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?

@PeedOffNeighbour Does this mean they no longer have access to the back of their house from the front?

@BigAnne ? They have a front door and a back door. Same as before. Converting a garage doesn’t alter this.

They kind of are.

But the main reason people object to terraces is noise. And probably stuff like building permissions (for example it is harder maybe to do a loft conversion on a terrace because you often need permission from 2 sides rather than 1).

If you convert a garage that is next to someone elses living space you might be changing the potential for noise transmission. Normally the garage would just be used for a car, but if it was made into a drum kit practicing room for a teen, then obviously that would have noise consequences.

These are typical linked detached. Converting a garage doesn’t make much difference to privacy.

I feel for you OP but your neighbours have a right to convert garage to new room.
I have recently moved from a leasehold home that was granted planning permission for construction of additional floors on neighbouring buildings. Despite extensive opposition and legal processes, planning application has been approved.
I'm sorry if your neighbour's plans devalue your property, that is very frustrating

We have just sold our link detached house.
For those insisting they are not detached, in value terms it was considered by estate agents as same as a "true" detached house and more than a semi detached.
It sold quickly, so buyers agreed.
Our neighbour partially converted their garage, so extra room at rear but still garage at front.
Only one potential buyer commented on the room at rear.
A full conversion would likely have a bigger impact though.
I wasn't happy when neighbour did this though and still am not really as I do now feel when in garden that they are right on our boundary when we were separated by width of both garages before.
We can't hear them at all from in house, as we still have garage and another living space between us but they have commented they can hear our tumble dryer in garage - tough luck!

Really can't understand people saying linked-detached is the same as semi-detached, are you for real?

There a huge difference. With semis, you have people living behind your bedroom walls, your living room walls. You can essentially hear them depending on insulation.
With linked-detached, there are two garages between your living spaces. Even if one person converts, that still leaves one garage in between. It's nothing like semis.

In this conversation, you would only have a wall separating the two living areas.
In OPs situation, there will still be a garage in between.

Yeah, "i dont want them to" isnt a valid reason for rejecting a planning application.

Just wait until they stick a bedroom on top of the garage, then you'll be really upset.

A link detached is actually a posh name for a semi. Garages are often converted, so it was probably always on the cards buying a link detached house

God they are ugly…🤣 sorry

@Loveduppenguin those are 1970's houses with flat roofed garages. google them yourself and there are lots of different styles and are quite common on new build estates from the 1990s onwards.

The whole terraced/semi detached snobbery, the house is separated by at least 2.5m on either side from their neighbour, it gives a bigger plot as the back gardens are bigger. I lived in one. If my neighbour converted their garage it would be next to my lounge due to the layout of the property. That means noise from day to day living makes it through the wall like it was a semi detached house rather than it being detached. Plus there is no upstairs noise from the neighbour, no loud shagging being heard through your bedroom wall, no babies crying all night. They are detached.

Plus access to the back garden is through the garage, there is always a pedestrian door for access. It does mean it is less likely to be burgled as they cannot get into your back garden by going down the side passage of the house.

Where I lived you could not convert the link detached garage, it is in the deeds of the property and pointed out by the solicitors when buying. The local planning refused every single one as there were no permitted development rights so you had to apply for planning (free of charge) and it comes under change of use which was refused.

I know exactly what they are..I’ve seen them and been In them…I just think they are fairly drab looking but that’s the 70’s for ya 🤣

@Loveduppenguin I grew up in one as a child of the 70s so they have a special place in my heart. Plus the mad carpet designs at the time, so funny looking back at photos and thinking, your parents' chose that in a shop of so many options.

Our house is attached to next doors by an upstairs bedroom and is still known as a link detached?are they building up as well?

Personally I think the term "link detached" is a load of bollocks. They are a terrace!

No one has the power to make them compensate. They have abided by planning regulations.

I can see how it might be missed in online searches by people who only tick 'semi-detached' and not 'terraced'; but I don't see how it would materially lower the value of their house.

People know that end-terrace and semi-detached are effectively the same thing; the only differences might be if a semi has a drive and more land than an end-terrace - presumably because terraces tend to be built originally as less 'premium' and spacious housing - although not always.

The main thing that the neighbour has done is seriously lower the value of their own house, by converting it from a semi to a mid-terrace.

Oh they are not. I lived in a terrace. A link detached would have been massively better!

The link can either be house-garage-garage-house, or house-garage-house.

OP says "separated from my neighbour by their garage" so I think hers is house-garage-house so the garage conversion will result in house-house (albeit only the ground floor).

A garage very much is commonly living space nowadays.

Gone are the days when they were almost exclusively used to keep a car in or for a bit of occasionally-accessed storage. People may not actually change the door or any other exterior part of it, but they will still very frequently use it as an extended living area.

Any part of the building of somebody else's property can be used for just about anything. They could change the layout however they want - including using the garage as a dining room and hosting noisy dinner parties for a dozen people every evening.

Even keeping to 'traditional' garage usage, they would often function as workshops. You could have a neighbour who is a full-time carpenter, who works from home to make up customers' orders, using noisy power tools for 8 hours every day.

You're totally right. They have one garage in between.

Oh the carpets…yes!! Same…so crazy and always brown!! Why!? It’s like brown and red were the only colours in the 70’s/80’s 🤣🤣

Link detached will not be listed as terrace in property searches.

Incidentally, why are they known as link-detached, when it would make a lot more sense to call them link-attached?

Is it detached? No.
Is it attached? Yes, but only by one or two parts that were originally built as (a) garage(s).
Ergo 'link-attached'.

Presumably estate-agent speak trying to make them sound grander.