Neighbours Garden Office

[Soontobesingles]

My neighbours have recently started having work done to add an office/summer house thing to their garden. No planning permission and it is absolutely massive - to the point it will put 1/2 my lovey sunny garden in shade. I have told them that it is too high and they need planning permission. Builders insisting they don’t as something to do with a slope in the garden but rules are about height from foundations. Anyway, I have said I will report if it isn’t sufficiently reduced and both neighbour and builders are going mad saying £1,000s already spent on materials and plans, labour etc. AIBU to say I don’t care an will report? My garden is my sanctuary and many of my plants will die if shaded year round.

If they haven’t done anything wrong then they shouldn’t worry about you reporting it. How much they have already spent isn’t your problem.

Contact your Planning Department at your Council, surely there are size restrictions.

Agree with PP. If they've followed the rules then they should have nothing to worry about.

DH measured and it is way above the regs. They are trying to gaslight by arguing about the slope in their garden, hoping we will calm down. We have lived here years and always got on with them so think they are surprised we are so cross.

This^.

Contact your local Planning office to report it.

The money they've chosen to spend without the prerequisites being approved is not your problem.

YANBU

Maybe they should have found out if it was a permitted structure before spending thousands on it. That's their own issue. Contact the planning department and ask for someone in planning to assess the structure. If it is a permitted development then your neighbours won't have anything to worry about.

Our garden is on 2 levels but our local planning means we take the highest point and it can be 2.5 meters above that, so if it’s on the lower area the building can be much higher than 2.5 metres. No idea if that’s relevant and I wouldn’t do that to my neighbours.

How tall is it? Report if over regs

It’s 4.5m and it is on our property boundary. As in at the edge of the shared fence. These are tiny London townhouses with small gardens not mansions.

Just report it, it's the only way to be sure. It'll reduce your enjoyment of the garden. They can't be very good neighbours if they didn't speak to you beforehand.

I’d report without hesitation. Like others say, if they’ve done nothing wrong then there will be no issue. It sounds like it will massively reduce your enjoyment of your garden, so hope you can get it resolved.

You say garden office but it has foundations? Everyone I know who has had a garden office/room installed has had to have a concrete base, the fact this has foundations seems unusual ? I’d report and if they are within regulations then fine but it’s worth checking.

Report it. If it’s all legal then it won’t be an issue for your neighbour.

Report it now. If they haven't done anything wrong why are they bothered. It could affect the value of your property.

How did you measure the 4.5 meters?

I’m sure it’s 2.5 meters from the foundations of the outbuilding (so the levelled surface it’s built on), rather than 2.5 meters from the pre-leveled ground.

So if their garden slopes down towards your property and they had to add 50cm to the land on the boundary in order to level it, that 50cm won’t count towards the height.

In a nutshell, their lack of planning is not your problem!

Just ignore them, and contact planning. If they had proper permission they'd be fine with you questioning it. What a weird thing to do. So selfish.

We reported our neighbours for their hideous oversized rear extension... the council did nothing.
I would repot them but be prepared to fall out with them and nothing actually get done.

How much of the garden is it taking up?

Some years ago one of our neighbours (not nextdoor) replaced an old garage with a new garage. It was a lot larger and too close to the carriageway.

Several neighbours complained and they were forced to knock it back about two metres at a cost of over £10k. They had to fund the cost themselves as the builders who had built it (and assured them it didn't need planning permission) had gone bust.

Get the local planning office round to look at it before they (possibly) waste more money

Off topic but @bizzylizzy87 are you just ChatGPT?

Most garden buildings, do not require planning permission as they are often covered by permitted development.