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.

@Genevieva What did you/your Grandma say to him? How did you refuse it? I love to hear about CFs being told no!

Op re not displaying the notice have you put that in your objection. My dickhead neighbours had their application refused on that basis and they had to resubmit.

Is it definitely a planning application and not PD? They don't need to display for PD.

I could apply to build a house in your garden and get planning permission. That does not give me landowner permission to actually build it. You could apply to build a house in their garden say applies.

However!

They will have had to sign a certificate on the application form to say all the land is in their ownership. If they've done this the application is invalid as you own some of the land. I recommend sending a copy of your deeds to the Planning Officer rand point this out as this will slow things down at least.

But just because it's on your land does not stop planning permission from being granted. I recommend you get a solicitor to write to them clearly stating they have no right of access and no permission for any works on your land.

If the tree in your garden is particularly nice and you intend on retaining long term you could approach the Council to TPO the tree.

Good luck

This but also they are required to serve notice on the land owner as part of the application if they are proposing to build on land that is not their own. You can notify the council that the notice has not been served.

It sounds more like a party wall issue. I would find a party wall surveyor. From memory, you neighbour will have to cover the cost of your party wall surveyor. They may ask you to use their to reduce costs but you can choose your own.

I suspect their architect messed up and they are now burying their head in the sand over it because you noticed. I built to the boundary and was advised to stay an inch inside so nobody could complain

The fact is , I would not have a problem if they built to the boundary line and even used our garden to build the footings if they asked and provided a party wall notice.

The fact that they just kept denying and denying and now have admitted that its joint land when it clearly is not.

I have asked for structural measurements of the how tall the wall is as their plans do not show anything they told me ha no for a fucking patio.

This just shows what I am against.

Wow! There are literally no words! Have you spoken to the council? I believe you can contact planning dept directly to talk to through with them before even objecting - might be an idea to do this so that they have a heads up of the actual problems early on.

Did the letter from the Council just tell you about the application? If someone is applying to build on your land, you should be served Notice. Without being served, the application is invalid. However, that usually means a resubmit with the correct Notices served.

If they are going right up to the boundary with the new structure, you should have a Party Wall Agreement in place. The applicant will need to pay for this. You can engage your own Party Wall Surveyor and they can be made to pay for that too via the Agreement.

I have no experience but stuff like this is why I stay on MN.
Id do what a PP suggested and building a new fence and then sending a solicitors letter telling them they cannot interfere with it.
Hopefully they will realise they are done, this is just going to keep costing them money and not get what they want.

I think my father stepped in and made it clear that the idea wasn't going to go any further. But, in fairness, while my granny was a very small and softly spoken woman who didn't like confrontation, she was also pretty steely and tough on the inside. I think that, even without family support, she would have sent him packing. She died shortly before covid (the timing was a blessing when you look back on it, but was hard at the time because she was still gardening in her 90s and we hadn't expected it). A family with two children now live there.

I hope it does cost them money, if they had approached us before the plans went in, and said that this is what we would like to do and we will get a party wall agreement, make good all the wall on your side and if we can build the footings in your garden. We would have been happy its the principle of the matter, and quite frankly what decent law abiding neighbours do.

Try to choose a reputable surveyor for the 3rd party wall agreement. Obviously your neighbours have to pay, it's the law. Just be warned, our surveyor turned up, thought it was the adjoining neighbour and has not responded to us saying the neighbours aren't abiding by the award and have made a hole in our drive. Took the money and ran. Most unhappy so need to get back to them pronto. I want another visit - at the neighbour's expense, obviously. Wish I hadn't waived the 3rd party wall 3 months notice 😭

The truth is that decent people do not behave like this.

Sub species do.
Always on the look out for an opportunity to screw someone over.
An old friend of mine was telling me about her neighbourhood, in a lovely leafy area, where a couple of detached houses down, neighbours took down a dense high hedge and had a 6ft wall built. Their neighbour was in hospital and in rehabilitation for many months after a stroke.

They "grabbed" approximately 6ft width down the length of a 100ft garden and obviously thought it was worth chancing.

She returned nearly a year later and no doubt they thought they had got away with it.
A month later my friend had a knock on her door from her barrister godson and he was asking about it.
My friend had zero hesitation repeating exactly what she saw and whilst she obviously had no idea of their boundary or deeds, she was more than happy to repeat EXACTLY what she witnessed.

6 months later the entire wall was taken down, despite their apparent huge efforts to come to a substantial financial agreement....6 ft walls x by 100 ft built, are hugely expensive.
The godson was very determined in his pursuit of them.
There is no doubt about it that legal costs prevent most pursuing these CF's.
However, when you have a ruthless barrister godson, whom is most protective of you, things get rectified.

These CF's were well and truly mortified by the gossip their vulgar/tacky/shabby behaviour generated.

Had her neighbour not had such a godson, we have no doubt whatsoever they would have gotten away with this.

It just gets better.

I have now been blocked by the neighbours, after I was told I was a stupid thick cunt! As they do not want to admit they are wrong or that they have to pay for a party wall agreement.

I have now objected on the planning portal and have emailed the planning officer as they can certainly see that they want to build in our garden and as we will not allow this they will not be able to build to the plans.

I have now appointed a very expensive party wall surveyor who is writing to them today with everything that they need to do, and that they are liable for his costs.

Oh wow! I hope everyone sees sense here ie council!

wow please keep updating! They’ve certainly had a massive tantrum now they aren’t getting their own way.

I worked in planning for a short while. Anyonr can apply for planning permission on any piece of land in the country but even if planning is granted, you cant just go ahead and build if you dont own the land. You would either need to seek permission or buy the land. Pretty stupid of your neighbours to pay for architects drawings and the planning fee without permission first but its their money.

If they are using offensive language towards you I suggest a call to The Police is in order.

An ASBO or whatever they are called these days may well stop them on the cheap

Very clear your neighbours are not just CF's.

They are CFC's....Cheeky Fucking Cunts!!

Would be delightful if their plans are turned down and have to pay a shit ton of money to the party wall surveyor!

Stupid cunts!!

Well done OP.
Keep those foul verbally ABUSIVE texts too.
Says so much about them.
It is a common theme that the types that do this are appalled at being challenged.

My friends neighbours weren't abusive, they were just beyond mortified and stunned at being caught out after they thought they had gotten away with it.

The wife's face was an absolute picture when she accidentally came upon us having lunch.....she didn't realise we were connected at all......I knew her through another medium completely and I know she would have been appalled at me knowing her business.😂

Happy days!

This is what they will now be forever known as CFC's.

This has made me laugh more than it should, Party wall surveyor is going to write to them for free, as he was appalled at what I told him, he is also going to write to their architect and let him know that the plans are wrong.

I wonder if you could make a complaint against the architect, assuming that he is one as opposed to someone who just draws plans

I bet the Party Wall Surveyor is looking forward to the fun and games, I am sure that they must have plenty of tales to tell

Op , i am a retired planner: if you could DM me with the authority and the application number, I can quickly check for you to see if the correct certificate was made when they applied to make the application valid. I strongly suspect it wasn’t . They would have had to tell you 21 days before making the application which I am sure you said they did not . I find because applications are validated by technical staff these days , it’s rare an officer gets involved in such things but because an application can be declared retrospectively invalid if the wrong certificate was part of the application they do sometimes , or at least I did . If it is invalid an authority will often give them 1month to put it right and then resubmit without losing their fee . They will also get 12 months to re submit a withdrawn application with slight adjustments again without losing the fee . Hope this helps

This will save you money too at the moment rather than paying an expensive party wall surveyor.