Have you submitted a joint planning application with your neighbour?

[mummmypirate]

We live in a 1900s semi. We both want to do the same single storey infill extension in our respective side returns. Individually I suspect plans would be rejected as detrimental to the adjoined property, but together we might stand a chance. Anyone any experience of something similar?

I was a planning officer before kids and dealt with several applications of the type you describe. Providing that they are acceptable in all other respects (eg impact on other neighbours etc), then it is a good way to over come the problem. Some Council's will approve the scheme subject to a simple condition imposed on the planning permission requiring the works to be undertaken at the same time, rather than risk one extension being built and the other never completed. Some Council's may require a more formal (and more binding) legal agreement (known as a Section 106 Agreement to be completed. This will involve both parties and also your mortgage providers, and anyone else with an interest in your property. They are quite straightforward though and the Council should advise you.

Thank you Seeline, that's encouraging. Although I'm a little apprehensive about the project being reliant on somebody else's finances, but I guess that might be the price of making it possible at all.