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?

@Isittimeformynapyet I was picturing it house garage garage house.

you mean your house is already semi-detached? What options are your considering? I don't think there are any. Your house is, and will remain, a semi 🤷

But detached means not attached to anything.

Any two properties which are attached to each other are not detached - simple as.

Made up estate agent/property industry names are neither here nor there.

I'd prefer to live in a same size 3 bed link attached than a 3 bed semi which was fully attached - but I'd rather live in a 4 bed semi (utilising the space above the link bit) than a 3 bed link attached. But each to their own. Some people would prefer one less bedroom to have less attached wall.

People who have the funds and desire to buy an actual detached property aren't going to be interested in link attached semis or terraces, whatever you name them.

Agreed

Yes. I know.

Really? I can literally see a house that’s partly attached to another house - or partly detached - I.e a semi detached. If you can see a property that completely unattached to its neighbour then I’d respectfully
suggest that perhaps you’re not the one who’s smart.

I think you are getting hung up on the dictionary definition of attached and detached, when the term link-detached is quite specific to the estate agent world and is used to differentiate between different types of property.

Large house-garage-garage-Large house is quite different to
House-house

Both have 2 properties connected to each other, but the first is quite different when it comes to advertising it and (understandably) the first will be more desirable than the second.

Made up estate agent/property industry names are neither here nor there.

Not really. I knew exactly what OP meant by link-detached.

@Loveduppenguin Yes. Typical early 70s builds - or a bit earlier but it shows how a garage csn be the link. It’s not always 2 garages side by side as in the other photo.

I've only heard of link detached through watching homes under the hammer.
They just look like semis to me.
If i was in the market to buy a detached I would scroll past the listing anyway.

The whole house-buying and selling industry seems to be quite liberal with truth in general.

Attached houses being described as 'detached', dubiously small 'double bedrooms', photos taken with such ridiculously wide lenses that a washing machine can look almost as wide as it is tall - not to forget all of the 'ready to proceed cash buyers' who just need to find a buyer for their own properties and then get their mortgage arranged.

@SprayWhiteDung It’s going to be fairly obvious from a quick visit isn’t it? However this lengthy discussion about what’s linked is immaterial as the op says it’s linked via the garage. Therefore like the picture I attached earlier. Or like the modern houses posted by pp. if the garage is as I posted, the new room would probably be against the hall and stairs which are not habitable areas. Therefore it’s not necessarily a big deal.

haha, same era as the ones i know.

I don't know anybody that would consider these terraced houses, even where the garage has been converted

That just begs the question as to why the builders didn't just build them detached in the first place?

Surely planning permission wouldn't be denied if there was a small gap between the houses, would it - even just a foot?

Why would they not want to build actual fully detached houses that they could then sell for considerably more money?

But, on the same size plot, the link attached semi is house, garage, garage, house and the standard semi is large house, large house.

The link attached semi will always be smaller than the equivalent standard semi, as there's just a garage where the standard semi has two storey living space, or a garage with living space behind and above.

Hence why link attached semis aren't worth more than fully attached semis as you're trading off extra space for not having someone attached to your upper wall.

Next door converting their garage to a room wouldn't significantly impact on value. Your house is still the same size, and it's still attached on the ground floor only.

@SprayWhiteDung Don’t buy detached with 12 ins gap! Maintenance of that end with no space is horrendous! Guttering, repointing - anything - is a nightmare. You need room for a scaffolding tower.

Link detached take up less room. The modern houses shown are wide but on narrower plots than they would be with a detached garage and ability to walk round the plot. Developers like a wide house and they know most cannot get family SUVs in the garage so the garage just gets attached to the next door garage because the width of the plot is mostly house which looks more impressive. They know what people will buy and that garages are just for storage.

In older linked detached, kerb appeal was less of an issue and often these houses were narrower but deeper. The whole issue is saving land and getting more houses on site and maximizing profit.

If someone converts their garage how are tradesmen able to access the rear of the property and what would you do with the wheelie bins?

That's a them problem, not a next door neighbour problem. The person who chooses to convert their garage loses though garage access obviously, no impact on NDN.

Yes! My house is like this but even more distanced from the neighbours house because of the angle the houses sit they are almost facing each other but the garages are attached. And there is a wall between the two driveways. It couldn't be less like a semi or a terrace. Nothing wrong with those I have lived in both, but this house is nothing like those.

No, on balance, I think you're probably right about a tiny little gap that you can only access by sending a cat down it!

But if there's such a desire for a house that people can think of as 'essentially detached - not really a semi', I don't see how a three-foot gap couldn't be factored in when planning the space.

It's already a real waste of the available land, adding a single-storey garage/storage room on to the side. If space is at a premium but buyers are clamouring after the idea of detached/kind of detached houses, the obvious solution is to alter the layout of the house slightly so that the garage is integral, with a bedroom or two on top of it.

That way, you can make the house as a whole a bit narrower, whilst still having more liveable room inside, thus freeing up a bit of space for a narrow pathway between the properties and making them actually detached.

In fact, considering that so very few people now actually use garages for keeping cars, I'm surprised that more developers don't offer houses with an extra reception room (or indeed just plenteous internal storage space) instead.

Maybe there's an ingrained idea that a house without a garage is somehow lacking and inferior, but if you're only going to convert it and/or use it for storage anyway, surely it's better when it's already been done for you?

Garage doors aren't particularly attractive in the first place, so if you don't need/want vehicular access, what's the point?

So it's an attached house, but one where you don't have any issues with neighbour noise.

Just like the attached (mid-terraced actually) old Welsh stone cottage where I once lived that had walls that were about 18" thick, so to all intents and purposes, it felt like it was detached. It wasn't actually detached, though.

It does sound rather like snobbery that people cling firmly to the idea that they have a house that is detached or that they can describe as 'basically detached - certainly not a semi' - rather than actually just accepting that they do have an attached house, but a well-designed one where neighbour noise is absolutely not an issue.

I have a terraced house - no access to the rear. Workmen come through the house - it's no issue. Wheelie bins stored at the front - again, no issue.

Well, unless the op converts her garage as well then they will have a garage between them.

I can't believe you've come back almost a week later just to be wrong again 😂.

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