Loft extensions: overall house impact

[barmaid]

Hello

I would be very interested in hearing your views on loft extensions and the impact on the existing footprint.

I currently live in a ground floor maisonette which aside from the neighbourly noise (I am a little noise sensitive!!) it's a good space for the family currently. Our upstairs neighbours would like to extend into the loft. I don't have a massive objection, however I would like to read around this slightly to ensure that there is no future implication that we may miss.

Considerations are:

Noise,
Structure
Resale
Overall finish
Jointly maintained areas eg roof and gutters

Any other implications that we have not thought of/highlighted would be wonderful.

Appreciate your time,
Thanks

Barmaid

during construction the impact is very minimal as the builders will access the loft from outside using scaffolding. the whole building will likely be covered in scaffolding for a couple of months which may obscure your windows a little.

you will need to make sure the constuction is compliant with building regulations to ensure the building is safe to stop it affecting re-sale and safety.

finish - depends on how much they are spending!

gutters probably wont change

who owns the builidng? presumably you are leasehold? do you have a share in the freehold? you might want to have a say/agreement about the finish and quality of materials used and the type of dormers built as they will change the look of the building. does the flat above own the loft space? or does he also need to purchase this from the freeholder?

there is a lot more to consider when converting a loft in a building converted into several flats.

i forgot to say we had our loft converted earlier this year but we live in a detached house so the implications are slightly different.

during construction the impact is very minimal as the builders will access the loft from outside using scaffolding

Ours said that. No scaffolding arrived and on day 1 they knocked through into the house.

Do you have any financial responsibility for the roof?

We did a loft conversion in similar circumstances to your neighbours, but only have velux windows in the loft so not altering the roof structure. The scaffolding went on the side of the house, we tried to keep disturbance to a minimum. It took about 5 weeks and we haven't had any complaints.