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?

I realise no replies from OP for a week so I’m talking to the abyss but so is whoever bumped this up into Active tonight.
Agree that link detached ≠ detached in anyone’s mind. Extensions have raised house prices in our neighbourhood without fail, they bring the road up and everyone follows suit - anything that gets sold you can pretty much guarantee improvements will be made and thus house prices will rise.

Im not understanding how their garage could become attached to your house?

It’s already a semi attached, no one views a ‘link detached’ as a detached.

It’s already attached, but the adjoining wall is between the two garages and OP thinks that makes a massive difference.

@Jc2001 reactivated the thread to let us all know that she STILL doesn't understand the house/garage set-up. Similar with @Hodgemollar and @Laura95167

I'll try one more time.

Original build was:
house-garage-house-garage-house-garage etc.

Convert one garage into house.

It's now:
house-house-house-garage-house-garage etc.

It's so easy!

This one is still described as link detached despite having converted the garage:

https://www.reedsrains.co.uk/property/link-detached-house-for-sale-broadoak-drive-lanchester-dh7-id-cos250253#

A link property was never detached in the first place.

A linked detached is detached in the sense that it doesn't share a living space wall with its neighbour. But IMO if you can't walk round your house it's not detached.

@Isittimeformynapyet Yes that’s true but does it make much difference to the value of the piggy in the middle house. The garage was against non living space - hall in many cases. It’s not a huge issue if garage is converted in many cases and will get pp - might not even need it.

I agree, your approach makes much more sense. No matter what linguistic contortions you go to, if you can’t walk all the way round a house it’s not detached and so the word detached has no place in the description :)

There's nothing you can do. It was a risk when you bought your house presumably

I have absolutely no idea. 😄

Yes, this is the whole reason why people value (genuinely) detached houses. With a semi/terrace/link-attached, you will hopefully get good, considerate, respectful neighbours; but ultimately you're always dependent on how your neighbours use their house (including their garage) for your own full enjoyment of and noise levels in your own house.

Even if you're attached to just one house, which is home to a single person who doesn't watch TV, listen to music or have guests and sits in their armchair reading all day, that's still just a snapshot, as they could move out (or die) at any time and be replaced by cacaphonic non-stop party animals.

I would let the neighbour know that if you decided to do the same then both houses would be considered semis and would be valued as such. They might not have thought of this. Also check deeds etc about conversion.

This house for sale and others like it are described as detached. I lived in one similar. No one called it a semi.

That’s a very vibes based interpretation of the word detached. It’s literally not detached. It couldn’t be less detached. It’s ATtached. Words have meanings.

Is the house and the garage attached?

Honestly you come across mental referring to your house as detached if that’s the case. Delusions of grandeur really.

If it’s attached to something it’s literally not detached.

I would call that link-detached ie pretty much detached, just joined with a garage - not the living space.

Please don’t call me mental. The EA description on this house and similar call them detached.

I agree. I’m assuming OP’s house is similar.

I wonder how many people believe that the houses are actually not in any way connected to another property then, and have a surprise when they come to view the house. It's a pain to have to take what an EA listing says with large grains of salt and have to do your own research.

If I read that a house was detached I would expect there to be space (albeit in some cases it's barely enough to get a skinny cat down) all round the property.

The listing is here : https://www.onthemarket.com/details/13634552/

DETACHED FAMILY HOME is in bold no less!
You'd be a bit pissed off to trundle along and find both garages have been converted - one to a bedroom and the other to a music studio!

When I was looking at houses to buy 20 years ago, I always felt "link detached" was a misnomer and they're actually terraced houses.

That said, the link detached were cheaper, so that's already reflected in the price?

They're known as link detached. It doesn't really matter whether you like the description or not 🙂

Semi-detached is also a strange description if you think about it - surely either a house is detached or it isn't right? But everyone understands what these descriptions mean so it's fine.

When you see a row of houses linked by garages that have been converted the fronts are littered with wheelie bins. This does impact on resale prices.