Neighbour building summerhouse on my boundary

[Mumteedum]

Builders are here right now which I'm already pissed off about. I knew they were building a summerhouse but no idea it was going to be as big. It's the entire width of their garden along my fence. My fence sits on a retaining wall and I'll need to replace the posts at some point soon as they've cracked. I'm wondering if they caused this when they took the trees out.

Do you think I'll have issues with water? It's a pitched roof. It's above my fence height. I'm just wondering about it rotting my fence with bits between their structure and my fence.

I'm really stressed and unwell with chronic illness. It's a beautiful day and I'm hiding indoors.

I'm sure they need to have it 1m away from a boundary for it to be permitted development?

If it’s for commercial use they def need planning permission. Let the council know

Some building regs info - if it’s under 15m2 in floor area, it can be on the boundary.

If it’s up to 30m2 - it has to be at least a metre from the boundary or made of substantially non-combustible material.

Over 30m needs a building regs app regardless.

I would phone the building control dept at your council to check.

https://ecab.planningportal.co.uk/uploads/miniguides/outbuildings/Outbuildings.pdf

In theory if you have a 500 m2 garden then you can build a 250 m2 structure without pp , it can also be built right up to the boundary as long as its not higher than 2.5 m.

It's actually 50% of the curtilage, not the garden, so basically the whole plot, minus the footprint of the original house. Then 50% of the remainder can be covered in extensions, outbuilding etc.

It may need planning permission depending on what they use it for. Does it have water or sewerage? Overnights looking likely? Over a certain footprint it needs it- your planning department will tell you.

But that’s far from a given, she doesn’t know.

op. Folks are trying to find things for you to complain about. It does appear this is permitted development, and you can’t complain about something that has not happened and may not happen. You can complain about it if it does.

I was talking about the building regs which is completely separate from planning.

Oops wrong quote!

it wont be informal once coucil is contacted

It is not a dispute, it is a neighbour raising a query with the planning authorities as to if a building is within permitted development. If the answer is yes, end of query. If the answer is no, building enforcement will deal with it. So it is not a dispute, it is no different than objecting to a planning application.

The issue would only need to be declared if there is then ongoing issues between the neighbours which authorities become involved in.

@Mumteedum just a quick question OP. how high was their ground on their side of the retaining wall?? have they raised the height of their ground??

They haven't raised it for this reason. It was already raised. I'm not sure of the height as I've never been in their garden.

Their house is lower so their upper floor is about level withy ground floor as I'm higher up. My garden goes from my ground floor down to a mid level and a lower level. Their new building is above the height of my fences but not above my ground floor single storey extension level.

It looks weird sitting above the fence. But it's not blocking light or anything. It's the fact it's touching the boundary wall and so close to me I'm a bit concerned about. It's fire risk and water run off plus what they're going to do with it, that's concerning me.

I reckon it might be bang on 15m2.

Nobody will be sleeping in it. I just hope that includes the dogs.

The noise has really taken it out of me. I'm just not well today at all. That's the big issue. If I was well I'd feel more able to speak to them. I just fear getting upset as I'm feeling so dreadful.

I'll try and pull myself together and speak to builders or neighbours if I feel able to. It's shit having a chronic illness and dealing with stress.

You can have informal chats with the council.

Think I'm lucky in Wales you have to tread carefully in our council with extensions, decking and hot tubs. You're not allowed to crack on covering your garden on top of a permitted extension. Some of it is covered under water run off. If the summer house is connected to drains that raises a flag. Decking is another issue. If you've used up your goodwill on an extension. You have to dial anything else back.

Ok, big girl pants on.... Spoke to builder again. It's having guttering so should be ok for drainage as long as they can maintain the gutters because I don't know how they'd access them other than from my garden. The guttering will make it within a few centimetres of my fence and probably pushing it as to being within the boundary. He did say it's all building reg compliant.

He said it was not what they'd expected so it's taken way longer to construct hence being there yesterday. I told him I hoped they would not be there this bank holiday weekend and he said no.

So that's it I suppose. Thanks for listening and talking me through. It's been dead stressful. Just fingers crossed they're not a pain in the arse when they start using it.

Surely after two major building projects and this they can't be doing anything else for a while. Just hope they don't hang more wind chimes or I might lose my shit 😭

Some folks the more they get away with the more they'll continue

No one said you could not. You can't have an "informal" chat about a particular property if you want info on it and that is a fact

EG - hi dear council worker I want to know what next door is doing re extension. Coucil worker - "what is the address" - sorry cant do that - Coulicl worker "sorry cant help."

The OP is already now aware of what is permitted and what is not without planning consent
I also posted that is PP was requited, people living either side are almost always contacted

HTH

Thats not what the planning portal states….. it says 50% of the land around the original house.

Surly everything around the house is classed as garden?

Yes, that is what curtilage means - the whole plot. And that is what I said. People where talking about 50% of the back garden, which is incorrect.

Update: don't think it's finished yet but builders are not here this weekend at least. The roof is all on and it's now at most 3 inches from my fence since the insulation and roof covering went on. Downside is no guttering is on yet and we're forecast a lot of rain. As it stands all the water will hit my wall and fence. I can't bring myself to be pleasant with neighbours. He said hello but I was in a hurry anyway so thankfully didn't have to engage. Will have to see how this goes. I'm still worried about the impact on me.

I'm not sure how far guttering will encroach but as my fence panels slot in, they cannot impair that.

Neighbours man. Wish I was rich 😭

Don’t stress, you know guttering is going on, your fence can take some rain until it does likely next week.

The "guttering encroach." I doubt it if it does, however, report his to the council he'd have to tear that part down

I can totally sympathise OP. Twice now we've had neighbours move in, take out/put in fireplaces, drilling until there can't be any walls left, DIY all weekend, every weekend for months on end. And just as that finishes they bring home a newborn baby. Then they move out.

We've had this 'everyday' noise that you can't complain about for five years now. I just want one peaceful weekend in the garden 😩