Neighbour’s garage conversion will devalue our house

[PeedOffNeighbour]

NC’d as previous posts give away the area I’m from.

My house is ‘link detached’ - separated from my neighbour by their garage.

They have applied for planning permission to convert their garage to a habitable room and this has been successful.

My written objection was thrown out - I said that essentially it would make my house semi detached and this would adversely impact my property value (backed up by local estate agents I consulted).

I am now reviewing my options and rule nothing out. Does anyone else find the approval of such plans utterly unfair?

This their plans won't make it semi detached....it already is

Link detached may be a paradox, but it is definitely not an oxymoron.

Your house is going to be no more or no less detached than it was before. You sound like a nightmare of a neighbour.

Whilst I hope the said neighbours have not paved over their lawn for their car, I can see why adding a room is preferable to moving, and don't blame them. Less business for estate agents is not a bad thing in my book.

Your house is only devalued if and when you plan to move.

Are you planning to move?

Its really common here @PeedOffNeighbour.There are lots of these with garage conversions and an room built over so they are basically now terraced houses. Doesn't seem to effect the value of the unconverted ones, they are worth less than the bigger converted ones, obviously.

Link detached is like gas lighting, it’s not detached. If someone wants a detached they will buy one. Everyone knows link detached is a silly “other” name for semi detached. I can’t see it will make a difference to a potential buyer.

I think people simply don't reread before they post. Same with emails.

I live in a large 5 bed house that is link detached.

It is absolutely not the same as a semi. Both houses have their own plots at the end of a cul de sac, separate large driveways and a double garage each. The only join in our houses is the wall that links the two double garages. There also a wall between the two driveways.

The street is very very quiet and of course we cannot hear our neighbours in our house, there are two double garages between us!

It really isn't a "semi with delusions of grandeur" if you saw it you'd realise.

OP I would be very upset if my neighbours did this, however I think it practically shouldn't cause a problem unless you were to convert your garage too. That would mean you would have two rooms joining each other which would feel more like a semi. If you do nothing you'll still have a garage between you and their living space. Again that's not the same as a semi I guess, but I wouldn't be happy about it and I'll be watching carefully if our current neighbour ever moves!

Party Wall act?

There's a lot of link detached properties around here.

They don't become semis when the extension is built. They are still sold as link detached.

It doesn't appear to affect prices - you have the potential to expand and other planning permission granted on the street means you are exceptionally unlikely to be refused. This holds the price up.

I genuinely do not think it affects prices at all around here. It's a sought after little estate.

Arguably if there's still A Garage between you and next door (yours) then when you sell your agent could probably still call it link detached.

I don't think it will make loads of difference, would be worse if they were building on top of their garage.

Link detached is a fragile term. It basically means semi detached by the garage. So now it will be demo detached by a garage / room.

Semi detached houses are cheaper than detached. Link detached was probably somewhere in the middle of the prices

The OP states:

My house is ‘link detached’ - separated from my neighbour by their garage.

Which indicates that the houses are: house, garage, house, garage etc; rather than house, garage, garage, house... so only one garage separating the houses, therefore the OP won't have a garage between them if the neighbours convert.

To be fair, "linked detached" is just estate agent BS, it always was a semi.

It won't devalue your home.

Anyway, you will still have your garage between the 2 living areas so noise won't be an issue.

Yes, this.

With two garages (one each) between us and our neighbours it really is not the same as a semi detached. We have no living space attached and therefore hear no noise at all. Completely different to having living space connected and the associated noise with that.

I would be concerned if my neighbour wanted to convert their garage tbh. And we would still have our garage between us.

I think the OP is reasonable to be concerned as from the sounds of it there is only one garage between their houses so there would now be living space attached. That said, not sure what she could do about it if anything.

Tough!

Your neighbours are responsible for the value of their house (which they're clearly investing in), not yours.

They're playing by the rules and you need to not be a sore loser.

There is a house near me that was turned from a semi into an end-terrace, because the other semi built a whole new house on their end. There was nothing they could do, although their house is now devalued, as it would have to be listed by estate agents as terraced, even though it hasn’t changed. It also means people who want a semi may automatically exclude it from their search, even though living in it wouldn’t really be any different.

So they now have a room that’s attached to your garage? So your house is still detached from their house?

Sounds fine to me. Really, who uses a garage these days?

But why would you be concerned? Your house still wouldn’t be attached to theirs.

It sounds like there’s an idea that a detached house (link or otherwise) is only detached if there’s a certain amount of space between the houses

Surely any house that isn’t attached to another, even if there’s on a metre or two between them, is detached.

Around here the linked detached (hardly ever built now) are not necessarily worth more than semis. Depends on plot and aesthetics of the house. Plus locations were not great - more fur coat but no knickers. I don’t think they are considered desirable. The op just needs to convert her garage. The larger house will be a better bet anyway, unless someone is desperate for a garage. Planning ought to consider parking though!

Our house was originally link detached with our garage being attached to our neighbours garage. The previous owners of our house built a two storey extension converting the garage into a room and also building behind and above but on discussion with their neighbour (still our neighbours) they split the party wall and brought it several feet inwards making both properties detached with a passage way on our side. They then rebuilt a double size garage on the other side as it is a corner plot. Our neighbours also extended above and behind at a later date although they had to leave the garage integral. So now both fully detached. Is that an option?

Link-detached with the garage converted won’t make your house a semi! If it goes house-garage-house-garage, it was always a terrace.

Reminds me of estate agent names for London areas: St. Reatham. Clapham Garden Surbub (Brixton). Cruschend (Crouch End). West Greenwich (Deptford). Buh-tuh-ze-ah (Battersea).

Look at your deeds (or their deeds) and see what is said about the garage, as others have said it may not be allowed to change use. You can do this on line at land registry for a small fee. Consult a lawyer if you want to try and proceed with some sort of legal challenge, but probably a waste of money unless you can find some better reason to object.

Can you get other neighbours to object on principle or have they already done it (converted their garages)?