Perhaps the most awkward thing a neighbour can do for inter-street relations...
Our neighbour over the road from us (it is a fairly narrow street - just over one car wide) is looking to extend from their current 3 bed detached to make it 4-bed detached with an additional bathroom. He isn't a builder, (he's a salesman) but is going to do it all himself (god knows what it will look like!).
What this actually means for us, directly opposite, is that their single storey flat-roof side garage will be made 2-storey with a pitched roof in keeping with the rest of the house, so effectively a full height extension. For our house it affects:
- our master bedroom (removes 50% of the view of the fields in the background, and removes around 1/5th of the light, and will add a room directly looking into our bedroom, where currently there are none).
- our hallway window (removes around 50% of the light).
- our front small bedroom (would totally remove the view of the fields, and removes around 10-15% of the light).
To my knowledge, the neighbours directly next to them have opposed (as they are building directly to the boundary) and they have refused to have ladders, scaffolding etc on their land. My missus is quite uneasy about it, as she was caught off-guard when they told her and she was swept away by the story of the family expecting a baby (and the usual platitudes of 'this is our only option, we can't afford to move etc etc'), and she hates drama.
However, on thinking about it, and discussing it with me, we're both perturbed by this, as it would have potentially meant that we wouldn't have picked this house.
Any tips on how to deal with this - any opposition will likely mean that there will be strained relations with the neighbours, yet, no different to how they are now - quite ignorant at the best of times.
Our neighbour over the road from us (it is a fairly narrow street - just over one car wide) is looking to extend from their current 3 bed detached to make it 4-bed detached with an additional bathroom. He isn't a builder, (he's a salesman) but is going to do it all himself (god knows what it will look like!).
What this actually means for us, directly opposite, is that their single storey flat-roof side garage will be made 2-storey with a pitched roof in keeping with the rest of the house, so effectively a full height extension. For our house it affects:
- our master bedroom (removes 50% of the view of the fields in the background, and removes around 1/5th of the light, and will add a room directly looking into our bedroom, where currently there are none).
- our hallway window (removes around 50% of the light).
- our front small bedroom (would totally remove the view of the fields, and removes around 10-15% of the light).
To my knowledge, the neighbours directly next to them have opposed (as they are building directly to the boundary) and they have refused to have ladders, scaffolding etc on their land. My missus is quite uneasy about it, as she was caught off-guard when they told her and she was swept away by the story of the family expecting a baby (and the usual platitudes of 'this is our only option, we can't afford to move etc etc'), and she hates drama.
However, on thinking about it, and discussing it with me, we're both perturbed by this, as it would have potentially meant that we wouldn't have picked this house.
Any tips on how to deal with this - any opposition will likely mean that there will be strained relations with the neighbours, yet, no different to how they are now - quite ignorant at the best of times.