Would neighbour (poorly done) building work be detrimental to my house sale?

[soberton]

Hi
I'd really appreciate your feed back here. I'm currently trying to convince DH to sell our 3 bed bay & forcourt style house - late victorian mid terrace (think Eastenders) for something bigger now that our 3 DD's are growing (they're 13, 10 and 6 yrs respectively. The younger two share bunk beds in the middle bedroom, eldest has the box room at the back of the house. DH is beginning to come round to the idea in principle.
Back the spring our next door neighbour had their lean to conservatory knocked down and replaced with a new extension (brick construction with tiled roof, 2 x velux sunroof windows, and upvc french doors onto the garden). Sounds nice so far, but..., they didn't have planning permission (very arrogant young man, late 20's, reckoned that he didn't need it? that it comes under permitted development even though it is broader, taller and wider than before. Previous construction was of brick wall, glass and polycarb roof. As far as we are aware they also didn't have building regualtions approval? Their builder damaged our fence when he knocked down their boundary wall which went the length of our two gardens, but that has finally been rebuilt and replaced (that's when relations soured between us - they didn't like us contacting their builder direct to complain about damage instead of going through them, they haven't done anything properly in the five years they've been there, often away on holiday, gutters annoying overflowing over both our front paths for years due to blockage on their side, wheely bin overflowing and left because they put rubbish rather than recycling in it and council would touch it). In short they lack credibility to do a job properly.
The boundary wall & fence is now replaced between the properties, however there is a gap between our patio and the extension wall about 4" wide and 18" deep, the length of our small patio (perhaps 4 or 5 feet, 5 patio slabs in length) which shows their exposed foundations, although I suppose we could just fill this in with earth or gravel? (they don't seem bothered about it and their relations with their builder soured when he complained to DH several times that they hadn't paid their bills!). Also there are gaps between their roof tiles and the their walls which have't been cemented properly (their problem!). My worry is what affect this would have when prospective viewers or surveyors come round, although it has no direct impact on my property?
Would love your advice please.
TIA.

Difficult one- have you spoken to any estate agents and asked for their advice- thats probably your best bet.

With fears to the extension, it might not have needed planning permission but it will have needed building regulations approval.

Can you do anything to tidy it up on your side? Ie fill gaps with gravel, put plants up to hide some of the worst brickwork etc (without them falling out with you over it?)

IMO an obvious neighbour dispute would put me off more than something that's untidy.

Good luck!

I'm not sure how/why building regs approval is any of your business tbh, my adjoining neighbour had building regs for his permitted development breakfast room, but I only know that because we're the kind of neighbours that gossip over the fence, and he liked to complain to me about them. Permitted developments have been around a while now, and concern a maximum size of addition to the property to could well be much bigger than a previous lean-to.

I'd be mostly concerned with your relationship with your neighbour than the state of their property.

I wouldn't be happy about you complaining to the builder either. If you had a problem with my workers I'd want to know first. That said the builder doesn't sound very professional either! Sounds bad from all sides.

Thanks for your feedback so far, just a little further to add Anita, which I hope might illustrate why we complained to their 'builder' (who isn't a professional builder in the ordinary sense, but a college lecturer in Building in a local FE college, moonlighting). Firstly, the work was carried out adjacent to our property but we weren't given any formal notice (they hadn't even heard of the party wall act, let alone knew they should abide by it). It was casually mentioned in the street a few days before work started. Our property was damaged due to their work, eg fence not supported when they demolished wall. Furthermore, when the extension wall adjacent to our patio was built, the builder built the inside of the cavity up several feet (to roof height) prior to building up the external side, leaving all the loft insulation between exposed. Another important reason why we contacted him because he then had to have access to our property in order to build the outside up properly. he'd lied about 'one of his lads' doing it, even though I saw him do it. He then changed his story to 'running out of external bricks and just carrying on with the internal ones! His 'staff' were also constantly complaining not only about the work but the fact they hadn't been paid.

My neighbours have known about their blocked gutter for at least 3 years and done nothing, rubbish frequently piled up outside property which they do nothing about. As I've said they have no maturity or credibilty to actually get a job done properly!
My concerns are how their badly carried out work would look to prospective buyers/surveryors etc.

I can see you're very worried about this, but I think it's probably unnecessary.

I can't see that an extension next door possibly not having building regs would make any difference to someone buying your house.

I'm assuming your house is well kept and pleasant looking? As you said, why not pop some gravel on the foundations you think is unsightly, put some plants on the patio and then put the house on the market ?

That's great , thank you so much for the positive support ref the current property and preparing to move on. This has been a wonderful family homef or the past 16 years , it's just that we've now outgrown the property not the neighbourhood.