CF Neighbours plans

[Arewe29]

I need to rant!

Got a letter from the council to say that my neighbours are building an extension, went around to ask for a full copy of the plans, as where we live (hill) will cause issues to our house. They said that they did not have any and that they did not know planning was even sought, bullshit!

I went online and yep there plans show that they are trying to build on our bloody land. Fuck me they must think I am stupid.

Oh hell no ! That’s disgraceful

This is exactly my point, we are planning on landscaping our garden and the footings will be in a place we want to put something in.

Had CFC neighbours not put their plans in, we would have gone round and discussed it with them and told them exactly what was happening. Its called being a decent neighbour that knows that you have to abide by the notices and planning laws, while also not pissing your neighbours off.

Maybe I am different to some because I have standards.

You can apply for planning permission before you even bought (ie closed) on a property. But then you run the risk of having spent a lot of money on creating and filing the plans of the sake falls through.

I apologise if someone's already mentioned it but I would be slapping a preservation order on that tree asap. Good luck op

Our tree has a tpo on it. Neighbour still had it cut way back. As in the tree butcher was sat on my wall cutting it with a long strimmer getting the bits right over on my garden. Council man gave not a shit...

I had past neighbours tell me they wanted to straighten their fence...by removing my garden wall when they saw It when they came to tell me their plans. It was a bit of weird layout - they didn't know I had a wall behind their fence amongst other things. I said no and the bloke said some disgusting things to me and said they'd wait for the opinion of their fencing contractor(!) I worked with some very senior surveyors and knew planning consultants, etc at the time so had a letter written them pretty sharply. The neighbours had a straighter fence put in their side of my wall and all was well in the end.

These kinds of things are similar to the neighbours who can only do what they want to their house if their scaffolding wrecks your garden next door. These kinds of people would never be accommodating if the boot were on the other foot.

Have you heard from the CFCs today OP?

Its Criminal Damage, dial 999

Please don't do this. 999 is for life-threatening situations only.

I doubt they're suggesting the PP ask for an ambulance!

"Call 999 if:

• a serious offence is in progress or has just been committed.
• someone is in immediate danger or harm.
• property is in danger of being damaged.
• a serious disruption to the public is likely."

Both these apply to a tree with a preservation order on it being actively damaged/destroyed.

Crosspost.

That's what happened to us a few days after we'd exchanged contracts with the buyer who made our he was buying our house for his family but turned out to be a developer. It was a nightmare thanks to an unscrupulous estate agent in cahoots with the developer.

Say more, sounds like a thread in its own right

We had a developer who, a week after it went on the market, wanted to buy our parents home (probate sale) offered us £100,000 under asking price (more than 20% reduction) if we allowed him to apply for planning to demolish the house and replace with 4 properties and, in addition, we had to complete within 4 weeks of his offer, and if planning was denied, we had to cover the costs of his planning application and any other expenses!! - Ignored the fact we didn’t, at that point, have probate through so couldn’t complete the sale at such short notice. Alternatively, he would extend completion to 6 weeks but we had to pay for his planning application to be submitted even if it was granted, and he would drop the offer by another £50,000

Unsurprisingly, we rejected his “generous” offers!! Planning would have been unlikely to have ever gone through as the property was a semi detached house (with the other property belonging to the local housing association) plus, the site would have struggles to accommodate 4 properties being only 70ft wide by 140ft long so too small for such development. Plus, a week after going on the market, it was an insult of an offer. Within 5 weeks of being on the market we accepted 5% under asking price from an investor buyer (who turned out to be a PITA - but that’s another story!) so we’re right to not sell to that developer!!

@LovedFedAndNoonesDead what a bonkers proposition 🤣

The weird thing about the people who apply for speculative planning permission is that in theory, if granted, it should push up the value of property they wish to purchase. After all the planning permission only benefits the owner.

You can do a lot with 9 inches (wink wink). They are CF finest

Any updates?

Being thinking about this. Funny how some threads start with you.

Any updates on how you are getting on?

I agree. Hopefully all is going well.

@Arewe29 ?

Yes we did but not without a fight. The neighbour conceded it was on our land but just a few inches and were we really going to make them move it ...er yes, which they did but not enough. So yes I did make them move it a second time

It's still not perfect as it should come straight out at right angle from their garage. They now have to do a complicated movement to get their car on their drive as the fence is now a physical barrier

And they've taken the house off the market

Just an update

Not much to update, neighbours have not responded to our party wall surveyor, CCTV pointing at the boundary as neighbour has been working along the boundary.

Planner has been out, and they have now put up the planning notice. It’s going to go to committee, our local councillor has informed us.

Neighbour the other side has got a boundary surveyor to come out and check their boundary and they were also going over their boundary.

As I have said all along if they had spoken to us and said what they were doing we would have had no issue with the extension and probably would have agreed to work on the boundary line not in our garden, this is what happens when you try and be clever.

Thank you for the update. The planning committee meeting will be interesting. I take it they haven't amended their plans? They really are proving to be CFs.
They haven't done themselves any favours. Even if they abandon the plans and decide to sell they will have to declare the conflict when selling.

Why would it go to committee though? Shouldn’t it just be rejected since you’ve told them it goes over your boundary and they don’t have permission?

Very strange it would get to committee stage.
What will they discuss?
Whether the committee will allow them to build on land they do NOT own? Hardly?