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?

That sounds awful Arya... Our garden looks like the Somme too but that's because we've redone it all recently and we're still not finished.

On our council's planning website we as the home owner can make comments too. Dh and I are currently arguing over whether we should or not. I want to write that we acknowledge and respect our neighbours concerns, and why we feel that our plans won't affect them in the way they feel. He says we shouldn't as the council probably won't even consider any rebuttals we make. Any one have any thoughts?

Have they gone to councilors?
When I discovered our objectors Letter I got 2 councilors to represent us, had a meeting with one of theirs & sent a very detailed letter to all concerned very politely stating all the reasons they were being unreasonable.

Their councillor with whom I had a meeting with rings me weekly with so update - no doubt because there is an election in May & he wants all our votes!

Basically, because planners have recommended approval a councillor has no means to overturn their decision but must represent all people. Their councillor has told me we will get our planning permission but only after he has taken it to MLA at their request - he can't refuse to do so.

I found my planning office to be really awkward with me because technically our architect is the point of contact rather than me.

Planning is such an emotive subject & soo divisive, it's brings the worst out in people.

Sometimes their letter gives me the rage, other times I laugh & think how sweet it will be when building works start.

I know how stressful it is but honestly - fuck them & what they think. It's your property. If for some reason you get a refusal, planners will list why & what amendments should be made to get approval. So you may possibly end up with a different design but that's your worst case scenario.

Have some wine!

Don't panic headfairy. Just because people write all these ludicrous letters of objection, it doesn't mean it'll have any impact on your build.

My arsehole neighbours wrote letters of complaint about our extension, during the building work. It was being kept within the permitted size so it didn't need permission. I'd already spoke to them before it started and they'd no issues, but as the other neighbours said, I think the old green eyed monster set in. I was verbally abused, threatened, building was vandalised, etc. the planners and building control were disgusted with them, as were the rest of the street.

I was also sent a snide letter, complaining that I didn't take their needs into consideration, bla bla bla. They sent their poor wee boy round with it and he handed it to my DH who was very shaken up by it. The extension was for a downstairs bathroom so my terminally ill husband could die at home. How fucking selfish was I?
Here's the kicker, the arsehole is a social worker. The caring professional at her best eh!

And breath. Sorry about that, but at least I feel better now.

Staywithme that's disgraceful behavior - I hope you never speak to them again! Gosh it's incredible how emotive it is. I think some neighbours do have genuine points and objections but then there are those who just love to object to any change!

Oh my God staywithme, that is terrible. Sometimes I wonder if people stop to think before they complain.

Our situation is in no way like yours, but our neighbours opposite have said our development will damage the community of the road, as it's likely to lead to the house becoming an HMOS, when what we need here are family houses - we want to create a family bathroom to replace the one tiny one (I can literally touch both opposite walls at the same time) and our third bedroom is so small we can't get a bed in it, just a cot bed. They have the cheek to say the community of the street will be adversely affected, when I'm the chair of the residents association and organise the biannual street party (that they contribute nothing to other than drinking the drink and eating the food we fundraise two years for). I'm so fuming! In comparison our direct neighbours complaints are positively civilised!

Apologies for ranting, I've had a couple of glasses of wine

What makes things worse is that they are two of the least neighbourly people. One of them is a cone nut.... Always cones outside their house to accommodate their four cars (two of them live in that house) and the other lot have twice dumped cars in the street, one of them dumped for five months outside our house with not a word of apology. It sat there rotting until the council towed it away.

They sound like absolute twats.

Write a response letter then sit on it for a couple of days. If you still feel so strongly send but if you've mellowed a bit adjust it accordingly ie I said we were disappointed with objectors as our plans are of a similar style to theirs, we would be employing local tradesmen, we we're looking to create our forever family home & consider us reasonable people who would be gd neighbours. Anything that contradicts them & shows them
To be asses really :)

Don't engage. As I get older I realise some people really are spoiling for a fight and are just trying to upset other people some times. Just breath and do everything you can to get what you need (legally and reasonably) to take care of your family. The negative emotion they are causing you isn't worth it.

Thank you FlossieChops and HeadFairy. They are true lily horrible people bug we ignore them as we've more important things to worry about now.

At the end of the day very few people build an extension unless they need it. I don't give a shit what my neighbours build, so long as they do it on their own land. I really don't see why people feel the need to irritate their neighbours. I must admit I'm tempted to use my darling husband's life insurance to go up a story on the extension as a fuck you to them.
Though, truth be told, I'll probably fall apart when he leaves me.

I may be wrong but I was under the impression that all applications were discussed alongside any objections at the weekly planning meetings? We certainly responded to the objections in writing and included any evidence that we felt would help our case, such as the information we got from find my shadow, other houses that had similar extensions, the fact our objecting neighbour had their own extension which blocked their light etc.
Following approval our points were mentioned in the planning officers report so I assume they helped, and it certainly made us feel justified in what we were asking for.
I hated going through planning permission and at one point we considered withdrawing and extending within permitted development, but I'm glad we didn't as I don't believe the neighbours would have been any happier, they didn't want us to do any work full stop.
Staywithme I'm so sorry to read of what you went through with your neighbours, and what you are dealing with now. I wish you all the best xx

Staywithme that's heartbreaking

Aaaaand another objection.... Neighbour four doors down saying it will affect their privacy in their garden, there will only be velux windows at the back. Seriously wtf are people thinking? Am I going mad now thinking people are objecting purely because they can?

It is quite common for people to object. Some of the objections might be sensible, and some might be silly.

However the decision to approve or reject the application is not down to silly people, nor to the applicant.

Let them have their say and try not to get too worked up.

Yes our neighbours objected to our plans to add a window to the side of our house. We don't know the particular neighbours who objected but we had put notes through everyones' doors saying what we were applying for and offering to discuss or of course they could go through the official planning route if they preferred.

They didn't speak to us about it (which was fine, it's their prerogative) and we only found out they'd objected after permission had been granted and we'd lost our own drawings (rolls eyes) and logged on to the planning site to download a copy and saw a copy of their letter. It said that our new windows would ruin their life, they'd have no privacy and they'd have to keep their curtains closed all the time. I really hope they were exaggerating about how strongly they felt as it was really extreme. We'd been granted permission fair and square so we went ahead and got the work done.

As I say we don't actually know them to talk to so it hasn't been as awkward as it could have been. But they do seem to keep their curtains closed so perhaps we did (unintentionally) ruin their lives. It's been several years now. By the way, the window in question is in the upstairs landing and we wanted it just to bring light into the hall (end terrace). We never stand there staring into their house so as far as I'm concerned the privacy thing is totally OTT. A
All the houses in our road and close together and we can see into other people's houses and they can see into ours. It's not the right place to live if that really bothers you.

Piglet, you're absolutely right. It's so hard not to take it personally though. Especially when we already have windows that over look their garden on the first floor. I hope the planners are sensible, I'm worried what the cost of resubmitting will do to our finances.

Millais, that is just bonkers! I'm starting to get a bit of hope from these stories, thanks so much all.... The neighbour opposite who has objected on grounds of loss of privacy can see straight in to our bedroom from both their front first floor window and a loft window in their second floor, so surely planners will say you can't object to loss of privacy where none exists?

We are just about to sign an order for a loft conversion which wont need PP but still dreading bringing Party Wall act around to sign. Some interesting stories here.

Think we got off easy with our ground floor extension and 1st floor one, no complaints or objections, infact the old lady round the back came over and said the silly postman had delivered our post to her, however the letter was about us planning to do an extension for her info, she still didn't get it when we explained and carried on going on about the postman

We withdrew our planning the week before the decision was due as our planning officer said it would be refused due to the roof line. We then changed the drawings and resubmitted, you get one free go at resubmitting where as if we'd failed we'd have had to pay again.

Thanks for that ohno.... I'm going to call our case officer tomorrow and see if he'll give us some pointers. We've just realised our architect is away for half term and the deadline for submissions closes before he gets back so if we're going to do anything to rebut the objections we'll need to do it this week.

After reading all of this we are going to do our extension within permitted development as we only want to go out 3m. It states that we can build up to the boundary too but only 3m to eaves height so this will eliminate the official consultation with neighbours. That said we will still discuss it with them & if they do strongly object will scale it down. I've been checking on the councils website & notice a similar proposed extension down the road was turned down on the 45 degree rule. It's very stressful!

At the end of the day, the planners will decide the application based on valid planning issues. If they application contravenes genuine planning issues, it will be refused. If the neighbours objections are not valid from a planning perspective, they will not be given any weight.

I objected to our neighbours plans to build an extension. Their application kicked into touch by planning at the council level and also at the appeals level. There were more issues in the refusal than the points I had objected about.

Notwithstanding the planning issues, their drawings showed part of their new extension on our land. Whoever said that planning applications show you who your neighbours are, it was certainly true in our experience.

Oh my God, our neighbour has written a 20 page letter to the council stating why they object. He's put some kind of bullshit equation to back up his case that our house will plunge his house in to darkness.... It's bullshit because the sun sets over one corner of our house, he's directly opposite so the shadow is cast diagonally to three houses down from him. He is actually insane! God I hope the council can see that he is stark staring mad!