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.

I wouldn’t bother discussing it with your neighbours. Use planning portal.co.uk. You can click on your local authority to find out the specific rules but if it’s within 2 m of your boundary it can’t be high than 2.5 m itself. Let’s just say they were given bad information by the builder.

I know a diagram will help. In your case, as long as the building doesn't cover more than 50% of the curtilage around the property, this is permitted development.

At that scale would it need a party wall agreement?

For a start, the entire thread is about whether it is permitted or not, with many thinking it wouldn't be, and the OP saying in her first post 'no planning permission'.

And second, things such as a 4.5m structure that puts half of OP's garden in the shade ... Well, I think you can work out why OP might be 'policing it'.

We built a summer house a few years ago and the lady behind complained saying it was too big and too close to our house. It doesn’t affect her in any way, shape or form. It is in the same place as the previous garage was that was falling down. Someone from the council came and agreed it didn’t affect her and we didn’t need planning permission but asked us to lower the pitch of the roof. It wasn’t a massive job so we did just that. It actually looks bigger now as the roof is flatter. If the roof hasn’t been done yet then it’s no problem to lower the pitch.

The OP has stated that there is a slope and her garden is stepped down, so it's presumably quite a steep hill.

I'm guessing that this is the Crystal Palace area of London with housing built upon very steep gradients.

As per @100Bees's excellent diagram, it could easily be 4.5 metres at the boundary and still the correct height based upon the horizontal from the highest point.

A diagram / section through to show the slope would be helpful but
if neighbours land is higher than yours the max ht is taken from the highest point. If you land slopes away from your neighbours then their building will invariably be higher than the max allowed as seen on your land OP because you are lower than them.

That sounds like my worst nightmare.

I had neighbours try to do similar but they had so many complaints that luckily it was dealt with and although they didn’t have to pull it down they were stopped from renting it out of having anyone staying in it overnight so at least the noise stopped.
Everyone in neighbouring houses were so relieved the noise and comings and goings had ended that we just put up with the extension afterwards, it caused a lot of drama and arguments and no one spoke to the people who built it afterwards.

This attached from an online discussion confirms what I and others have said about measuring the height from the highest point.

@Datafan55 many posters think it isn’t PD because the OP said it was 4.5m in height, however, OP also thought that the height should be measured from the foundations rather than the highest point so the measurement she has taken is likely not the relevant measurement. She also hasn’t clarified whether the measurement was taken from her garden or from her neighbours garden, or what roof pitch the building has. There’s a lot of variables!

I sympathise. What selfish silly people. It will be looking into your living and sleeping area windows too as well as taking the light away.
Put a desk against a windowsill upstairs, looking into your garden/their office so they can have some company.
Selfish thoughtless stupid individuals. The damage the not so bright do is terrible.
Report it. Nobody needs an overbearing monstrosity overlooking their garden.

Slope/ elevation is material, if their garden is below the height of yours then it gives them more height to play with. It sounds like they have broken the permitted development rules though. Report it to your local planning team who will visit and sort it. If they are useless I can recommend https://www.gardenlaw.co.uk/ forum for getting some pointers in how to get it sorted. Generally nuisance angles are more successful than right to enjoy your property. You will probably also need z full land survey of your garden to show the elevations etc and demonstrate where the rules have been broken. Bl00dy good luck 💪

Karma will come and get you 😊

It does meet planning. Did you read it?

I was curious as well and wondering the same. I tried to search the user name but the posts have been removed now.

I was hoping someone could give us the gist of what was posted without breaking the guidelines.

Height:
A garden office must be single-story with a maximum eaves height of 2.5 meters. The overall height, including the roof, can be up to 4 meters for a dual-pitched roof, or 3 meters for any other roof type, unless it's within 2 meters of a boundary, where the overall height is limited to 2.5 meters.

Location:
The garden office cannot be placed forward of the principal elevation of the house (generally the front of the house). It also cannot be closer to a public road or footpath than the main house.

Coverage:
The total area of buildings, including the garden office and any other existing outbuildings, cannot cover more than 50% of the land surrounding the "original house" (which includes any extensions or outbuildings built on the property since 1948).

Use:
The garden office can be used for a variety of purposes like a home office, study, or workshop, but it cannot be used as a living accommodation, such as a bedroom or a self-contained dwelling.

Exceptions:
If the garden office is used as a sleeping accommodation, it will require planning permission. Also, if it is within the curtilage (the grounds) of a listed building, planning permission will be required.

In summary, a garden office can be built under permitted development in London, but it must comply with the specified height, location, coverage, and use restrictions. If any of these rules are not followed, you will need to apply for planning permission.

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OPs garden is at a lower level to her neighbours. Hence the new building whilst within permitted development rights ( assuming it is ) within her neighbours garden it would be higher on OPs side.
That is acceptable

What matters is they built something looking into her garden and taking the light away from the garden and some of the house.
Scum

It was an AI bot

Repotting the neighbours? Seems a bit extreme!

Complain to your local councillor (if you have a good one) and ask them to raise it with the Planning Department for you. Councils tend to actually deal with complaints from Councillors.

I'd report. If doesn't need planning it's not an issue but sounds like it does

That's not what gaslighting means.

Absolutely yes, you should report this.

@Tripleblue well that’s what matters to the OP, but that doesn’t matter to anyone else if the development falls within the permitted development rules