Neighbours planning huge extension. valid objections?

My neighbour has just presented me with a set of plans for a huge extension to the side of his house, taking his house hard up to the boundary of my garden, and to within 6 feet of my gable wall.

I'm wondering how best to object such that it'll be taken seriously by the council and stopped.

I have a window on the second floor facing the boundary, and the proposed gable end will only be 6 feet away from it, blocking out a lot of light - is this a good enough reason?

also, he has a central heating outlet on the gable wall which, if not relocted elsewhere, will be venting straight into my garden into the 6 feet gap.

If he gets approval, I don't see how they can build it, then roughcast it without access to my garden for scaffolding etc. Can I stop them from doing this? How about things like foundations & eaves as well - would they not have to extend over the boundary line?

I'm not against the guy building an extension, but think he could at least stop a metre back from the boundary line.

Any one had similar experiences?

Thanks,

Jim

Reply to
JJ
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The first thing is to discuss your concerns with your neighbour. If he is not responsive to your objections then write a letter to the council setting out your concerns about the planning aspects. remember that even if he does get planning permission then that does not mean that he has carte blanche to build since he has to obey the law regarding trespass and the Party Wall Act. He cannot force you to give permission to allow access for building in any way. The Party Wall Act is available here

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and note the sections regarding adjacent excavation and construction.

Reply to
Peter Crosland

I don't believe this is right. I can't tell you which law covers it, but there was a case in a local paper ~15 years ago where exactly this happened. I believe you are required to provide reasonable access to neighbours for building and maintenance at the edge of their boundary. It required only a quick trip to court to get an order to enforce it, whereupon the builder was granted 6 months unrestricted access to the neighbour's garden for the building work, and the neighbour lost all right to negotiate such access for that period. The order also required unrestricted access for transportation of building materials, which due to the layout of the neighbour's plot, meant they strictly couldn't even park their car on their driveway during that period.

That is more recent than the case I'm remembering, and some aspects of it may have superceeded earlier legislation.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

Quite wrong as far as new building is concerned. However, there is now the Access to Neighbouring land Act 1992 that allows access for repairs and maintenance but it does not allow for new build. Details here

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Reply to
Peter Crosland

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