Right to light

[Cherryblossom200]

Hi everyone,

I'm having a bit of a nightmare at the moment!

I've had my single storey extension approved recently. I've always kept my neighbour in the loop with what my plans are. But I was unaware that I needed to do a party wall notice because I'm excavating close to the party wall. This sparked off a very heated discussion with my neighbour yesterday. I asked for her details for the surveyor to email her the notice and she said she wouldn't agree to the notice. On the basis that the boundary fence would be taken down for my builders to put up the wall. And that I would be building on her boundary. I explained this isn't the case and that the notice is literally just to inform her of the building works. If she is uncomfortable with the fence being taken down, then the wall can be built entirely on my side. I tried my best to reassure her.

Basically she's an elderly neighbour who has lived in her house for many years. I think she's at the beginning stages of having dementia, so conversing with her is difficult. She is incredibly defensive and twists and turns things around so the conversation is almost impossible.

In general we have always have always had a good relationship. But she doesn't like change, and is fiercely defensive of her house. I have always respected our boundaries and keep myself to myself. But this has obviously caused her a great amount of anxiety which I feel bad about, however I have a right to build on my property.

It's really strange, but she agreed to my extension which is 4 meters long, 1 meter more than permitted development. But it seems like she is now backtracking on her decision and trying trick to avoid it taking place.

What concerned me is that she started taking about how it would affect her light. But firstly her house/ back windows are dark almost all the time due to a MASSIVE tree about 3 metres from her house. And we are south west facing. So she has sun all the time. She is the the left of me when looking at the back of our houses. My extension is pitched which helps too. My extension wouldn't take away any of her sun. She is aware of that too,

Is it easy/cheap to take a neighbour to court over loss of light? I know this is worst case scenario, I'm really hoping this won't happen but I would rather know before starting to build my extension.

I think my neighbour will be difficult so I'm anticipating a hard time with this!

Any words of advice please? Thanks

It is unlikely that a single storey extension of the nature you described would create an actionable interference with your neighbour's rights to light. How old is your neighbour's house? If less than 20 years then she is unlikely to have any rights to light. The Council will not advise re rights of light as this is a land law issue. A rights to light surveyor maybe be needed - it might be that your party wall surveyor/one of their colleague's could give you an initial opinion.

Just spoken to my surveyor and he said my neighbour has no grounds for a right for light case based on my plans.

Right to Light in legal terms is separate from the planning system. A proposal can be completely acceptable in planning terms but a neighbour may still have a Right to Light case under different legislation which could prevent a PP being implemented. It is nothing to do with the Council.

It is similar to the principle of OP being granted on land the applicant doesn't own. The proposal may be completely acceptable in planning terms, but will still need the landowners consent to implement the scheme.

Right to light and loss of light are two different things. The first is a legal matter under English law. The latter is planning.

OP we had an objection to our planning application from a neighbour on the basis of light - the planner asked our architects to do a light assessment, which was fine. The planner was quite conservative and rejected our plans, which we appealed and were granted, but that’s a whole other story!

I think your issue is not so much light, although appreciate why you’re concerned about this, but an elderly neighbour who is getting stressed as they are starting to forget (you have my sympathies; it was my mother for us). Put absolutely everything in writing and possibly considering getting one of the sons involved.

Don’t go into any detail verbally at all as this is likely to cause stress - just keep referring to the written comms and resend repeatedly if necessary. She will be okay, your building works will be fine but just arm yourself with a good chunk of grace. My guess is that she will find the actual works quite distressing too.

Hi London,

Thanks for your message. She has instructed my surveyor thankfully to work for both of us. She literally replied the day she received the notice. My surveyor explained what the notice meant and apparently she seems fine. But like you say, I'm expecting the build to cause distress which is unavoidable unfortunately.

Argh help!

My party wall notice has been sent out by a surveyor I found online, and my neighbour has agreed to use him as a joint surveyor, So initially I was really pleased, as it's the cheaper option to using separate surveyors. I checked out the company's details and they all seemed fine. However on closer inspection it looks like the surveyor has been struck off the RICs register. He has had several lawsuits against him, He shouldn't even be allowed to operate as a party wall surveyor in the first instance, I've paid him for the notices. However I don't want him to do the schedule of conditions or anything else with the party wall going forward.

Is it too late the change my surveyor? I haven't signed any agreement to use him. Just agreed for the notices to be sent out.

I'm so annoyed as I may have to re-issue the notices again, and pay out twice.

There are real cowboys out there.