To ask for advice about right to privacy from our neighbours

[Colourofspring]

I have posted about this before but the situation has got worse. We live in terraced housing with small back yards & our neighbour has built a massive garden room that fills the whole back yard pretty much and looks directly into my 12 year old daughters bedroom.

The neighbours have teenage boys and yesterday (and for the last few weekends) there have been large groups of teenage boys in the garden room looking straight into DD’s bedroom so she has to sit with her curtains drawn all the time. I feel like it’s not on on multiple accounts - it’s also really noisy and impossible to sit in our back yard quietly too but I am more bothered about how much of an invasion of privacy it is for my DD.

Aibu? Anyone got any advice? Am feeling pretty pissed off and resentful about it to be honest - I feel like our peace and privacy is being invaded. It’s really tricky in terraces anyway as it’s such a small space!’

We live in terraced housing with small back yards & our neighbour has built a massive garden room that fills the whole back yard pretty much

There are still rules that have to be followed whether permitted development or not, boundary restrictions/hight restrictions.

I'd have a word with planning at your local council as if it does fill the whole back yard the permitted development rules may have been breached.

Contact your local council and ask for advice from the planning department. Ask about the lights and the windows looking right into your DD's room.

You can buy some privacy film, you can see out however they can’t see in, I’d get a black out blind for the light.

If it's above 15sqM in area and it's less than 1m to the boundary, that could also breach permitted development IIRC, depending on local regulations.

Just because they say it's permitted development doesn't mean it is. Report it to the council and ask them to inspect it.

Put privacy film on all your windows at the back of the house. You get the stuff that makes it look like a mirror from the outside, so they can't see in, but you can see out just fine.

If they are dicks, then I guess asking them to stop their son and his friends from staring into a young girls room isn't going to work, so I wouldn't bother.

They made a big deal of it being ‘permitted development’ but I don’t think it is to be honest

Don't just take their word gif it. You need to contact the council.

Just get some decent blinds, surely no-one needs mn to work out how to stop people seeing into a room?!
You can go to the council at your leisure to see if your neighbours have got the required permission once your daughter has some privacy.

Privacy film. Either professionally done or DIY. Friend lives in a high street and she had it done. It's brilliant. Let's full light into her rooms but no one can see in. Though she does have funny situations of people doing their make up or hair.

Whilst I do sympathise being so overlooked, I am the neighbour (not literally but same scenario).

We built have a garden room at the bottom of our small garden as a daytime office and for our dc to use as a den. NDN has strongly objected many times because he feels we are constantly staring at him. We most definitely aren't but are now facing the houses and so facing that direction. he sits working at the window so any time he sees anyone vaguely looking frontwards assumes they are staring at him and gets the rage. He also got the council involved as he disputed ours being P.D but it definitely is. Not to say that's the case with your neighbour, but if/once you're satisfied the building is legal, I'd be using privacy film and moving on as there's really nothing you can do as they're not likely to stop using it and it's just causing yourself unnecessary stress.

@boyohboys in your situation I'd be putting the privacy film on the windows of your garden room....

It may be permitted development, but they also still have to comply separately with building regulations.

I would suggest you send photos along with a plan diagram to the Council Planning Officer and seek their advice.

@CornishPorsche we have blinds so not such an issue in the winter but we have a verandah outside and it's where you catch the afternoon/evening sun so sit out when it's nice

We have this my neighbours have a huge outbuilding no way is it under permitted development, council aren't interested btw it faces the house and as it's raised it faces my son and daughter's bedroom. They also have cctv pointing up from the garden room window apparently covering their garden but faces my kids rooms. Police went and checked and it doesn't reach that far apparently (we all know the zooms ).

Good luck as we have been left to put up with it

You should be able to search your council's planning portal to check if they applied for a certificate of PD before they built it. If they're not listed, then report to the council.

Report to the council. Doesn't sound compliant to me.

Really naive to think teenage lads won't look into a girl's bedroom!

I bet it's not legal. I'd contact the planning department. If it takes up the whole back garden then it will be requiring planning permission. They can ask for it retrospectively, but then of course you could object. Though it's not anonymous. Is it effecting any other neighbours? It might be good to see if it is and get them on side. I guess obviously tall plants, grasses and stuff would cover it. I don't think you can try and demand they add anything on their side to shield you, I'd say it's better to see if it's meant to be there in the first place.

Can you not put a fence up to block their view into your garden?

Depends how friendly you are with them, but could you pop in, and check out whether they can actually see up when in there. Or if you're feeling confident, just say how lovely it is but that you're worried about how much can be seen into your DDs bedroom. Im sure they'd be mortified if they could see in and might be something they can do. Also, perhaps she can see more by standing at the window sill, but maybe they can't see (in) from down there- only the window. Rather than up and in

This is why we grew up with net curtains. Modern day equivalents are blinds (venetian, slatted or sheer), privacy film or voile/muslin curtains (in addition to lined curtains).

I know net curtains are out of fashion and we purse

Ooops! Pressed post by mistake

We ourselves have blinds but I love net curtains! I see some gorgeous ones when I walk past certain houses.

Voile / Muslim are nice too

Whilst I'm sure most Muslim's are nice, I'd suggest a muslin might be more effective for privacy purposes

You just need to put up a blind that tilts they aren't expensive

I'd put up some net/voile curtains for day time and make sure she closes her proper blind or curtains before getting undressed. I'd be pretty pissed of about this too, but I'm not sure there's a lot else you can do. Hopefully they'll get bored of hanging out there after a while.