Permitted Gap Between Our Property & Neighbours Proposed Extension??

[RockinHippy]

Excuse me not going into full details, underlying health problems, a full day of stress & typing due to this matter has my arm/neck feeling like its on fire & my blood pressure shooting through the roof

In short we have received notification of an application of proposed change of use/planning application for extensive works to the pub adjoining our house. Now owned by a huge property developer.

FOPOV these plans are beyond scary & scraping myself & info together to make the best possible objections.

Part of these plans includes a rear extension, some of which looks like they don't even understand the flying freehold, that means part of this proposed extension sits over half of our first floor bedroom.

Even if we have misunderstood this, given there is no arial view in the proposed plans. This is particularly odd given the lack of space between the parts of our properties that are not connected/party wall.

This part of the proposed work will mean a new "office" wall will block a small access door that allows us to maintain our gutters etc. It also looks like they intend to build to the full back length of our house, alongside our property, which, apart from where we already share a part wall, is already a pretty narrow strip of land.

So any wall built here that is worth their while from gaining space POV, will be pretty much flush to our property, meaning we no longer have access to the side of our house for any kind of future maintenance such as re-rendering.

Would anyone know the legalities of this - is there a minimum distance that must be kept between property in this sort of scenario??

Hope that makes sense, not sure if I am in this earth or fullers right now

TIA

I'm not sure I understand. Could you do a rough sketch and show? Could it be, in the meantime, that the architect doesn't know about/can't see your access door?

I don't know the legalities, but a neighbour of ours had his neighbour build an extension that came within less than a foot of his own, supposedly detached wall. There was no access possible for any sort of maintenance.

Whether this was in the original plans I don't know, but I would imagine not - the extension evidently exceeded the plans.

Neighbour took him to court. It was a long and fraught process, not helped by a dodgy lawyer, but our neighbour won his case - the other party was ordered to take the extension down and pay all costs.

I didn't think you could build over a flying freehold? Sketch would help.

Do you currently have a flying freehold. A flying freehold is where part of your property goes over someone else's land.

Or do you mean they are proposing to create one over your land (in which case they don't have a hope)

If you can afford it I would use one of those professional planner objector people as the impact if your issues are overlooked sound horrid

Befriend you object, get in touch with the new owner. Ask him and the architect to come round to your house and discuss matters.

As a result if that, they may amend the plans. If they refuse to, ask them their reasons. Then you can counter that clearly in your objection.

Ps - my understanding is that you can only extend to a metre of the boundary

Ps - my understanding is that you can only extend to a metre of the boundary

Plenty of houses round here extend onto the boundary. Including our fuckwit neighbour's, all their stench pipes, drainpipes are over the boundary. Which I keep telling him.

Planning and ownership are separate issues, you can apply for permission even if you don't own the land . However you can point out the discrepancy between their drawings and reality and issues this would cause. You can object on several specific grounds which should be listed on your council's website. Things like not in keeping with neighbourhood and parking issues would spring to mind, for example. To build so close they'd need a party wall agreement so the surveyors would realise the problem then, but better to raise it before it reaches that point.

Sorry my post isn't easily understood stressful day & migraine from hell right now.

Random I had no idea such people existed, so will definitely look into that - thank you

I will try & clarify, but I can't sketch right now as I cant grip a pencil RN without aggravating arm/shoulder pain. Im not sure any of the proposed plans would make it clearer, but will post a photo in a bit if it does.

Flying freehold is that about a 1/3 of the ceiling of one of our first floor bedrooms falls under their roof - We are pretty sure that they can't build the extra floor to their property that they want to there, especially given the odd ceiling shape & it effectively means building on top of a chunk of DDs bedroom, but it is there in their plans to do so (Our house was part of this pub until the early 70s, hence weird lay out) Pretty confident that we have a valid objection to that, but it shows them up to be potential cowboys, which is worrying.

We have a small "elf door" in our 3rd floor attic landing, this gives us access to a flat roof that belongs to them. This is so we can maintain our gutters, roof etc. This is also a potential fire escape for using a potable rope ladder, though its not the only escape route, it would be the easiest one for me. The plans show they intent to add another floor to this bit of roof too, meaning when we open the elf door, we will be faced with a brick wall & barely any gap.

Further a long this same ground & first floor party wall, their property ends/goes only part way(half) along the length of our property, so they intent to extend out to the length of our property & up to match our 3 floors the full length of our house - this is to make more for offices/work studios & showers/toilets to serve them. By doing this, they will have to leave little or no gap between our properties as the gap already there isn't huge IYSWIM

Goblin if that is correct- I think I love you!! That gap would solve all of our problems & TBH, make it not worth their while at all

Sorry OP but I don't think Gobbolino is correct. If there is a rule, it's more like 6 inches.

One of our neighbours couldn't build their extension as building regs insisted on a 2m gap between properties. They didn't want a semi detached to look like a terraced property and insisted on that minimum gap.
I think maybe it depends on your area. Can you talk to your planning dept and talk through your concerns? They may give you some idea as to their initial thoughts on the plans.

It depends on your council but most are very keen to avoid a "terracing effect" and will require a 1m gap from the boundary.

Separately, it sounds like there will be party wall issues here with regards to the foundations. Whilst that won't stop planning permission from being granted, it will give you another right of recourse if you are worried about damage etc.