Huge new house on neighbour's land - what to request re: planning conditions?

[Thehousealmostnextdoor]

Our neighbour has sold half his garden and there's already outline permission for a family home.

Consultation is now open on the detailed plans for a very large family home there. The new house itself complies with planning rules.

What can we request/expect as part of the detailed planning permission to minimise dust, noise and disruption during the building phase?

I know the local authority will have rules about hours of construction, but are there any other conditions they can impose as the house will be very close to neighbours' gardens and homes.

If our property is, for example, covered in dust, is it the construction company/new landowners' responsibility to clear that up?

Anything else to consider?

TIA!

I’m not sure you can ask for or expect anything to be honest.

As party of our Party Wall Agreement we agreed to not do any works on the party wall during certain hours over lunchtime, but that was being neighbourly. There certainly weren’t any conditions imposed by the council on our planning application with regards to noise or dust.

What can we request/expect as part of the detailed planning permission to minimise dust, noise and disruption during the building phase?

Nothing, sorry. None of that comes under Planning.

As @Geebray says - none of that comes under planning. We have had 3 separate projects on our boundaries in the past few years and there have been no restrictions on noise/dust other than the usual working hours ones

You'll fine, even if the LA has strict rules on not before 8am and not on a Sunday or BH that the builders can completely ignore it as the LA don't have the staff to investigate.

By far the biggest problem is parking. You don't want them blocking your drive (which will happen)

Our neighbours warned us in advance about the noisiest work. They also paid for window cleaners after the dusty work finished and again at the very end. Neither were written conditions, they were just nice people and appreciated that our comment on their planning was something like "looks lovely, we have no objections".

The only conditions that planning may impose will relate to working hours, and possibly a requirement for wheel wash facilities to ensure mud doesn't get on the roads by way of dirty vehicles that are in the construction site.
The cannot get involved in other issues.

Planning conditions you could request, just off the top of my head:

• any windows on the design which will overlook your property i.e. direct sighting into your windows, to be obscure glazed
• If there is a balcony, to ensure that it doesn't overlook your property
• illumination of any outside lighting to be at a certain illumination (I can't remember the exact specification)
• Construction hours restricted Monday to Sat 8 - 4, no construction on Sundays
• Wheel cleaning facilities of construction traffic so no mud is dragged on to the highway
• Removal of Permitted Development Rights

If your property gets covered in dust, request they clean it along with any other mess they make that impacts you. I don't think you can do this at planning stage but it could fall under nuisance during the build.

@LadyTiredWinterBottom2 Thank you.

If we wanted to request a clean-up, that could be tricky as we don't actually know who the new owners are. Or indeed whether the neighbour who has sold the land has put in the plans for the house - he's been very furtive about it all.

I suppose if it came to it, we could try to find the site foreman/woman.

Sigh! It's going to be a lot of disruption.

Thank you. It does look as though the plans themselves comply with what the LA will permit, even though there will be a loss of privacy to the existing homes.

I'm renovating and had no conditions imposed as part of the planning process. I've tried to minimise disruption and let neighbours know when the noisiest work is happening. But a certain amount of mess is inevitable. The immediate neighbours regularly text me with complaints requests for the builders to clear up mess, and are not shy about entering the property to speak to them directly. If you don't know the owners, introducing yourself to the site manager and being friendly rather than confrontational is probably the best approach. One neighbour across the street baked the builders a cake, so they have been happy to do favours for her - they are less keen on the moany ones!

Thanks for the advice, yes, I think that will be a good approach when the time comes.
We certainly won't be baking any cakes though!

On a small new build development I know of, the houses opposite requested the ammendments to the original plans to include an alleyway between the gardens so they werent immediately joined and screening trees to be planted so they werent overlooked which were granted.

I’d be so annoyed if my neighbours did this 😡
It was bad enough when mine had an extension built and I had builders yakking at 7am outside my bedroom window (ground floor). I let it all go, and never got the obligatory tour and card and bottle of Prosecco 😉

Ask them to get their builders to agree to no radios. The worst part of it is blasting shitty chart music all day every day.

There will be trees, two of which are existing ones, but it won't provide enough screening to stop existing homes being overlooked from upstairs in the new house.
@Northernladdette Yes, it will be very disruptive but nothing we can do. It's so peaceful here at the moment, very green, birds singing etc...
@Mimimimi1234 An alleyway wouldn't be possible, sadly.

@Pollyannamex If we can find out who the owners are, that's a great idea. I do also own very good noise cancelling headphones!

Our neighbours did all their renovating and disrupting before they moved in. When it came to us doing our renovating - our neighbours were incredibly difficult, had no appreciation that they had caused the same levels of disruption we had graciously put up with. The build got done and we ended up on bad terms and they moved - thankfully. No one likes building works getting done but it's just something you have to put up with - I hope it's over quickly.

This will be a completely new build too, so unless they plan on living in a caravan on-site, or are in fact one of the existing neighbour's children (the guy who has sold off the land), then I don't think we have a way of finding out who owns it before they move in. We don't intend to do any major work on our house now.

Hmmm, unless a land registry search would reveal that?

I have a neighbour currently renovating a bathroom DIY, room is 2m X 3M its been going on fr 6 weeks now. He doesn't work and starts with a hammer at around 5 pm every day for a couple of hours, then goes to the pub. The old bathroom is on the driveway and has been for a month now. one Neighbour asked if he would like him to take to the tip for him, at which point there was a huge confrontation/ argument.

OP, yes you can order copies of the title from the Land Registry, although be aware that records are often not updated straight away due to backlogs.

What you might want to do is set up a property alert on the address (google 'property alert land registry'and you will be notified when searches are carried out by prospective buyers or a mortgage taken out. The alerts are free, but the title copies carry a cost (about £20 as I recall).

We’ve had a large development built next to us. It has had a major impact on us due to noise, dust and we now have permanent flooding in our garden. We now have several windows overlooking us, including a balcony. The LA have refused to help with any of the issues

@Itsgettinghotinhere , that sounds dreadful. You may be able to make a claim regarding the flooding:

https://celsolicitors.co.uk/services/flooding-claims/#:~:text=What%20is%20a%20flooding%20claim,after%20nearby%20land%20was%20developed.

The main thing that you can do is scrutinise the plans and insist windows do not overlook your land or potentially have obscured glass - this is often preempted by architects by putting bathrooms in this position. I would object to raised decking and balconies on privacy concerns. I don't think you can insist on much else

Thanks for this @ClematisBlue49