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.

I need a diagram too I can’t picture it.

Of course it doesn’t, it’s still being used as a residential dwelling.

Do you normally have issues with neighbours hearing you in the bathroom and vice versa? My next door neighbour’s bathroom on one side adjoins my kitchen and on the other side is a few feet away from my kitchen window. I hear stuff in the other rooms but I can confidently tell you I’ve never heard anyone using the toilet.

If someone was sat right outside the window of a toilet then they are 100% going to hear you shit aren’t they. Thank god for detached homes. I don’t want to hear anyone doing anything!

Ah, merde.

Isn't the fact that it is a toilet mean that the window will be open all the time ?

So when you have the french doors open eating your salad in summer you are going to be subject to a litany of poo, wee and gas noises. And flushing. Smells probably won't make it that far.

I guess if they build the window right on the border you might be able to put a fence up in front of it.

Maybe the toilet will be away from the window.

Yes, 24 inches away, 60 cms? Surely not? But happy to be corrected.

Can you do a diagram? If they are building a loo then clearly the soil pipe has to go somewhere. Presumably that is on their land and it would make sense for the loo to be close to the wall nearest the sewage system. So why is the window not facing onto their land? IYSWIM?

You didn’t agree to it op. You don’t have that authority, raising an objection or not is not agreeing to it. You can raise an objection and planing ignore, only planning agree to it.

How would you stop them? You might mean to just wee but then…….

I believe you can now extend a certain number of metres without the need to get planning permission under permitted development rights.

I would look into this before making a fuss, because they may be able to do it without permission from you at all.

Please share the planning ref then we can all look at the plans!

You should have raised a formal objection as this is not permitted!

You say you would never have agreed to this at planning stage. Do you think that would have made a difference? If the building is within planning regulations it would make no difference whatsoever if you agreed or disagreed.

I'm not sure what you hope to achieve by talking to your neighbour. Do you expect them to say 'sorry, we'll move the toilet'? If not what's the point? If they have breached their planning permission that's clearly an issue but I strongly suspect that even if they have it won't be the loo.

Planning decisions and documents are openly available - ours are on the Council's website. I would suggest you take a look there and make absolutely sure that they've breached their planning permission before you raise the issue.

Having said that someone up the road from me did get in trouble with the planners. Their neighbours complained because they built a large garage (extension by stealth) which blocked views of the green at the end of the road. However, loss of a view is not grounds for refusal of permission. What did do for them was that they extended the garage beyond the front facade of the house which contravened regulations. They had to rebuild but it still blocks some of the view.

Thanks, but fyi I've been on MN pretty much from the beginning, still don't want to hear someone in the loo when I'm relaxing in bed. They are grim but each to their own.

Ask for the WC to be built without a window. If they refuse remind them that you could report them to the planning people for building something different to what they had permission for.

Hard to tell on here love !

🙄

Thanks for your contribution. It’s given me more perspective.
The title was a bit of fun.

I will add a tall fence so we don’t see the window -it is ugly but it won’t be a problem if i hide it.

Ill play loud music if they’re noisy shitters

Ta.

Ill play loud music if they’re noisy shitters

Salt n peppa- Push It...

Presumably the toilet is inside a building though? Or is it one of those outhouse at the bottom of the garden jobs?

At least they are building a bathroom to have a shit in....

a couple of summers ago my neighbour kept shitting into cans and throwing them into my garden!🙄

I can’t help but feel that calls for more than eye roll…

Have a look at the plans submitted online and if it is massively different then raise with planning officers. The neighbours will try to go for retrospective planning permission and probably get it. Much better to raise it now before it’s complete and the planning officer will watch

Does he have issues?!

They’d need to re-submit planning if they’ve changed it. Definitely get onto the council. Also, you do need a 3rd party wall agreement-they need to pay for the surveyor who comes to take pics of your inside/outside if it’s within 3 yards of your property. They then have to wait for 3 months unless you choose to waive this.

My downstairs loo is at the edge and back of my house. So it is technically two feet away from my neighbours.
If the external dimensions haven't changed I don't think you can dictate layout - they will have done it to work with existing drains. But if it's now a self contained annex rather than an extension integral to their house - that is a planning issue (though they may just require an internal entryway, which will not change your problem).