I would like to build an extension to the rear of my house. I don't think the next door neighbour would agree to me building on the boundry line, in fact I want to avoid the issue with him altogether. How far from the boundry line can I build without having to seek his permission. I have read that this is 300mm but can't find any information from the odpm.gov. website to confirm this.
LOL!!! An extension to any property needs permission from everyone that can overlook it. Everyone around your property within seeing distance needs to receive a letter of objection to you building an extension. The have a time limited option to send rejection notice to the council of them being adversely effected by such a build. If they do not respond to the rejection notice within the time limit, then you are allowed to go ahead with you build.
The notice must contain a drawn plan of your proposed extension, clearly showing where and what sizes it will be, its height, its colour, its etc. etc. So you don't just ask your next door neighbour for consent, but everyone that overlooks where you want to build.
Contact your local council planning department for more details on this.
If there is not one already, I would strongly recommend that you first put up a fence to establish the boundary. We didn't and our neighbour (who is one of those from hell types) has nailed trelis to the purposely
12-inch stepped in extension wall and infested the said wall with ivy. Not able to do a lot about it without enduring a lot of abuse - We're for a quiet life 'round here...I don't think you will get away without having to seek permission. The excavation work you will be doing is also covered by the Party Wall act, notifiable if it's 3m from the boundary or his structures.
Get on his good side now. Don't end up with the idiot that I have to tiptoe around.
-- Adrian C
This is not about consent to build an extention. Its about avoiding hassle with an immediate nightnare neighbour.
Your neighbours can't be a nightmare if you give them all the option to object or not to you building something. If you have a neighbour that objects, then the council send someone to ask them why they object, or at least give them a form to fill in to tell them why they object. Remember that you have to give notice to build to everyone around the area that can see your proposed build site, so one objection on the grounds of your neighbour personally not liking you can't stop the project from going through. That's what the notice is for. :-)
No, this is just a courtesy of the council, and varies by council. The circumstances in which they are _required_ to do this are very limited. A neighbour applied for planning permission, but I was not informed by the council as it was just over 1m from my boundary. Fortunately I got on very well with my neighbours, so they told me about it, but otherwise it's up to me to keep an eye out for the official council notices in local newspapers, noticeboards, etc.
In a different council area, I seem to get notifications of planning applications at least 6 houses away.
The responses are simply made available to the councillors at the next planning meeting. If you've ever been to a planning meeting, you will know that none of the councillors will have read any of the responses before making their decision, so they are not normally taken into account. If you want a view taken into account, you would have to do this by contacting the council and making enough fuss that they do actually take the trouble to find out what the issues are. I think most councils will now let you do a 3 minute presentation at the planning meeting if this has been prearranged (only a single presentation for, and a single one against, is allowed for any one planning application).
You are unaware of my relationship wth my neighbour.Please refrain from replying to my posts
OK :-)
Got ya Andrew G. I just found this on the web:
Thanks for the heads up.
Absolutely. The old saying goes: "good fences make good neighbours". If it's a difficult neighbour make it 6ft high and try to time erecting the fence while he's on holiday.
Some neighbours don't even have a good side. In my experience they will take full advantage of any sign of weakness. :-)
riccip
In some locations the "Community Council" get to recommend if the planning application is approved by the Council proper, so you have to have reasonable relations with a whole lot more people.
Rick
Damn. There goes Usenet.
Do you think *anybody* here is aware of your relationship with your neighbour?
If you don't want answers from the general public don't ask on a public forum...
LOL!!! Where did you get that one? The only permission you need is from the council planning department. Others can object and may influence the granting of permission but you certainly do not need a neighbours permission to build an extension. Overlooking has nothing to do with it either. even if they can't see the extension from their property they can still object.
MBQ
Very wise. Bend over backwards to do the work with his tacit approval.
You need building regulations approval, probably planning permission and you need to conform to the Party Wall Act. Details on the latter are at
Peter Crosland
The party wall act only applies to party walls. It's quite clear from the OP that he wants to avoid this by building away from the boundary.
MBQ
If you want to excavate within 3m of your neighbour's foundations then the Party Wall Act applies.
Al
Isn't it funny how some people read the first line of the planning and building regulations, and then they think they know it all. I don't think anyone who has replied thus far, has read passed the first paragraph. (and a very big sorry to all those who have replied otherwise).
In that case you'd better give up on all ideas of an extension. If he is that bad he'll cause trouble whatever you do.
Do take account of any overhang of the roof of your new extension. A friend of mine didn't. At the last minute it was pointed out that the new roof would overhang the (reasonable) neighbour's by at least 15" (inc gutter). The plans had to be hastily modified to move the new wall back and changes/delay worked out quite expensive.
Thanks for some of the replies.
Other than
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