Balcony

[Liverbird77]

We live in a semi.
The house next door has a big wooden balcony on the first floor.
Anyone on it could see into my son's bedroom, which is next to it, and also into our living room downstairs.
There is no balcony on our house, so this has obviously been added at some point.
Is there any way of checking planning permission?

Council website should have all planning consents listed if you search by address or you can check at the council offices. If it has been there several years it may be too late for enforcement action if no pp.

Thanks...we checked and there is permission. It has been there since 2001. Why whoever owned our house then didn't object, I'll never understand. It is really weird.

Has it been built in accordance with any conditions attached to the planning permission? E.g. that it needs to be screened at the end adjacent to your house.

No, sadly. Here is the view from our living room couch. As I say, what gets me is that standing at the end, it is possible to see into my son's bedroom.

I would ask them to screen it and maybe offer to pay for some reed or willow screen. I am amazed there wasn't a planning condition attached.

Wasn't it there when you bought the house? Why is it a concern now?

We bought the house in August.
It was a concern for me but my husband was OK with it.
We have checked online and there aren't any conditions attached. I was living with it until yesterday when me and the baby were lying on the couch and the neighbour was up there. It wasn't like he was staring in, but there is no privacy!

Well unfortunately it was there before you were but there are things you could do to help from your side. Plant a tree!

I agree with Dino plant a fast-growing tree on your side. Evergreen preferably.

Stick a large tub of bamboo in that corner of your garden.

Net curtains. If I lay on my couch people on buses could watch me. A nice voile sorts it out (auto correct changed that to "a nice bloke " which would also sort something out, I suppose)

Nice ideas but sadly unworkable.
A tree would block all light into the living room and bamboo wouldn't solve the issue of my son's bedroom, which is on the floor above.
I don't want net curtains, especially as this is the back of the house and surrounded by trees. It isn't overlooked at all apart from the balcony.
We will just have to accept it. I don't want to get into dispute with the neighbour.
Thanks for your replies everyone, much appreciated.

I would ask if they would mind putting a bamboo screen up at your side.

If it was there when you moved in, then asking them to do something about it would plonk you straight into Cheeky Fucker Neighbour territory.
We are in apartments (like 90%) of Italians and though technically I realise our upstairs neighbours can see into our rooms tbh it doesn't really cross my mind.
You don't want them looking into your rooms, put a blind up.

www.kpglassglazing.london/our-services/glass-privacy-screens

You could ask them to install a glass screen but you would have to offer to pay.

www.blinds-2go.co.uk/roller_blinds.asp

If your scroll down to magic screen roller blinds , they let light in and you can still see out but not in.

Where I live (abroad) everyone builds balconies but I've never seen anyone sitting on them. How often do your neighbours actually use theirs?

I understand that you don't want net curtains or blinds but could you have some that you only close when the balcony is in use?

Is your son also concerned about his privacy? Does his room have nets, blinds or curtains?

When you checked the PP, did you also look at the original proposal? If that had some design aspect that provided privacy, there may not have been any additional conditions because privacy was already covered. Then it's a question of whether it was implemented per the proposal.

@filka good points. Thanks... We need to look at the original proposal. Didn't think about that.
My little boy is only nine months old. Curtains are up in his room. We've got curtains for our living room, just haven't got them up yet. We've only been here two months and had a lot of work done - just recently completed.
@TheCanterburyWhales we are certainly not cheeky fuckers, hence the concern to find out if it is all above board. We don't live in an apartment, so the situation is slightly different. We realise there is nothing we can do if it's all above board. I would say, however, that they are the cheeky fuckers for building it in the first place. Had we loved here then, we would have fought against it.

We did that Liverbird but they were still allowed it. They rarely use it.
I have some french lace on one window because people (especially neighbour ) was looking in.They are sort of crocheted cotton so let the light in. I bought them at a market in France. Might be worth a look.

Thanks, @Bowerbird5.
I've seen another balcony thread on here - must be more common than I thought!