Has anyone had their neighbour object to a planning application?

[HeadFairy]

How did you stop yourself from killing them

Very frustrated, neighbours who previously said they would be fine with proposed building work have lodged an objection claiming their light will be adversely affected in their kitchen.

They are now totally avoiding us, our front doors face each other and three times today they've scuttled away when normally they'd stop to chat.

Not sure what I can do but sit and wait for the planning dept to make their mind up, but just wanted to vent.

Has anyone else had objections against their planning application and still gone on to win?

It's not on there pigeon, I've looked again this morning. We did ask to see the objection but we didn't get the whole of the correspondence, just a cut and paste 3 bullet points in an email, overshadowing, overbearing, loss of view I believe?
I think once signed off we may request all correspondence, although I have a feeling it will be 'lost in the system' I do wonder if we'd have any redress if the council enforced 2 bat surveys on us purely because of the neighbours maliciousness, if indeed that was the reason.

Sorry HeadFairy didn't mean to derail. It's good you're still talking and keeping it open. It will be difficult but I think once the decisions made things will hopefully calm down. Good luck with it.

You have a right to see any objections lodged against your planning application - as you have the right to respond. Not all Councils will necessarily put them on their web sites, but I would have thought most would be now. You could ask for copies, but would probably be charged for that.
The best way is to go to the Council Offices and ask to see them. If you ring in advance they can't even say they can't do at the time.

OP - the right to light thing I think is under civil law, and there are loads of steps to establishing whether such a right exists. It is not enforceable under planning law.
Planning applications need to be assessed to see if there is any significant harm to residential amenity, and this can include a substantial loss of light. This will normally be to principal windows (eg the main front widow of a living room, rather than a secondary smaller one in the side), and will usually relate to principal rooms such as a living room or bedroom rather than a bathroom or utility.

Seeline - if you're not a planner I'll eat my hat.

My NDNs objected to my extension twice. My first proposal was turned down a so I modified my plans - before drawing up the second set of plans, I went round and asked what they would be happy with and was told "nothing". The second set were approved and my NDNs were extremely frosty every time they saw me. I decided to cheerily wave and say "hello" every time I saw them after about 3 months, they gave in and said "hello" back. We are now on good terms

Flosshilde

Thanks for that pigeon and Seeline. And Flosshilde hope you're enjoying your tea! :)

It didn't taste of hat.

Oooooh seeline..... I may have to pick your brains over the next few weeks The window most affected is the kitchen window. It is the only window in the kitchen, but they have a fully glazed door in the kitchen which faces South west and provides most of the light in the kitchen. The window we're talking about has a blind which is drawn most days. My architect has told us to take a picture of their back door just in case they decide to change it to a solid door to further their case.

Right to respond- how is this done? Objector is given 10 minutes at the adjourned planning meeting but as I did not ask three days before the first meeting I can not address the meeting.

We were the neighbours that objected. Twice. Their plans were ludicrous though (two storey side extension that would have loomed right over the garden) so I'm not sure why they even bothered submitting a second application after the first got refused!

Rosings - different Council's have different systems as to what applications go to planning committee and whether you can speak or not. I am not sure whether you are the applicant/objector, but, there is nothing to stop you writing to the planning officer responding to any of the points raised by objectors' letters. I would copy it to your local elected Councillor too.

Just because someone objects to plans doesn't by any means entail them getting their way. Frankly, planners spend most of their time dealing with completely bonkers complaints that don't stand up.

Our NDNs who were quite happy when we showed them the plans for our extension, went on to submit an objection at planning. It was for loss of view which was nonsense as they had a massive leylandii hedge blocking their view in any case.

The council overruled their objection, granting us full planning permission and the neighbours haven't spoken to us since the extension was finished and we moved in - 7 years and counting!

we objected to our NDN's and they did have to alter one thing, but everything else got through. But we (not they, because they moved out) were the ones who had to put up with 5 months of building works and builders who couldn't give a shit. They left no contact details, left their car parked outside our house for 6 weeks, and now the build has finish won't alter things that they know are an error but they can't be bothered (blinding light shining straight out of their property onto ours - I mean the lights are pointing at our house).

I hate them. I feel totally overlooked by them and oppressed by their additions. I wish they'd never moved here. We will probably move and we've been here for 10 years.

I'm laughing now that various problems with their building work are coming to light. Serves you right, you inconsiderate fuckers.

Oh this thread fills me with dread. We are planning to extend our house to the rear, hoping for a full width single story extension. The main problem is going to be the neighbours that adjoin us as we are east facing the height of the extension would cast a shadow into their conservatory. I am not sure we will even be granted permission due to this. We only moved in last summer and the woman has never spoken to us - just looks the other way, her husband is pleasant enough but i fear problems ahead!

Flossiechops, could your architect look at ways around this issue, a glazed roof perhaps so the light will pass through and on to your neighbours? Presumably if one side is east facing, the other side is west facing? They'll still get afternoon sun.

why shouldn't they still get the morning sun too, though? Why is your extension more important? Why is the onus on the neighbour to simply have to put up with whatever you do to your house to the detriment of themselves?

Why should a person with a house prevent someone else having a house?
i.e. why should the neighbour have the right to prevent someone building on their land, if it is within the law?

If you want your home to be surrounded by open land, the only way to do it is to buy that land yourself.

Flossie we had a conservatory and our adjoining neighbours (not the complainers) were granted planning permission for a single story extension which would have cast a shadow into our conservatory (I say would of because our conservatory has gone now so it will be our patio area) so I think you'll be ok.

No-one's being prevented from having a house. You know what you bought and if it's not to your satisfaction then buy somewhere that is. Why not show some consideration, rather than treating your neighbours as some kind of inconvenience. Why is it always the person causing the inconvenience who's in the right, rather than those being inconvenienced.

I haven't inconvenienced my neighbours one jot. But I've had to go through 2 extensions being built next door, in total over a year of building work, none of which has actually inconvenienced the owners as they've been minted enough to move out whilst all this is going on. They've made it clear that they couldn't give a fuck, just shrug their shoulders at anything we say. We've been here 10 years, next door has had 4 different owners in that time - I daresay this lot won't be here to stay either.

We live on a road that, for a terraced street in London, has very big gardens (the houses are a decent size too, 3 double bedrooms). We could look out of our window at a lovely green corridor. Which is now being built over more and more. Gardens clearly have no value, green space has no value, it's all about sticking a monstrous great studio in the garden and paving over everything. Replacing the original sash window with a huge window the width of the house that totally overlooks our garden now.

But hey! It's all legal and it's their land and fuck anyone who cares that the place that they bought and thought they'd live in with their family is being gradually eroded, and their quality of life is being affected. Yours will be so much better, and that's all that matters, isn't it? Sod your neighbours losing their light - they've still got a bit, haven't they? What the fuck are they moaning about then?

And before anyone says anything - I'm just venting, just the the OP is. I just wish that people would realise how much these things can affect your neighbours. DH has been so down and depressed by everything that's happening next door, he dreads coming home and we look out of our back window and just get an eyeful of their fucking extension. It's horrible and hateful. And we know full well that wherever we move to the same could happen again.

I hear what you're saying Tam and you are in an unfortunate position, but Piglet is right people do have the right to develop their house within the law.
We lived in a terrace house and people were always chopping and changing the layout etc. That was the nature of that kind of living, people want to move in do up and move onwards.
We're in a semi now, we've been here 8-9 years. The house was an absolute wreck, ceilings all down, windows broken, massive cracks all over, urine soaked floors you get the picture. It absolutely couldn't have been left. What we are doing now and what we did then will benefit us but it will also benefit our neighbours. Our house was unsellable, why did we move here? It was all we could afford at the time.
Not everybody who extends are inconsiderate to their neighbours, we have bent over backwards to appease ours. But sadly some people think the amount of time they've lived in their house gives them more of a right to what goes on next door but it doesn't.

Planning laws are skewed massively in favour of the developers though - so to say 'it's within the law' is pretty meaningless, as the law is so wide when it comes to planning (certainly here in Scotland).

then the law is an ass! Agree that it does seem to be skewed in favour of the developer.

sorry, having a shitty time at work and then coming home to what now doesn't feel like my home-from-home. I am also feeling even more bitter as we only discovered when the new neighbours put in their planning that the previous extension wasn't legal, but as it was over 4 years ago there's nowt we can do.

Also, I do see a difference between doing up an uninhabitable wreck, a la ohnoyou, and taking a house that has only just been completely gutted and done up in the last few years, and doing it all over again. You certainly can't argue that in that case it has improved the area - it won't have made a jot of difference, and in fact has possibly devalued their own house by turning a 3 double-bedder into a one-bed house (with dressing room and study. And fuck-off studio in the garden).

What's the difference between a Conservationist and a Developer?

A Conservationist is a person who has a house somewhere nice.

A Developer is a person who wants one.