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.

The 2m isn't measured at the boundary unless the garden is flat. It's 2m to the eaves measured from the highest point that the structure touches in the neighbour's garden.

It seems that the OP and neighbour's houses are built on a pretty extreme hill because the OP has stated that the shed is level with the roof of the OP's house.

Presumably this structure is a kit/log cabin and they're specifically designed to be placed at the boundary without needing planning permission.

I would be reporting as well @Soontobesingles

I wonder if OP is sending that into the council as evidence 😂, not an artist LOL nor am I but honestly a toddler with a crayon could do a better job than that!

We have a garden office OP, that falls under permitted development, we spoke to both of our neighbours before installation, and showed them the CAD images and measurements beforehand, surely they have similar that will prove the measurements of the garden building. I would ask to see this before I reported it to the council. Government portal shows quite clearly the rules on garden buildings.

PD rules are clear. Interpreting them on the ground is another matter.
OP - you say it fills most of the garden. Has the property had any previous extensions etc? New additions, outbuildings etc can only cover up to 50% of the land surrounding the original house (so that includes the front garden as well), but it sounds as though that could be something to get the Council to look at as well as all the height issues.

I would report it first thing this morning. Ring them, and then a follow-up email with photos, copied to your local Councillors as well. Their details should be on the Council website.

It's very doubtful that this results in more than 50% of the plot being occupied. The OP has already complained that they've built it at the side of the house, rather than in the rear garden.

If the structure is within 2m of the boundary, as the OP states, it does not matter how high the garden is, whether it is flat or sloping - it cannot be more than 2.5m high. Full stop. It does not matter whether the boundary is a cliff or a trench all that matters is that building itself is within 2m of the boundary and it is more than 2.5m high from its base to the highest point of its roof.

Honestly it really isn’t complicated. Ground height is irrelevant and is not referenced at all.

OP please just call building control at the council.

@CautiousLurker01 it is relevant. The GPDO states:

”Unless the context otherwise requires, any reference in this Order to the height of a building or of plant or machinery is to be construed as a reference to its height when measured from ground level; and for the purposes of this paragraph “ground level” means the level of the surface of the ground immediately adjacent to the building or plant or machinery in question or, where the level of the surface of the ground on which it is situated or is to be situated is not uniform, the level of the highest part of the surface of the ground adjacent to it.”

In order to ascertain whether or not the building within 2m of the boundary is over 2.5m high, you need to measure it. In order to get the relevant measurement, you need to measure it from the relevant place. The land being sloped is material to how the building is measured.

The height of the building, enclosure or container should be measured from the highest ground level immediately adjacent to the building, enclosure, or container to its highest point.

From the Government's Technical Guide to PD. So the land levels definitely do matter.

And it's Development Control/Planning Enforcement, not Building Control, that deals with Planning legislation.

That wasn’t what planning told me on a site visit, but perhaps it was because both mine and neighbours gardens are level. They were very direct… where we were planning to place our structure was within 2m of the boundary fence so could not be over 2.5m high.

OP still needs to speak to planning (and it was building control people who visited us when neighbour contested an occluded window installed under PD, so I assumed this was who you contacted.)

Also, given the OP says the structure is 4.5m to its highest point, this would mean that the slope would have to have a gradient difference of 2m within the 2m boundary? Ie, a chunk of the structure would need to be set within 2m depth?

And as the builder would have esccavate that slope to lay the level concrete slab foundation, which has to extend 30cm from the base of the estructure… the measurement would still be from the base of the structure in actuality? Ie, I think people are trying to see a loophole where there really isn't one. The highest point of the land immediately adjacent then will be the additional concrete slab that protrudes from beneath the garden office?

@CautiousLurker01 have a look at @ThisOldThangdiagram or @100Bees to visualise where the measurement would be taken from, and how it’s possible for the building to be within the PD rules yet appear much larger to OP.

It’s not a loophole either, it’s literally the rule. It was intentional that buildings should be measured this way when on a slope. It’s not some kind of happy accident that people use to skirt the planning regime.

OP, have you contacted anyone at the council yet?

I'd be livid about this from OP's drawing. They're putting it up sideways along the boundary fence not even at the bottom of their garden facing in. What an eyesore for OP and loss of natural light into OP's garden.
Report report report.
Good luck OP I hope there is something that can be done

There is no need to escavate the slope for foundation.

Yes if it’s flat roof it’s 2.5M

Report it OP.

If its within the regs, they have nothing to worry about.

If its not, which I suspect it isn't, then the money they've wasted serves them bloody right.

This is giving me flashbacks. Our neighbours built a ‘gym’ in their garden. My first clue that it wasn’t a gym (apart from the fact they clearly had never seen the inside of a sports centre in their lives) was the massive foundations. V long story short, despite my complaints to the council, they managed to build a 2 bed bungalow, move in with their 3 kids and rent out their 3 bed, galley kitchen, 1 tiny bathroom (same layout as mine) as a HMO to loads of blokes. Perfectly nice blokes but it was not fun living next door as they used the front of the house for all their phone calls and the sheer volume of humanity in and out.
council wouldn’t listen.
they eventually put it on the market and had the cheek to market the house as having a 2 bedroom dwelling in the garden.

I sent the listing to the planning department as a final act of protest.

in the meantime they had rented out rooms to vulnerable women with children, living in utter squalor.

they got away with it for about a decade.

so….DONT PUT UP WITH THIS CRAP

We put up a cabin but were careful to ensure it was1m away from the boundary, and less than 2.5m in height. Since then, permitted development changes have allowed many people to build right up to the boundary, and over 2.5m tall, so you should go onto your local council website and check first.
If the neighbours are in the wrong, go ahead and object with the deprivation of light reason - they should have checked this before spending money!

Have you agreed a party wall agreement? If the new structure is on our near the boundary they need one otherwise you can sue them and will win. It is a legal requirement.

yes this is the one thing that stands out. There are different conditions depending upon how close to the boundary that it is. I built a garden studio and was VERY careful to keep distances / total area/ height according to the planning dept rules. I had a flat / slightly sloped roof too, so the height had to be really carefully considered.

Of course someone still reported it, but gossip on the street was that it was very bad form to do so, as they were not immediate neighbours and didnt impact those either, and was based on 'how can she afford THAT' type of jealousy.

Council and HA were both happy with it.

Yes did an online form this morning, not heard anything. Our council is generally shite and underfunded so no idea if this will actually result in any action.

Why don’t you go to the offices and speak with someone?

@Roselilly36 that was also our experience. It’s why people build these monstrosities in their gardens they are just classed as garden buildings. The planning departments don’t care. Unless London is different? In our previous house a neighbour built 4 (yes 4!) giant sheds in his garden. The planning department were not interested and that was in a conservation area as well.

My god! @Anonformum that sounds horrendous.