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?

Linked detached makes no sense as a term. It should be linked attached.

Ridiculous! How do you think you would enforce that? Who is going to decide how much imaginary value the house has lost?!

I agree. Sorry, I was being flippant in my earlier post.

There are link detached opposite my house a row of 7 houses all joined by their garages. Mine is a semi detached and I have the same sized house and a huge garden on three sides but the houses opposite go for more money than my semi. Just don't get it. Would I swap with one opposite to get to call my house link detached, nope, not on your nelly!

This is also a link detached so those that are calling them semis, you really aren't making yourselves look smart.

How can you not get it though? You have neighbour bedrooms behind the walls of your bedrooms, they don't.

Interestingly, I've noticed in some of the older parts of our town (and others), there are quite a lot of what would originally have been detached buildings (houses or shops), but which are now terraced.

It's extremely obvious from the very different styles, shapes and higgledy-piggledy looks that later additions must have been built right up to an existing building's wall - in some cases centuries later.

I don't know whether it was just a case of people doing whatever they liked and anybody else can get stuffed, in the absence of planning laws; or maybe it was seen as a positive thing, meaning that the cold wall that you had previously had to pay to heat will now be insulated by a whole new building?!

Locally where are a lot of semi link attached houses.

When permission is granted to extend above the garage or store they have to leave a gap removing the link. It leaves maybe an inch or two so the houses do not become attached. Have you checked their plans to see if that’s the case?

Did you not look at the grounds for planning objections? You can't just make up your own reasons and expect an objection to be considered.

they should read just be called “linked houses”… would make it easier!

If I see a house described as 'link-detached', I roll my eyes. It's a glorified semi/terrace. I am no less likely to view it than if it was truly detached. And even if it DID devalue yours, that isn't a reason to deny planning permission

But they are literally Semi - Detached.

One side of them is detached, one side of them is attached. Hence half (semi) detached.

We are also link detached, I would also be concerned but not for property value reasons but noise. Not sure there is anything you can do about it however.

But 'semi-detached' is not a value judgment; it's just a statement of fact. It means that one side of your house is not attached to anybody else's property, but the other side is - which is clearly the case here.

Even if you disregard the fact that parts of the properties are clearly attached, just because they happen to be designated as garages, those garages could be used for absolutely anything - including a grandparent or adult child using it as their own living space separate from the rest of the family - whether officially converted or not.

The one thing that they are very unlikely to be used as nowadays is as garages to store cars.

Incidentally, if garages 'don't count' when it comes to being attached, how would you describe a row of garages - whether privately or council-owned - if they aren't connected to houses? Would you genuinely describe these as 10 detached (or maybe link-detached) garages?!

Another thing is that people don't just value (truly) detached houses for their perceived lack of noise from next door, but also for the ability to walk/drive around the whole of the property - for maintenance and access reasons.

Even if you have two link-detached houses with two garages between them that are only ever used to store Christmas decorations, their presence will still prevent you from being able to get to that side of your property or through to your back garden that way.

The 'link' means that the houses are attached by something other than a living space, in most cases a garage.

...which is very commonly used as/converted into a living space nowadays, whatever name is used for the room.

Indeed. Prospective buyers would need to read the spec carefully to check whether the garage has been converted.

Do estate agents' particulars normally give you the specifications of a neighbouring house, though?

You can certainly look for any signs of its having been converted, or indeed knock on the neighbour's door and ask them if you desperately want to; but you still can't know about any informal usage of the garage now - or about any plans for usage (informal or officially converted) in the future, by the current residents or any future ones.

Ultimately, if it's a deal-breaker that somebody might be using an attached part of their house as 'living space', your only option is to not buy the house.

When we were looking for a house, we found a really lovely one that ticked virtually all of our boxes, except for it was next to a large plot of grass, which we were concerned could eventually be built on and seriously detract from the spacious, airy feeling and character of the house. We didn't buy it for that reason, and indeed, the plot does now have several houses crammed into it... but even if it were still a plain plot of grass, we still wouldn't know that it could never be built on in our lifetimes.

Easy to assess losses - get a few estate agent valuations and ask each how much value is affected by becoming a semi & how much would be gained by making it detached , general figures

It is and will be a semi-detached. It won’t necessarily go down in value.

@PeedOffNeighbour does their garage join onto your living space or to your garage? I’d be less bothered if it joined onto my garage. I’d be really cross if it was living space!

No, I got a bit confused. You'd only know if the converted house was the one you were buying.
I wonder though - if a linked garage is now a living space, then it is no longer linked, but attached (semi, or terrace I guess). So you might have row of what was built as linked detached, but (where the garage has been converted) might now be a mix of linked and actually joined.

Often round me link detached properties are priced higher because "they aren't semis", and then they don't sell and have to have the prices reduced because everyone knows if your house is attached to another property it isnt "detached" in any way! And therefore can't command the detached premium.

I'm not sure it does.

It just means they're linked (attached) together. I think they'd still be "link detached/attached" if they were linked by a living room rather than a garage. It just means a link attachment rather than a full wall attachment

They can be both "link detached/attached" and "semi-detached" or "terraced". I would actually say that "link detached/attached is just a subset of semi-detached or terraced houses. The fact they are attached by a link rather than a full wall doesn't stop them being attached on one side and detached on the other - hence semi-detached, or attached on both sides, thereby terraced.

I think the estate agent name of "Link Detached" rather than the more accurate description of "Link Attached" has led people to think they are a subset of Detached houses. But clearly they are not, as they are attached on at least one side to a neighbouring property. They are not, in any way, shape or form fully unattached to the neighbouring property, so are not detached houses. To be a detached, they need to not be attached to a neighbouring property on any side.

They may be a preferable layout to fully attached semis or fully attached terraces, I can certainly see some advantages. But that doesn't stop two properties who are link attached to each other being semi detached and it doesn't make them detached properties.

I disagree.
I have looked it up.

According to RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors), a link detached property or house is a term given to residential units that share no common walls with another house or dwelling. They are, however, typically linked together by a garage.

A garage is not classed as part of the house or dwelling (yes I know it can be converted - I am talking about cases where it has not been).

I dunno - I think house-garage-garage-house would be more like living in a detached house (no shared walls with living space of another property).
Terrace or semi I would know that we have shared walls with living spaces.