No I don’t want someone pooing by my French doors please and thank you .

[MillieTanteAnt]

Dear gentle reader-sorry-a soft start after the rough thread title.

I get on well with my neighbours and generally keep myself to myself. The neighbour to my right has made a planning application to change to the front of her home and extend. The notification came through months ago and it was a normal window a few feet away from my French doors (no worries I thought thus no objections.)

I live on a cul de sac and their house is at the end so I don’t drive past and I noticed last night when I was doing some house maintenance that what they’re doing so does not match with the plans submitted .
It appears that they are creating a Granny annexe and have put a WC right next to my French doors - like 2 feet away.

I would never have agreed to this at planning stage.

Have I missed something? If plans change can they be submitted without notifying neighbours. I am all for change and improvement but this I’m not happy with.

I have popped a note through the letterbox asking for a face to face last night with my number but as yet nothing.

Is it the noise of the flush, or is it that you can see toilet user and vice versa? Or both?
I think I might need a diagram!? 😁

We definitely need a diagram. I can't imagine how your french doors can be so close to the boundary that they can end up being 2 feet (less than a metre!) from your neighbours extension?? French doors normally being to the rear and centre of a house going out to garden/decking/patio!?

Ha! We live by those double doors in the summer.

One lounger chair which is aces for sunbathing and a dining table the other side where we always breakfast and eat with doors open

How often do you think they will be flushing the toilet? I can’t see it being an inconvenience really. Better than a washing machine on a spin cycle!!

If the building work being carried out doesn't match the plans then you can ask the council planning department to take a look, Not an expert and it all may be within permitted development anyway.

Is the window side on/perpendicular to your French doors near the boundary? If so is there the possibility of putting a fence up?

I think we do need a diagram though!

I assume that the loo is inside a brick building? Not just plonked al fresco by the fence?
in which case I don’t understand why you’re complaining.

I don't know if you need to say specifically if there's going to be a bathroom on the other side of a window when you submit plans.

Have they substantially changed the footprint of the extension? If they have, I think there'd have been a requirement to submit a revised application. If you knew there would be a window two feet from your doors already, is it worse that it'd be a frosted one? I think I'd actually prefer it to a window someone might want to look out of throughout the day.

My French doors are less than two feet from my neighbour’s current extension, and I’d be dismayed if they did this. I would object to any such plan and in your shoes would raise it with the council,

Terraced houses and their gardens are close together and consideration is required. Other neighbour’s extension joining mine (tenement side) has a loo at the back, and we both have our washing machines there away from the main house and windows.

@MillieTanteAnt

I would never have agreed to this at planning stage.

You don't have to agree for PP to be granted. You could have written pages of objections and PP could still have been granted if the planning committee/officers found none of your comments were valid objections. There are a VERY limited list of valid objections, and not just that a neighbour doesn't like the proposal!

Is it an open air toilet?

Even if you can hear the flush how will you know they've done a poo? They may be like the many people on here who don't let anyone poo in the downstairs toilet.

2ft? I mean that’s in touching distance. I’d be knocking on the window after each flush reminding them to wash their hands.

Would You ?
Would You really !?

How many times do you think that they are going to be going to the toilet?

She was joking 🙄

Unless the footprint or type of the extension has changed (eg they had planning permission for a small conservatory and have put in a giant brick-built extension) then I don't think the neighbour has done anything wrong.

They told you they were putting in a front extension with a window by your French doors, and that is what they've done. The fact that it has a loo in it is neither here nor there. If they had an existing space that was two feet from your French doors (rather than an extension) and they choose to redo the layout and make it into a downstairs loo, you wouldn't be able to ask them not to do that, so I don't think you can ask them not to do it in their extension. You can't reasonably tell your neighbours where they can/can't have a poo in their own house.

Did the plans submitted originally show which room was going to be that side of the new bit? TBH if it’s just an internal change it may not invalidate the original permission. If for example they’ve built bigger or the window has changed I think they would definitely need to resubmit plans for that but an internal switch about, I’m not sure. Only way to be sure would be to contact the council or get expert advice.

If you have a decent relationship with your neighbours I’d just have a word with them first. If it’s going to be a rarely used guest annexe it may not be much of an issue. Could you also consider some sort of screening, either plants or a trellis topped fence?

I’ve lived in a terrace before where the bathroom windows were very close and it didn’t really bother me- it was probably more than 2 foot though.

If the loo had already have been there would it have stopped you buying the house?
I live in a terrace. My son's bedroom is next to our neighbour's bathroom, if both windows are open then I suppose he might be aware of neighbour using the loo (gasp).
Modern toilets are quite the boon - there won't be raw sewage running in a gully past your French doors!

They are actually French windows, not doors
(lighthearted pedant, missing point of thread)

Are you concerned about the placing of the window or a ventilation fan?

Terraced houses, the family next door built an extension on their boundary. It has no windows on our side but it has an extractor fan that lets out over the seating area in front of our double doors. They deep-fry a lot and cook food with a strong odour (the cooking fumes are enough to have turned the colour on one side of the patio shade).

They had the choice to ventilate on the side that would have been over their own seating area in front of their windows but they didn't exercise that option.

Personally I would check with planning. Just because I know so many people who get planning permission and then deviate from the plans. I realize that there is also permitted development but that also has rules. No harm in asking the authority. They do also have to abide by building regulations, so again planning should tell you if that is required. ( some building regs are self certified).

And does one also hold candlelight suppers at said table 🤣

🤣

I'm having a hard time picturing this, we definitely need a diagram.

Please let it be an open air toilet 🙏