Are linked garages a problem?

[Netnot]

Liked a semi detached which on the one side has a garage attached to neighbours. A friend advised that in future if neighbours decide to extend over their garage they will be able to do so and the gap will not look as it is now(giving a better open and realistic semi detached feel). We are first time buyers and got no idea on council regulations in such situations because if we also decide to extend over our garage then these four houses will essentially create a terraced house unit. Should we drop this property?

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Yeah I wouldn't, as that's happened to a few houses round here!
Also, if they decide to turn garage into a gym etc then have the issue of noise travelling.

It would only be a problem if you think you might want to extend over the garage one day I guess. Otherwise it won’t matter if next door do.

It’s very expensive to extend in this situation, so unlikely to happen.

You can email your local planning authority too, "terracing" is strongly frowned upon here and they have restrictions. Sil much more modest upstairs extension was declined for this reason and she lost an appeal too.

You should have local policies too which give details of what's allowed

You can quite quickly figure out whether extending over the garage is permitted/popular by seeing if any of the other houses of the same style on the street/nearby streets have done it. If it’s quite popular then I’d probably avoid but it depends on how keen you are on the rest of it, your motivation for moving, etc.

Many Council have a policy preventing first floor extensions being built closer than 1m from the boundary.
You could check the Local Plan for the relevant Council. There is usually a policy relating to residential extensions which sets out the requirements.

Thanks everyone, I notices another property on the street has done extension over garage but is done at the back of the garage probably because of planning restrictions.
This is in Bromley. Will check the website for planning rules.