Objecting to neighbour's extension request - right to light issue

[JacobReesMogadishu]

Our next door neighbours currently have a garage extension on the side of the house. As the houses are so close together there is about 4 ft max between the side of their house and the side of their garage. I have no problem with the garage. We have a landing window on the side of the house upstairs which is the only way of getting light into our landing and hallway.

They have applied to extend above the garage. I've had a letter from the council informing me of this and have logged on and objected as we would have a brick wall 4ft from our landing window which would block a lot of light.

Anyone been in this position and know how likely it is they won't be allowed to go ahead? I'm worried they'll get permission anyway. I've googled and apparently we do have a right to light but it sounds quite complicated.

We have this is our house to help with landing light issues. It’s like a window in the ceiling.

Still can’t get hold of the planning officer, they’re going to get her to ring me next week.

Neighbour came round with plans......Imsuspect he May have seen my comment on the website already. I’d told him that we’ve objected but that I’m considering withdrawing the objection because I understand we don’t have a right to light in the landing and will just have to put up with a darker house. Or potentially get one of those light tubes. I pointed out the boundary on the pans are wrong. He didn’t realise the hedge was all on our land. But said it won’t make any difference as they’re not increasing the footprint of the current single story extension. I see his point but I do still want to talk to the planning officer incase there is a rule about how close a first story extension is allowed to the boundary. But if no such rule then we’ll withdraw the objection.

I asked him where they were thinking of putting scaffolding and he said they hadn’t thought about that yet. I explained my concerns about the bike access and he said he wouldn’t want to prevent access for us at all so would sort something out. I told him about the cantelever option and that we’d be ok with that.

So all in all quite amicable. I’m fairly sure they will get permission. We’ll just have to lump it. Which is a shame but it is what it is. Can’t say I’m thrilled. I’m also a bit worried about the noise as it will be a few feet from where I sit doing live lectures to students at the dining room table. They’re demolishing the whole garage and rebuilding from scratch which I can’t imagine will be quiet. Hopefully the noisy stuff will be quick.

I would imagine if they're taking the garage down it means it doesn't have the correct footings to bear the load of the upper floor extension. That is quite costly but I suppose they know that.

There is no rule about building up to the boundary so unfortunately I don't think there's much you can do about it.

It seems like your neighbours are reasonable people too so maybe raise your concern re the noise etc and I'm sure you'll come to a mutual arrangement.