If you have a big extension to your home, AIBU to think you should consider the impact on your neighbours?

[angelos02]

Neighbour is having a huge extension - so much so, we have found out that they are moving out for 6 months. It will have a huge impact on my life - noise, scaffolding etc. At the end of it I will have lost a huge amount of view - they will gain everything and the only person to be negatively impacted is me! So do I just have to suck it up as it is just the way things are now?

Ive never had an extension done but I did have some internal refurbishment a few years ago when I first purchased. No impact on neighbours as its an end detached. I had a skip on my locked driveway. One cheeky oik decided he would get rid of some of his own rubbish by flinging it over the fence into the skip. Most of it landed in my garden. If he had asked in a conciliatory manner I would have allowed him to put stuff in the skip once my workmen had finished. One of them saw him while he was in his van waiting to start work. The entire load of rubbish ended up back on the neighbours doorstep to greet him when he returned from work. Oh I would love to have seen his face.

That’s why planning applications exist so that neighbours have the chance to object on grounds such as those.

I went through this last year and I also worked from home so it was challenging to say the least.

One of the big problems was their scaffolding in front of my patio doors so I could not enjoy my garden and the noise. I had to come to an arrangement ovr hours of work - no weekend work etc. Sadly that and checking the plans did not encroach my land was all I could do.

Not all local authorities require a Daylight/Sunlight report in accordance with BRE 209. If planning consent has been granted, or the extension falls under permitted development, what steps do you think can be taken retrospectively?

You will gain in a roundabout way. When properties on your street are being renovated and expanded, your street becomes a more desirable place to live which means the value of your property goes up.

We had to do a complete renovation in our house when we bought it.
We got it cheap but it was a wreck and it meant long evenings and weekends drilling, banging and other work related noise as we were doing it ourselves around work.

I went to speak to the neighbours beforehand and they said dont worry but I had a feeling they didnt realise how bad it was going to be. I went round on a regular basis to check in with them. Their attitude was the more you do now, the sooner it'll be over with!
They used to come round with tea and cake,' to keep us going' as they used to say to us!

I’ve asked neighbours to be considerate and schedule building projects in winter when windows are shut and I’m less likely to be enjoying the garden
But this can be the worst time to try and get building work done with the bad weather and mess due to high volumes of rain, also it gets dark earlier so you'd find the job will cause more mess and drag on a lot longer due to weather delays. Also I'm not sure how long ago you did work but builders are very busy and you don't always get much choice in when they're free to schedule in your renovation

In my experience, neighbour objections rarely stop permission being given.

Our semi-detached neighbours built an extension, converted the loft, put a new kitchen in and then a new bathroom

2 years of this. Most of it done during school holidays, as one of them was a teacher and wanted to oversee things. 2 solid years of noise and disruption every holiday and most weekends.

they were nice Christian people, very nice-nice

i have feelings about this 😅 but kept it nice, albeit storming over a few times when they started unreasonably early

But yeah, kept nice as I thought getting angry and falling out would be bad for my own mental health

then a year later they sold up

That’s because the objections need to relate to planning policy to be relevant. Just saying it will be noisy and affect your view won’t stop planning permission being granted.

That’s not actually correct. If someone carries out works that are notifiable under the Party Wall etc Act 1996 and don’t follow the procedures, the redress is under common law and the courts do not take a favourable view of people who don’t serve party wall notices when they should be doing.

Roadrunner Properties v Dean was such a case and the judge held that the onus was on the ‘developer’ to prove that they hadn’t caused damage rather than the affected neighbour having to prove they did.

www.blbsolicitors.co.uk/blog/my-neighbour-has-ignored-the-party-wall-act-what-can-i-do/

We had a large extension built back in the day. My parents were moving in with our family as my DM was disabled/getting worse and DF struggling to cope. We looked at moving to a bigger house to accommodate us all but it was impossible to find what we needed (had to have downstairs bedroom for DM). In the end we managed to figure out how we could extend the house we already had to make it work for us all. We lived in the house (not my DP) whilst it was being done and it was a bit of a nightmare and probably for the neighbours as well. Good relations were preserved however. Since then and many years later most of the houses in the road have been sold and new young families moved in, most of whom have redeveloped/extended. The houses needed it and so will ours when we eventually move on (updating that is, not more extending I shouldn't think). Ironically our house is now much too big for us!

(in UK) There are laws that cover your ‘Right to Light”, maybe ask a solicitor?

Are you suggesting that they shouldn’t be free to sell it whenever they feel like it just because they had building work done?

What’s them being Christian got to do with building works?

Maybe they moved after a year due to the neighbours?

My parents spent loads on a small extension half the size the wanted so as not to upset difficult neighbour by going too close to her garden etc. two years later she did her own monstrous extension going right up to their fence and peering into their garden and kitchen.

Likely bought it with a view to extend … maybe couldn’t afford anything bigger.

Ha! Are you one of my neighbours? A man near us did this, turning an approved loft extension (with skylights) into a whole new storey with full-sized windows, overlooking other people and building out their light. The neighbours wailed and the planners obviously paid no attention to their phone calls, saying "Put it in writing", which they didn't. Eventually I got sick of the drama and emailed with photos and their objections. The Head Planning Honcho rubbed his hands in glee, turned up the same day, stopped the work and made them restore the monstrosity to its previous height. They never did the loft extension, claiming that the fiasco had cost them £180k. Serve them bloody well right!

That’s the norm for this page lol

Unless they’re breaching planning rules, YABU.

YANBU to be miffed, raging even, but they’ve obviously chosen that house for a reason and they’re entitled to do what they please with it.

what do you expect them to do exactly OP? Not buy a house and do work just because of a neighbour?!

People have the right to live where they want and build an extension with the appropriate planning. Is it annoying? Yes. Is there anything you can do about it? No. If you are not happy then you move? It is outrageous to suggest that they shouldn’t have bought the house

Why didn’t you object at planning permission stage? One of our neighbours bought their house and immediately planned a massive extension, another neighbour objected and the plans were amended. We still had building work for six months but you just have to live with that, it’s part of life

Yes, this happened to me. They built right up to the boundary, my garden border was destroyed in the process. They didn't get a party wall agreement but, who knew, apparently it's not a crime not to get one!

I ended up moving, it was an absolute eyesore but 'permitted development '. They built on their whole back garden. Cunts

We did some work a few years ago, took the plans round to the neighbours on both sides before they were submitted to show them what we were doing. It was a single storey side extension. Neighbours on the side of the new extension said, to our face "lovely, that will nice for you when it's done".

They then proceeded to bitch and complain to all and sundry that they weren't told, that they lost light into their kitchen etc.

They might have lost light into their kitchen, but they had a side window and a window facing into the back garden like us, but they bricked up the window that looked into the back garden a few years ago when they built a back extension.

We tried to be as considerate and as courteous as possible and the guy running the project was very polite to them, ensured that none of the trades parked outside their house (probably pissed off the people further down the road though) and we paid to replace all the fencing down that side even though we strictly didn't have to.

But they complained about anything and everything. Ruined our relationship.

Which is ironic as the lady had, prior to all this, been telling us that when she inherited her parents bungalow she sold it to developers who did a complete overhaul and turned it into a two storey home with a very large extension. So that was OK for her to do, but our fairly modest project was the end of the world.

YANBU
Our new neighbours had an extension before they moved in. I don't think they needed planning permission as it was within the length allowed. The first we knew of it was the week before when they called to tell us. It lasted 3 months and it was awful. The noise every day from 8am to 5pm, radio blaring out, hammering, screeching power tools. We didn't complain until the last week when one day they were still drilling at 9pm. DH was WFH most of the time too. Afterwards they thanked us for our patience. We had no choice really!
The only positive is it hasn't affected any light or view. If it had I think I'd have flipped my lid.