Hanslow

Hypothetical my mate question

Two houses on newish estate. Open driveway between them. Distance to centre of driveway from each house is 8'6" (in good old measurements ). Person A wants to build extension / fence whatever, just inside the boundary line on their side which would mean person B would have difficulty exiting their vehicle and if they had a passenger / disabled family member, they would have to get out of vehicle prior to parking on the driveway.

What are the chances of planning permission for said new construct?

What if it also obscured light into two side windows on Person B's house?

Just curious....

OllyK

Think you need SaxoBoy on this...

Stealth

iTrader: (4)

Surely it would depend on how many people complained about the idea of the structure being built..... I know hen my 'rents were going to build an extenion on their old house the council (I think, if not someone did) sent out a notice to neighbourhood saying this is what person A is proposing if you have any complaints etc air them now!

tmo

Interesting one!! Think usually on shared driveways you have some sort of covenant re access. Also have to take into consideration the right to light and air! Parties wall act 1996 I think, could be wrong though

davegtt

no idea but I can guarentee theres a good chance person B will be mighty pi55ed off about it and might cause problems for person A presuming they plan on staying int he house for a good while. (which if there extending the house theres a good chance)

Hanslow

Someone give SaxoBoy a nudge then

Just out of interest dave, I'm person B Was told about it Wednesday night what Person A wants to do. Final drawings are being submitted for planning permission today.

Wouldn't mind so much because we want to move, but don't want it to affect the selling of our house. I've already thought about explosives in the underpinnings (as Person A wants to build a garage + bedroom on top + extend it past the back of house).

As me and the missus both have 3-door cars (coupe and soft-top) the doors are also slightly bigger My missus' nan who comes over once a month or so needs to use a wheel chair and needs decent access to get in/out/around vehicles, etc.

OllyK

Suggest you voice your objections pretty smartish then, or ask the neighbours to hold off until you have moved

Hanslow

Well we were told a letter will be sent to us by the council informing us and that is the point at which we can voice an objection. I'm popping over tonight though to see if it can be stopped until we move (but being picky it might take me a while to find something I like ). I'm going to let neighbour know that we will object to it, and that they might have better luck with the next people that live in our house

tmo

Having read it again you both have a driveway not a single shared access therefore think they have the entitlement to build. As part of the party's wall act think the council has to inform you of the proposal, at this stage start complaining but basically if you both have drives with a detailed boundary (who's is the boundary ?) then theoretically he can build. But like I said I’m sure that there is a mention of “the right to light and air”

davegtt

sounds nasty mate shame really, tell them to hold off for a while whilst u sell the house first then cause I can see it effecting the appealability of a sale and it wouldnt suprise me if it'd effect the value of your home IMO

messiah

You'll get a letter from the council when there'll be a 3 week consultation period which is your chance to complain. If the driveway is being altered then the local highways department will be involved also. If the driveway is shared then there's a good chance the owner has to get permission from "your mate" to alter it.

Should be at least 12 weeks though - 6 weeks for planning permission and 6 building regs then however long it takes to get a builder. Can you move in 12 weeks? I wouldn't let on your having aggro with a nieghbour if you're selling though.

Hanslow

tmo you are right in that we both have a drive, but being a modern estate, you basically have to impinge on the neighbours drive space to get out of the car. They do it with ours when they get the kids out of their 3 door car. The boundary is ours, so they are not allowed to cross it. We will certainly stipulate that they are not to touch anything on our side of the boundary at all with regards to building.

Looking at the sizes as well, we think that their car may fit in the garage, but they won't be able to get out of it....which leads me to believe, they don't want it to put the car in, but to store junk instead

dave, that is our concern, which has really peeved us. Personally we believe they have bought a house that is not suitable for their needs, and they don't really give a stuff about their neighbours. We thought a couple of years back about building a garage, but decided against it as we didn't think it fair on the neighbours....more fool us

On our estate, there have been two other houses with open parallel drives (probably a better description than shared) that have built garages extra to the original property. These have been put in the back garden and not on the driveway. Whether there was some reason for this imposed by the council, we don't know. However, could we use this to say a precedent has been set on how this sort of new structure should be positioned?

Despite nothing actually happening with this yet, it's really getting to me and the missus, mainly because we feel helpless in that we think it will probably go ahead as it's on her boundary. We will certainly try and refuse any access on our side of the drive whilst it is being built (if it goes ahead) and we don't want the build to affect us at all or we will want compensation (but how feasible that is I don't know). We don't want our house price, electricity, water, drainage, light, driveway access + quality affecting. It's just plain annoying

messiah, don't fancy chances in finding something in 12 weeks but keeping fingers crossed. Neighbour reckoned work wouldn't start for about a year. We can do without this hassle at the moment It's not aggro (yet), more an annoyance. I think they know we are gonna object after they tried to get a fence built down the middle. They never even discussed that with us. In fact, I think they only told us about this because they were probably told we would get sent a letter. If final drawings are being submitted today, it must have been going on for a while