To not want to allow neighbours access to put up solar panels?

[TheHorneSection]

The back of our neighbour’s house is the rear wall of our small courtyard garden. We’ve just received a letter from the council saying planning permission has been requested to put solar panels on their rear roof. This rear roof is a) about 10 foot at most from our floor to ceiling kitchen window, and level with our first floor so we can see the entire roof from our kitchen table, and b) seemingly inaccessible without them putting up scaffolding or gaining access through our garden.

They haven’t spoken to us about it, or tried to put letters through the houses they might guess back onto theirs, we’ve only heard through the planning department.

On the one hand, it’s solar panels, and these are good things. But on the other hand, they’ll completely fill our eyeline from the kitchen, and they haven’t asked about access yet.

Would I be a complete arse to tell them I’m really not happy and don’t want to provide access, or do I need to suck this one up for the greater good?

Given they haven't asked for access - you seem to be looking for problems.

You can say no if they ask for access.

I personally think you should allow access and would be unreasonable to refuse it.

I also think they'd have been polite to mention it to you personally.

I don't see the difference between being able to see a roof already and being able to see a roof with solar panels on it?

You not wanting to look at something on a roof is not going to stop the neighbour gaining planning permission. I am sure if you refuse access there will be a different way for them to access their roof. All it will do is sour relationships.

It's already a roof, I'm not sure it being solar panels makes any difference to your view. How long do you spend gazing out of the window admiring their roof?

But you don't have to allow access. The actual panels won't take long to install but you hear horror stories of scaffolders leaving it up for ages until they get another job. I suppose it depends if you want to do it or not.

I am sure when they need access they will ask.
And obviously you would be an arse to refuse, as long as it’s in a slot suitable for you.

Quite possibly! I guess because I was surprised they haven’t tried to locate whose property they’d need to use to install them, as I genuinely can’t see how they can get access without putting scaffolding in our garden.

I’d be irked that no one had the courtesy to ask in advance but I’m not sure solar panels as a view is any worse than a roof as a view.

They can go up and over they don’t need access from your property.

Yes you would be unreasonable to object to solar on someone’s roof.

If your view before is a roof, I don't get it. If your view was a lovely tree or garden maybe, but going from a roof to a couple of solar panels isn't going to substantially changed what you are already looking at.

True - you get used to the view you have but I can imagine it doesn’t sound like a good view already!

Do solar panels cause of glare if they are only 10-15 feet away? I genuinely don’t know.

Well they're unlikely to ask until they have permission are they?

You are coming across as very unreasonable and a bit petty to be honest

Interesting, I couldn’t picture how they’d do that but if that’s possible then that’s good. Due to the size of the courtyard garden us and the other neighbours they’d need access through have, most of the garden would be taken up with scaffolding, so yes, given some of the horror stories you hear about scaffolding being left up for weeks that isn’t a tempting prospect.

Hence why I asked 😂 My gut feeling was “er, no” l, and then I questioned it, and hence why I’m on here.

Not necessarily.

I came home to my neighbours having erected scaffolding on our newly reroofed garage.

They've wrecked it and parts of our garden too which is now subsiding due to their works. Our only comeback would be an expensive legal route.

People don't always ask.

It’s rude of them not to ask. I do think you should allow it, but they really should have come round and give you a heads up.

YABU because they haven't asked for access so you're chewing over nothing.

Do solar panels cause of glare if they are only 10-15 feet away? I genuinely don’t know.

That's the first thing that occurred to me. Solar panels are no uglier than most roofs, after all. But when the sun is high, would it be reflected into your upstairs window? Which way does the roof face?

I was also curious if solar panels cause any glare when you are very close to them, as the layout around here is very close - so these panels would be level with our first floor and potentially causing glare into all our back windows. But possibly they don’t, I’ve not seen panels up close and so wondered if they did.

You can object to the planning committee for any reason you like but it does not mean they will take your objections into consideration.

If they have not asked for access then I wouldn't assume they need it. You can say no at the point they ask but objecting to the solar panels on the basis you think they will need access to your garden is a mistake.

Take the application at face value and then deal with any request for access when it's made.

The sun would be hitting the suggested panels all day.

I've worked too hard on my garden to allow it to be trampled by workmen. Hard no.

The solar panels are unsightly but a good cause.

I'm pretty sure you cant refuse the access unless it would be considered extremely unreasonable e.g. they can do it from their side but choose not to. Look into it in more detail before being awkward about it just because you dont like it or yyou might find yourself in receipt of legal action.

For context, this is the view from one of our first floor windows and this is the roof they are hoping to put panels on - just so people can see how close it is.