Etiquette with new neighbours - planning application

[Sfex]

Just looking for some advice/how to approach the following please.

We are due to exchange on our new house next week with completion estimated for 4 weeks after, so beginning of July. The house is our dream, long-term home - or at least it will be after adding an extension/extensive renovation.

We have had plans drawn up for the extension which we plan on submitting on exchange (given 4 weeks to completion we want to do it asap with the hope of starting the build in September, obviously subject to pp which is generally around 12 weeks here atm). My question is how to approach this with our new neighbours.

The house is detached and on a corner plot, so there is only one house who will potentially object - the house which sits at a right angle to ours and shares the boundary. The extension will be along the entire back of our house which sits on this boundary (our garden is essentially at the side of our house) so will reduce the size of the gap between us. There are large trees between the two and it will be the side of their house which looks into the extension. They have no real windows there except a small landing window.

We’re very conscious not to get off on a bad foot with them before we even move in, but they will likely receive the notifications shortly after us submitting plans. How do we approach it with them? My husband thinks after submitting we should go round and introduce ourselves as the new purchasers, explain that we have submitted plans and wanted to make them aware and potentially let them see the plans. Does this sound reasonable?

For what it’s worth, our new house is currently empty and very obviously needs a lot of work doing so it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to them that whoever buys it would be doing renovations. Lots of houses on the same street/estate have also done big extensions and works. I do however feel bad that we’ve just seen their actual neighbour who they are next to has just had planning approved for an extension too so I imagine they won’t be happy at having the work both sides!

Any advice on how to approach it would be greatly appreciated! X

I know that you can apply for planning permission on property you don't actually own, and that the chances of the vendor pulling out after exchange are small given the penalties, but I wouldn't go and see the neighbours until you actually own the property. It's unlikely to have an effect on their objection, if they do object.

If they are potentially affected they will be sent the planning details. I think it would be a bit cheeky to go to their house. I would probably leave the planning until after you own the house, if the sellers are friendly with the neighbours they may all get upset about imminent planning. Starting work in September seems optimistic unless you are builders, good builders are usually booked up many months in advance.

If you're submitting the application I would pop a note in the letterbox with your details and tell them informally what's what. You are opening yourself to potential dickheads, but that's less likely than them being decent people who appreciate the gesture.

We didn't realise our architect was submitting our application and our neighbours found out before we'd spoken to them. We'd been living there ages and had a good if distant relationship with them and all was fine once we had a chat but I would've preferred to give them a heads up out of politeness.

We contacted our neighbours before submitting our plans - which whilst they will in long run improve the house and therefore our little area, but there will be a lot of up gravel for everyone.
We invited them to sit down and discuss any concerns. We agreed things like letting horse owners know well in advance when cranes will be operating.
As a result nobody objected.

You maybe surprised, we bought a cottage that needed work and all the neighbours were delighted that it was having a new lease of life and loved the fact we were developing and improving it.

They were round saying "how exciting what are you going to do" so I get the trepidation but maybe assume they will be excited, not everyone is a grumpy guts about improvements.

"The house is our dream, long-term home - or at least it will be after adding an extension/extensive renovation." So why didn't you find a "dream, long-term home" that is already big enough instead of creating months of noise and dust for people who already live there?

Oh, bore off...

Firstly you are not being realistic on getting planning permission, mine took 6 months despite no objections!

Secondly are you sure you are not going over the development guidelines if you are filling your whole garden? This may well be considered overdevelopment. The new neighbours honestly are not the only issue with such a such scheme of works. If you are building to the boundary line there's lots of potential pitfalls

Alternatively OP, have you considered an enclave of yurts?

Or how about a hippy commune?

Budgets exist, and folks have very specific needs, and your reply adds nothing of value to the OP, who very clearly is already being extremely considerate of future neighbours.

Because of the location? Because not many perfect houses are on the market at the right time? Because of the outdoor space? Because they like this one?

Honestly, people have every right to buy houses and do them up!

I'd introduce yourselves to them and let them know, making it clear you're approachable. They might be expecting an extension at some point so might not be surprised.

Thanks for the responses so far - one in particular made me chuckle 😂 to answer a few of the points raised -

The house we are buying is currently empty so no worry about going round before we actually own it - I wouldn’t if the current owners were still living there!

12 weeks may be realistic, but luckily my OH is a surveyor (very handy) so knows that’s realistic in our area at the minute - obviously with no objections/problems.

My dad is a builder (again, very handy!) and his team is doing the build, so we know September is doable.

We’re not taking up the whole of the garden, being a corner plot our garden is basically at the side of our house. The extension will be done at the back, where there is a 4.8m wide strip of garden between the house and boundary fence. We’ll be going out 3m so will leave 1.8m between the edge of the extension and boundary (which is more than new builds now - our current house has 1m). In terms of over-development the size of the extension is nothing in comparison to the size of some others on the estate.

I hope the PP is right in terms of they may expect it, given that a lot of the surrounding houses have done it. It’s also the perfect set up for where you would put at extension - at the moment it’s an unused strip of land, not wide enough for anything particular but would make sense for an extension.

Christ, somebody got out the wrong side of the bed

Our neighbours have just done this.
When they bought they introduced themselves and did say they would be extending. We weren’t over the moon but there was no real reason to object so we didn’t. We are not best mates with them but accepted that they needed to do it. The work is completed and is fine.
The only objections actually came from the planning department themselves and they were very clear on not ‘taking our sun’ etc. Just apply and be reasonable. They don’t have to like you.

The house we are buying is currently empty so no worry about going round before we actually own it - I wouldn’t if the current owners were still living there!

It doesn’t matter that there’s no-one living there. It’s still owned by the current owners, not you. So it’s a bit off to go around to the neighbours before you actually own the house. The neighbours might still be friends with the current owners so may know this fact. I would definitely wait until you actually own the property.

I'd wait until I had moved in (for the reasons others have mentioned) and go round and speak to them about it. Before putting the planning application in. Because if there is something they don't like, or that they could warn you about because they know things you don't, you might be able to adapt your plans to suit everyone. Applying first is basically saying 'we don't give a fuck what you think or what you know which might help us, we won't change anything anyway'.

When we had work done, we showed our neighbours the plans before submitting and made a few changes pre submission at their request.