neighbour building study in his garage

[andrea85]

Hi All, what a great forum this is.

I have a quick question for anyone that could help.
We recently bought a flat which is essentially a coach house, i.e. the whole top (1st) floor is ours and ground floor is two garages: one for us and one for a neighbour that lives in a different block. This whole development is a shared freehold with around 50 more freeholders.

Now the person who owns the garage under our flat (next to our garage) is converting this to a study. He is bringing electricity water and will build a toilet. This would effectively become a self-contained accommodation if they do that. They got approval from our residents management company directors.

We were never told about these plans by the management company or the owner. We object as we bought the flat because there was no one above or below us. Are we right to object? Can we stop this? Should we have been notified about this?

Thank you!
A

Have you asked your planning and building control departments?

If it's 'change of use' then I think planning permission may be needed - but it's a bit of a grey area. Check with your council?

Definitely check this with building control. IIRC the toilet will be the issue that might prevent them. Where are they routing the waste to? They can't just tap into your waste pipe, water regs are quite stringent about this.

Thank you for your replies. I don't think I'm allowed access to others' building control applications. They have not applied for planning permission but they are also not opening any windows so not sure they need one. The soil pipe they would be tapping into is only serving our flat but goes through their garage.

You need to check planning permission from council, it doesn't matter who owns or manages the property, that's not important.

You may not have access but the building control people will be able to come out and have a look. They can't just change a garage by stealth and fit a loo.

Definitely contact Building Control and Planning at the local council separately. It doesn’t matter than the building management have approved it. Building Control rely on people either being honest and telling them about work or neighbours reporting work. Don’t hesitate to contact them. They will investigate and reply to you once this has been done. Building control is just whether the work is being done correctly within the regulations. Planning is more likely to take your views in to consideration. Contact both.

Many thanks for your replies. I was actually going to seek legal advice but I think it will be a lot cheaper to ask building control & planning first. Many Thanks!

I would also add that if you are worried about upsetting your neighbour, you could contact the local councillors and ask them to find out for you.