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?

An estate agent description 😂 that well known honest profession.

I have bought one house in my life. Nearly 30 years ago. I'm in it now.
My dealings with EAs have been limited. It seems like this is a good thing!

@BigAnne Where did the wheelie bins go before? These houses have no side path. If in the garage then the car isn’t in it. They’ve always had bin problems.

In the back garden. Garage has door at the rear. Everyone parks on the drive.

I think it should be the law that when something is built that devalues neighbouring properties, the developer should be made to compensate them. Shame it isnt

Our house is link detached and the ‘garage’ attached to our house was converted from a garage to a habitable Annex with its own front door. Didn’t devalue our house and we’re still listed as a ‘link house’. Unless they’re building another story, there’s no issue. We all live happily and love our neighbours - not worth the fight imo.

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.

Does it? 😆

"Link detached" is just "semi with delusions of grandeur, though". Do they really carry much more value than a semi?

I've always seen them as semis, loads convert the garage & build on top near me.

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.

It really depends on the build & layout. I grew up in a large old semi with the stairs attached & there was one room that joined downstairs & one bedroom. The rest was hall & landing. We didn't hear any noise. I've stayed in new build detached houses with a tiny gap where I could hear next doors conversation with the windows open.

How far do you take it, though? Desirable houses that benefit from being surrounded by fields and countryside should be compensated when other people who don't have homes at all need new ones building in those fields?

Same with beautiful views that end up more restricted/removed because of new buildings that block them?

Most of a house's locational desirability - and thus value - is determined by factors that are not owned, controlled or instigated by the homeowner and which are, basically, just luck. You were lucky to get there first and benefit by good fortune; but now the drawbridge is pulled up and other people shouldn't get a look-in?

Does it work the other way as well? Should homeowners whose house values increase if new transport links, aspects of 'gentrification' or great new shopping facilities are built have to pay the government, Starbucks or Tesco?

Apparently, wheelie bins are such a nasty, cheapening, negative, downmarket thing; yet if you tried to scrap them and take them away from householders, that would be bad too!

The logical conclusion must be that anybody giving a viewing of their house or accepting an offer on bin day must expect the price to be significantly lower than if they'd done it the day before or after!

I'm in London, the presence or lack of a bin doesn't even register on my wish list when viewing a property!

I was referring to areas where every house on the street has 4 wheelie bins at the front permanently as there's no where else to put them. I live on such a street.

In London it's very normal to see million pound houses with wheelie bins 🤷🏻‍♀️

Sorry, I wasn't meaning to get at you personally. It's just that so many people seem to have a love-hate relationship with wheelie bins: almost like a Victorian 'seen and not heard' attitude to children but then also relying on them to work long shifts on the family farm!

No need to apologise and yes they're a necessary evil.

The usual link detached with just a garage attached is more valued than a semi detached because there is no 'party wall' effect, since the occupants of a garage are inanimate objects as long as they are in the garage.

If there are two garages together in the link, there is still more privacy and no - hopefully - noise, but if the garage is NOT attached to another garage but to the property next door, there would be a risk of noise being carried into the adjudging house.

That would most likely devalue the property, especially if they are noisy neighbours. That is something that wasn't bargained for when the OP bought the house.

It is difficult to vote without knowing if the properties are linked by two garages. That would not greatly devalue your house, since it is still really link detached.

If their garage is attached to the wall of your house, then there is a problem. That is more like a semi detached, because if someone living in the conversion is noisy and it carries into your property, then your house might be devalued.

If that is the case, and building work has not been started, ask the council buildings inspector for a site visit, and ask him what soundproofing the applicants have in their plans.

I live on an estate of mainly detached houses began in the late 1960s. They were surrounded by countryside and those with views commanded quite high prices. My house now has about the only view of sorts left - the school playing field is opposite.
In the 1990s a small estate off the main road was built of half a dozen homes which sold for up to £1million. It was more or less gated without the gate

In 2023 the new building estates started with a vengeance, mixture of detached and semis, all built around the detached houses started in 1967, and still being built on what was extensively fields. All lost their views.

When covid struck in 2020 many of the residents of the original detached properties died, either of covid or old age or both, or were incarcerated in the local chintz prison.

As the values were dropping, they were bought up by a partnership of property managers and letting agents, enlarged a little and turned into duplexes. Now many of them have the same facades, front doors, etc. and a rented out ate rents of at least £2500 a month.

God help us if the new builds not sold are among those the government says must be bought by councils to house illegal immigrants leaving hotels.

Who says life is dull? I am chronic disabled and housebound except for the occasional appointment, so limited to a wheelchair, I see more than most even indoors.

there is no 'party wall' effect, since the occupants of a garage are inanimate objects as long as they are in the garage.

But you really cannot possibly know how people will routinely use their garage.

They could store a motorbike in it and be one of those odd people who constantly rev it for hours (hopefully with the door open, for their own safety/survival).

They could have a gym in there and be using noisy equipment and thudding weights on to the floor. They could have a set of drums or other loud musical instrument in there.

They could have a home cinema, with regular loud surround-sound showings for large groups of friends. They could use it as a base for their business where they use noisy machinery to make goods to sell on Etsy.

It really is far from the accepted norm nowadays for everybody to store a car or occasionally-accessed boxes in their garages. Plenty do; but plenty don't.

My understanding is that ink detached is is joined by a non habitable room... ie a garage.
You don't get the noise from next door.

You are quite right, you cannot know what goes on in garages these days.......