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?

Wha does HMOS mean?

House of multiple occupancy. Student digs, bedsits and the like.

Head fairy that's just obscene. Sounds like they have way too much tine on their hands!

oh headfairy I feel your pain, all this planning malarky is excruciatingly stressful isnt it? our neighbours have successfully ensured that we have to get planning permission now rather than permitted development, even our architect thinks that someone 'dodgy' is occurring .... I dont think unless you are living through it you realise how tough it is.

SASASI that's what we said Absolutely insane. He's uploaded his interpretation of our drawings superimpose on photographs of the existing street, it's bonkers. On one of the pictures he's plonked what looks like a static caravan on top of our house to show what he thinks the reality of the plan is. He's argued against our architects figures, ie the architect has stated the roof ridge line will be 1.4m higher, batshit crazy neighbour clearly thinks there's some kind of conspiracy and has said the reality will be more like 1.7m.

I really hope the planners take a dim view of this madness. Our next door neighbours (who we're jointly submitting planning with - they're hoping to do something similar to us at the same time) have just been round to discuss what to do about crazy guy opposite. We accidentally had a few bottles of wine and had great fun plotting revenge (which of course we'll never carry out )

What's made us most angry is that batshit crazy guy has started getting personal. He claims we're trying to destroy the harmony of this lovely street, that there's a brilliant community spirit and we're doing our best to destroy it. I am the chair of the committee that organises a street party in our road every year, our neighbours are complete lynchpins of that committee, last year we raise £10,000 doing charity fundraisers so we could give the street the most amazing free party. Last year, Batshit guy and his missus stole from a charity garage sale we were having and sold stuff they'd nicked at a car boot sale. Batshit guy picked a fight with the wrong people.

And breathe.....

What the actual fuck? He sounds like a complete bellend. Are you sure you want to extend and not move JOKE!

See when you have the extension & years have passed, you will laugh at this! That's what we keep telling ourselves!

It gets better... He's now lodged his third objection. He is claiming our architect is lying because he (the architect) submitted a slight tweak to the plans (we moved some windows to ensure they didn't over look our direct neighbour) and he wrote a covering letter saying there was a precedent for second floor extensions and that most of the houses have second floors already. Batshit crazy guy said he was lying, none of the houses have second floors. Batshit's immediate neighbour has a full second floor with a large window to the side of the property actually facing Batshit's house.

He's clearly stark staring mad!

Oh god. We're about to object to our neighbour's planning application.

They are splitting their garden in two and building a new house on it. What I'm objecting to is the fact that they have sited the house on the east side of the plot directly up against our fence and overlooking our garden. If they'd sited it on the west side of the plot we'd barely see it and it wouldn't overlook anyone and we'd have no objection.

I know they're going to be pissed off at us objecting, but they haven't given any consideration to us. They didn't even bother to come round and tell us themselves.

I think we might pop round and have a chat to them about what we're going to say hoping it might keep things a bit friendlier.

It's definitely worth keeping things as friendly as possible Trixy, I absolutely hate the stress we're going through. At the end of the day it's the planning office that make the decision based on black and White facts, not emotions, so it's not worth getting upset, but its so hard. Our neighbour is objecting on so many ludicrous points, for example we're going to affect their privacy, when we live on a street of houses facing each other, they have 2 windows looking straight in to our bedroom, neither of which is an original window!

I'm not sure about England but in NI people only have 10 working days to submit objections - so it will get to a point where the objections he keeps submitting will not be considered at all.

Sasasi, the deadline for submissions is today, so no more surprises, but I do hope he hasn't done too much damage to our application up to now.

I don't know if anyone is still following this thread.... Tomorrow is decision day for our build and our batshit crazy neighbour has managed to squeeze in one more objection, that makes 7 in total now. In all it comes to 45 pages as to why we shouldn't add another bedroom to our house. In his latest gem he's stated that we must not be allowed to damage or remove any of the shrubs in our front garden.

He's absolutely fucking crazy!

Good luck -let us know how it goes tomorrow.

Thank you Marmite, I will. I'm not sure I can ever look at him again without hitting him if we don't get it, he's been so down right nasty now.

I'm plotting all sorts of revenge that won't get me arrested

Good luck for tomorrow.

Bloody hell what a loon - good luck hope it goes your way

Good luck. Our main objector after getting everyone in the street to also object resulting in a defer for site visit, he also asked to speak at committee did not turn up on the day. He said he forgot but I saw his car leave after all the councillors left from outside his house for the meeting. We got permission.

Good luck!

The planners will take into account objections that relate to material planning considerations. A refusal ground has to be reasonable and sustainable at appeal, and backed by local/regional/national planning policies and guidance.

The problem with analysing impact on amenity is that it does come down to professional judgement rather than a tick box exercise.

Your neighbour sounds challenging!

I have to post a couple of these little gems he's added today, for example:

In terms of parking, there is no off-street parking for either property. The frontages of both houses are too small to qualify for a VCO and parking space at the front. There is no vehicular access to the rear and no other allocated parking or garage space. There is only on-street parking, which is already under pressure from commuters, shoppers and care-workers, as well as residents. More parking is impossible to provide in this case.

He has four cars (there are only 2 of them in the property - we have one car), which he regularly puts cones out for, naturally that takes up a large space.

I particularly love the way he's telling the council how to do there job in this one:

If the Council does decide to grant permission for a raised roof and extended gable, I would ask that the following conditions be imposed to protect the street scene and the character of the area:

1. That the gable be redesigned to improve the strength of character by adopting features in line with those of surrounding properties, such as:

a. A clearly delineated roof triangle, made distinctive by timber features. b. A smaller window of circular or arched-top design c. Opaque glass in the new front window d. Conversion of the first-floor window to a bay matching the ground floor, with the existing small roof lifted to the first floor bay.

1. That the new window(s) be exclusively framed in white wood to match the existing windows and that no alternative materials be allowed unless they are extremely effective representations of painted wood.
2. That the existing roof angles be maintained exactly as they are now and not be flattened, as the drawings show, to provide more internal space, which would dilute the original design
3. That, for the brick gable end (No.20), reclaimed brick of exactly the same shape, size, finish and colour be used and that mortar jointing of matching colour and thickness to the original front wall be used to bond them together. The bricks may be reclaimed from other parts of the same building or other local sources.
4. That, for the painted gable end (No.22), that the render and pebble-dash be exactly matched and replaced in whole sections bounded by render, and the whole of the front of the house be repainted, so that there is no discernible boundary between the old and new structure, from either the front or side.
5. That the side walls be designed to be in keeping with the street scene, because they will be above the roofs of adjacent houses and visible when approaching from both directions. The original brickwork was not intended to be a prominent feature. It would become one under this scheme. A decorative treatment, such as patterned, or coloured brick matching the fa?ade would help, reduce the impact. New red rubbers are unlikely to do so. Cladding in slate or tile would be an alternative decoration.
6. That no trees of shrubs in the front gardens be removed or damaged during the works.
7. That close and regular Council or independent inspection of works and finished components (walls, window, roofs, and decorative features) be required during construction.

Under current Permitted Development rights, the maximum dimensions of ground and first-floor extensions have been increased until 2016. This should encourage householders to focus development to the rear. The houses concerned have long rear gardens that would accommodate large rear extensions. There is also a generous access passage of approximately 6? (1.8m) to the side of each house, in which there is already a window for the staircase. This same wall could be used for a window to replace any rear window lost due to extension rearward. There is room for a new corridor to provide access from the main staircase. Was this option fully explored?

Our garden is 40' long, we couldn't extend any more without totally losing our garden... Plus it would seriously affect our next door neighbours light, but of course not bat shit crazy guy's light.

It will reduce our enjoyment of privacy because it includes large (1.2m x 1.2m or 4ft x 4ft), clear glass, vertical windows to the front, flush with the front gable wall, over 2.4 metres (8 feet) higher than the existing front first floor windows. These will have intrusive views into our bedrooms from above, directly across the street. The existing windows are on the same level as our own, so the new higher windows will have downward viewing angles into our rooms. The applicants have made none of the available concessions to our privacy, for example including small or opaque front windows.

What he fails to mention is that he has a velux window in his loft that looks straight down, from above in to our front bedroom already!!!

Is it illegal to send a glitter bomb? Seriously thinking of sending them weekly!!!!

As our objector had asked to speak and we did not in the window allowed by the rules, I emailed every councillor the weekend before the meeting stating that the plan confirmed to all the LDP and giving personal reasons why I wanted permission. My reasons have no basis in the planning regulations but did give the assurance that I wanted to keep the character of the area and needed the accommodation and was not just trying my luck for a profit in a couple of years. If all councillors have the same information it can not be seen as lobbying.

What was your relationship like with them before this? He sounds like a nightmare neighbour to be honest - completely nightmare!