Building on a link detached garage?

[LemonadeLion]

We're looking at purchasing a link-detached home, with the hope to extend above the garage somewhere down the line. The configuration of the exterior of the property in relation to next door is

<house><garage><garage><house>

Does anyone have any experience of building on top of a link garage? Is it possible? It doesn't seem as though anyone else on the street has done this, not sure if that's an indication that it's not allowed.

Thanks for any help in advance!

The garage might not have the correct foundations to build on would be my only worry

We bought an end of terrace with a garage attached on the non-party wall side.

We were able to get planning on appeal - another house down the way had already done this, but they’re part of a different council. However, our builders did have to demolish the entire garage and start again.

Thanks both. Not too concerned about having to demolish and start over, although that would be quite a hurdle. My main concern is whether there's some kind of prohibition on extending above garages where they're part of a link detached home, as I would assume that would mean they're no longer link detached? May be overthinking it, but it's surprising to me that no one else on the street has built above the garage!

You might need to check local planning policy and any covenants on the property. You would need a party wall agreement.

If you have to demolish your garage, what happens to the there half of the building?

Most Councils have policy guidance regarding first floor/two storey side additions. Often have to be set in at least 1m from the side boundary, and set back from the main front wall of the house. If you have a look on the Council website at the the planning policy pages you should be able to find the Local Plan which may have relevant policies. Or there may be a document called a Residential Design Guide, or Guide to Extensions or similar which will set out the Council requirements. The fact that no one else has done it would ring alarm bells unless they are quite new.

I would feel very sorry for your neighbours. Two garages together provide a more open outlook. To built up this space is a bit selfish in my view. I would look for a property that won’t be so difficult to
extend.

Our builders built extra foundations inside our garage, so they didn't need to demolish the wall.
*not a link detatched.

Thanks so much for all the advice everyone, it's really helpful.

@TizerorFizz we'll have to agree to disagree. If someone expects complete space, then they need to fork out more for a completely detached home.

if everyone builds over link detached garages, the street becomes terraced! You need to fork out more I’m afraid.

@TizerorFizz not quite, link-detached means they're detached on one side, so you could arguably end up with a road full of semis. Many people extend to the side, it's perfectly reasonable. As I said, anyone expecting complete space needs to buy themselves a detached proper. This debate really wasn't why I started this thread... Moving on from this debate now 🙂

I lived in a link detached but they were house, garage, house, garage. There were covenants put in place in the deeds that said you categorically could not build above the garage, nor could you convert the garages either. Also the look of the estate would change if anyone had managed to get planning, they were built that way to make it feel more open rather than the typical 1m path running between the houses.

Both that estate and this one, built late 90s all have their permitted development removed so you cannot do anything without planning permission. I would look online at your planning portal to see if anyone has applied for and been denied planning permission to build over the garage. You can usually search via the map view.

Seeline is correct, any additions/extensions have to be subordinate so set back or smaller to demonstrate it is an extension.

We viewed a 1970's property with this configuration. Around half the properties on the street had built over the garage to make make a 4th en suite bedroom, and yes as some pp have commented, where both sides had done this it essentially created a pair of semi detached houses as they completely joined which may be something to bear in mind as could it affect the value in future? In this street the price seemed equivalent to the more expensive semis so were a great value way to get some of the benefits of detached without the price tag.

But there was a precedent for doing this where we viewed and by the looks of it some were extended years ago when planning rules were different, if you are going to be the first in a street to try it, I would check with the council if it's permitted in your area, and your solicitor will need to check any covenants.

The other point we thought about which may not be relevant to you, but we also wanted to do a garage conversion to create downstairs living space. It crossed our minds that if the next door neighbour used their garage for perfectly reasonable and normal garage based activities like car repairs/workshop/drum kit the noise would travel through the joint wall into our living spaces, while as normally garages are on the non-joining wall of a semi so this wouldn't be an issue. Plus as you've seen from the reaction here, some neighbours may not welcome such a change and could make relations awkward as presumably you will need party wall agreement.

One could equally say that you should buy a bigger house rather than turn your neighbours house into a semi.

We live in a house that was extended in this way many years ago. Essentially, our house was extended first, right up to the boundary so that it became house - garage (with built-over room) - garage - house.

The neighbours extended at a later date and I believe knocked down their garage and rebuilt the party wall and then extended to the side in the garage space so that both houses actually became fully detached rather than link-detatched. No idea whether that would be permissible under current rules, despite it being a massive aesthetic improvement for both houses.

We looked at this but were advised it couldn’t be done as it could create a look of terraces so the council wouldn’t give pp. North West England

Hi, we have exactly same set up, garage-house-garage-house (built in 1979). Our neighbour wants to build above their garage. No one in the street has done anything like it, only ones that have are set up slightly different. How would we get to find what covenants on our neighbours property, regarding to the garage extension. We could get our deeds but would they be the same?

@GMA76 you can download your deeds from gov website plus theirs too and anyone else's for that matter. It is about £3 for each one, it was a long time ago but my "deeds" came in two bits, one that just shows the house etc with a red line denoting the boundary and then the other part which listed all restricted covenants like no putting a washing line in your front garden, no satellite dishes on the front of the house etc. That doesn't prevent them getting planning permission. These are two different things. Restrictive covenants are enforced by the home owner or the builder of the properties.

However re the planning part, go onto your council's website for planning, hopefully you can browse by map rather than streets or houses, the map will show who has applied for planning. If anyone in your street has they are marked and you can usually click into each one on there. Hopefully someone has already tried this and been refused. You need to look into the wording of why it was refused and use that to object to this planning application. But look at lots and specifically those that were rejected.

Devaluation of property is a reason you can object on. I would argue that it changes the house from a link detached to pretty much a semi detached. Also change to street scene, that it will change the look of the street and sets a precedent for future developments on other properties. I would point out the others that have but show they are different to your style of house. Depending on how well you know your neighbours I would get them to object to it too, because if they allow this one through, all of them run the risk that the garage next to them could be built over.

I successfully prevented my neighbour from doing a two storey side extension and spoke at length to the planning chap because I had actually quoted his words when a similar one was rejected on a nearby street. He said some houses just cannot be extended the way people want.

Seems more sensible these days to actually buy the property with the space you want rather than try to extend an existing one, especially into a problematic area.

There are nearly always issues with extending, whether the existing structure is suitable, whether it can be done sympathetically with the neighbours.

And that's even before you get the issues associated with getting a good builder and them actually to build it properly.