Neighbour's planning permission - WWYD?

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeG0es]

We are planning to put our house on the market in the next few months. Our next door neighbours have just put in a planning application to convert their existing single storey extension to a full height extension (adding first floor). This will further shade our already fairly dimly lit second reception room and the side door glass to our kitchen (however not its main window). I'm also concerned that adding a 4th bedroom to a 3 bed terrace with no off street parking is over development and will exacerbate parking problems in the street (not too bad at the moment, but it would only take another car or two to cause it to be very tricky, it's a narrow street and it only takes one badly parked car to block us into our drive, without actually parking across it).

So, I could object. The neighbours on the other side already have (they are closer and have a clear cut loss of light), and it is clear that the comments come from them not us. So if I object it will be obvious it's me. And if it goes ahead anyway, that will alert potential purchasers of our property to potential loss of light and parking problems. OTOH if it goes ahead it might make ours more attractive to purchasers thinking they can do the same work to theirs. Our neighbourly relationship is previously good, but they have already had several lots of extensive work done on their house with parking problems by tradesmen, noise for months on end etc and never a word of apology, so my tolerance is not what it was.

WWYD?

It would come up on a search anyway. Are there any precedents? There are specific grounds on which to object. I don't think overdevelopment would apply unless it were to convert into flats unless in a conservation area nor do you have a right to light.

If I wasn't happy, I'd object. PP would show up on a search anyway and if you're planning to move you won't need to worry about neighbourly relations.

You need to check if there are any planning constraints in your area, for example are you in Green Belt, AONB etc? Overdevelopment could be an issue - but it would depend on local planning policy. Where we are, development resulting in an increase of over 40% of the original size of the house as it was in 1958 is generally (but not always) refused as overdevelopment. Because we are Green Belt and AONB then extensions that 'close the gap' between houses are also sometimes refused.

I don't think adding a 4th bedroom would be seen as potentially adding to an increased parking requirement. The assumption would probably be that a child would be in the 4th bedroom anyway. However, your local council will probably have a Parking Policy, which you might want to google. Ours says that houses with 3+ bedrooms should have 2.5 parking spaces available for example. However this applies to new-builds, but you might find it helpful to reference a Parking Policy if one exists.

I think as any buyer would be quite capable of checking planning applications, that you have nothing to lose by objecting. As you say, if your neighbours get permission to extend, you can then use that as a positive to show that your property has potential to extend too..

I know the application and outcome (and any comments) will show in searches, but if it gets agreement and potential purchasers read the objection from me (particularly WRT the overdevelopment/parking) it might put them off as these issues aren't obvious unless you live here already IYSWIM. And it might not strengthen the case for it to be rejected anyway. Although it is a conservation area.

There are a couple of other houses already extended in this way, but they are end ones and don't cause the same loss of light, also have off street parking for 2 cars each.