AIBU to ask if I can report my neighbour's bright blue house?

[Katey83]

I live in a terraced house. My neighbours have painted the back of their house bright blue (think swimming pool blue / like the Mikanos blue). It is horrible and looms over my garden. It’s really going to spoil my enjoyment of my space to have to look at this every day. I spoke to the wife earlier this morning and said it was not to my taste and would they consider changing and she said ‘the beige of your house isn’t to my taste but it’s your house. This is my house.’ And shut the door in my face. WIBU to report them to the council? Can I even do so? Surely you can’t just paint any offensive colour and expect neighbours to live alongside it?

Getting visions of " Jack & Veras " house..Coronation Street.

lol lol this is exactly what came to my mind. It’s in the area I live and used to walk past it a couple of times. It is a conservation area, not far from Kensington palace either.

it was MOST hilarious. What I recall- it was a long time ago now- the very wealthy owner bought a second house next to original house and wanted to convert the the 2 in one mega mansion. [Or simply, the owner wanted to convert the house into a mega mansion perhaps including digging up the basement. Either way, neighbours objected furiously ( you can imagine expensive lawyers engaged on either side) to planning application. That process dragged on for years and years, until eventually the very rich owner lost. As revenge, he/she painted the house in such strikingly obnoxious way and colours ( I think stripes where included too hahaha); and left his investment unoccupied. Obviously neighbours complained about that, but obviously both council and court agreed the painting could stand. It must have been a nuanced view as I said, this is a conservation area.

it was just hilarious. And still laughing as I typed the above. Yup, the power of money!

obviously very rich owner set up family in another mega mansion elsewhere. And out of spite decided to keep that one, painted horribly, unoccupied to annoy his warring neighbours who couldn’t afford to live elsewhere, like the very rich owner could.

sorry not proof read!

Personally I think you should mind your business and stop being so nosey. How dare you even comment on their personal choice. Maybe you should move if you don’t like it. I agree with blue house owner.

I feel for you, but that’s neighbours for you I’m afraid.
We all have different tastes. I love my neighbour, but their taste is off the wall imo.

I've just remembered the story about people complaining about a resident's yellow car 'ruining' photographs of a nice village in The Cotswolds. That's tourists complaining that the car belonging to a resident was spoiling pictures they were taking of his house .

A rally of yellow cars was held in support of the yellow car owner

Yellow car owners join rally in support of 'ugly' car - BBC News

Sadly it was later reported that his car had been vandalised.

Notorious yellow car vandalised in Bibury - BBC News

Wow! Yes YABU and intolerant. Your neighbour is absolutely right!

That sounds very much like the case from back in 2015 when a woman painted the front of her property in red and white stripes - this was in Kensington & Chelsea.

The woman bought what had been a house, that had previously been used as offices, and applied for planning permission to turn it into a home with two levels of basement.

The local council refused planning permission, so she decided to paint the front of the building in red and white stripes. The council then ordered her to repaint the front of the house but she launched a judicial review and the High Court said that the local council were wrong. So she could keep the stripes.

She eventually got planning permission and demolished the old building and replaced it with a rather inappropriate modern replica.

But it’s not an eyesore, it’s just not to your taste 🙄

Because she said she didn’t like your beige?

🤣🤣

It specifies in the deeds of my house that it can only be painted white. And I can keep chickens but not pigs 😁

Check your deeds, although I’ve no idea who would enforce it if they are in breach of theirs. And is it worth the arguments and ill feeling?

Do you live next to Tyrone and Fiz on Corontion Street?

Is that who moved into the Duckworth's house? I haven't watched it for decades and assume Jack and Vera are both long dead.

My husband is a Principle Planning Enforcement Officer. Its is very unlikely you can prevent this unless you live in an area that has a specific restriction under planning law. Contact your Local Planning Enforcement Department via the council website or telephone. You need to ascertain if your area falls under an Article 4 direction under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.

What possible compromise could there be? Were you hoping she’d be agreeable to draping a giant sheet over it?

I think your neighbour sounds fantastic. Having to look at soul destroying beige wouldn’t be fun. I think you should apologise to her and find a lovely complimentary shade for your own house.

We live in a blue house. It was blue when we bought it but I like it, it’s different

Then you have two options, either buy all houses around you and paint them as you like, or move to a conservation area.

What did you do about this @Katey83 Anything? Did you contact the council?

Just to make you feel a bit better, at least your neighbour's home doesn't look like any of these!

You thought there would be a law stating you can't paint the house you own whatever colour you fancy? Unless as others have said the building is listed etc of course you can paint it whatever colour you fancy! If a colour is so offensive to you, I think you need therapy. It really isn't a big deal. Paint yours a nice pink or something to compliment it!

I understand your frustration. It would piss me off too.

One of the neighbours on our street started painting their fence dark grey (a horrible colour), but they only did half of it. It's been a year, and they still haven't finished. Looks horrible and it makes me angry every time when I walk pass.

I think the issue with these things is that they can also bring down the value of your house. I wouldn't buy a house if I had to look at an ugly baby blue wall or half done, ugly fence from my garden.

I know a lot of people don't care what their neighbours' houses look like, but I hate it when they leave rubbish around or paint things really ugly colours. You have the right to hate it; but I don't think you can do anything about it.

Out of interest, what kind of ‘compromise’ were you expecting to come to? They like it blue, you don’t 🤷🏻‍♀️

Surely this cannot be for real? 🤔

The article says it is in a conservation area where permitted development rights for aspects of a house facing the highway have been removed, so changing your house's colour at the front requires planning permission.

If the woman in that article wasn't in a conservation area or had just painted the back of her house, she wouldn't have breached the rules.

I nearly bought a disgusting blue fronted house, I was unfortunately gazumped!

Shame you don't like it but it is their house.

Pay for the fence!

Is that you Margot?!