amongst themselves and we were happy with the result, and remained friends with the neighbour.

If it's a lower story extension it may come under permitted development if it's smaller than a certain size. In which case they don't have to ask or tell you they're doing it.

Where I live you need to be a direct neighbour to be informed so adjoining gardens but if you are across the road you are not a neighbour.
Also the applicant seems to inform the council on who is a neighbour.
if someone is possibly building something then check the local council planning portal.

If your (presumably legal?) roof terrace wasn't identified as being such in the plans, and a site visit wasn't done (so the permission has been granted on the basis of incorrect information), then that sounds like the type of thing the officer meant when he said they would only look at it again if there had been a mistake in the process.

What does the judgement commentary say about your property?

Thank you

@NurseCranesRolodex only an applicant can appeal a planning decision

Op's options are -judicial review (expensive,. very limited chance of success), ombudsman complaint (won't change the outcome for the op but might change practices in the future) or to get legal advice (highly likely op does have private law remedies that are nothing to do with the planning system and will result in a successful claim for compensation and even possibly in stopping the development altogether)

You do need to get the legal advice swiftly though op.

Thank you - I think legal advice and challenging it with a view to halting it, stoping it altogether or amending it is possibly the only option here.

I have contacted a few solicitors and right to light surveyors.

Please could I ask, does anyone possibly have an excellent planning solicitor they could recommend? I am in a London borough.

I know of a church that got quite a lot of compensation due to right to light - it was negotiated so all parties were happy at the end but the blocking of light was caused by a 20 storey building being built barely over a metre away. In other words, the level to which daylight (not even sunlight) was blocked was considerable - pretty much blocking out all light from those windows.

@Bloomingpink2023
”They said they placed a press notice in a local newspaper (which is not my local newspaper in any case for my area) which I should apparently be reading??”

I work in .gov licensing and regs (for industry, not LA planning) and our Act states a notice must be published in a newspaper that circulates in the area. There is no leeway on this matter. So, that might be a way in for your appeal.

Apologies if this has been posted already. Good luck.

@Bloomingpink2023 I'm a planning officer albeit in Scotland where the planning system is quite different from that of England.

The planning officer should have produced a report setting out their assessment of the proposed development and their recommendation. This report should include their assessment on impacts on daylight/sunlight of habitable rooms and on impacts on privacy. This report should be available to view online. Have you seen this report? Are their any conditions?

Unfortunately there is no third party right of appeal in the UK. All you can do is to challenge how the application was processed, who should have been notified? When was it advertised in the paper and on site? Was all procedures followed? etc rather than the decision itself.

This

Surely what is also important is the direction - north/ south facing.

Theres a whole formula for assessing compensation for rights of light. It's highly specialised (I just this week attended. CPD on it and I wouldn't even attempt to try and advise the op on likely amounts). But op should definitely get to a lawyer as it's highly likely they have a decent claim

No.
NSEW in these cases. One doesn’t trump another.
Although daylight is an issue
So if the south window is blocked but they still have a north window, alls good. No case.

About time this system was updated. How many residents buy and read a local newspaper in 2023?

Our “local paper” isn’t available locally. Nearest I can get it is 8 miles away