How high can neighbour's extension be?

I would like to ask if anyone has any experience of the following - I am not requesting legal advice, just if anyone else has come across a problem like this ?

My neighbour is building an extension onto the back of her house - we live in a terrace of single storey bungalows. The extension is massive in height - our back gardens slope downwards so when I asked the builder why the wall (built parallel to my boundry wall - six inches gap between them) was so high he said he had to build the foundations up to meet her existing floor level? Also, he has build up six blocks higher than the existing rear wall - (not the gable end). I believe its to pitch the roof down as she wants velux windows. Now, I don't want to deny my neighbour the right to build onto her home, but now I have this hulking grey block mass completely blocking all sunlight to the back of my home and garden! Also when sitting on my sofa I'm now facing a blank wall! I'm so upset over this - I think this will strip thousands of the value of my home? Also, the builder has cut the gutter straight across (on her side of the boundry by a couple of inches) and said he will "patch it up" even though my gutters were designed to flow into hers? The downpipe is at the end of her wall. She has no planning permission, nor did she get an architecht or engineer. I was never shown any plans. Is there anything I can do?

Thirdfox

Blocking sunlight = private nuisance - depending on how much sunlight is blocked (as you say "all") one could *hypothetically* get a court injunction preventing her from building the extension.

Property rights are being infringed... you have the right to peaceful enjoyment of your land and blocking sunlight is a big no no in the court's opinion.

Not legal advice. (Also see my signature!)

dermot_sheehan

Deleted User wrote:

I would like to ask if anyone has any experience of the following - I am not requesting legal advice, just if anyone else has come across a problem like this ?

My neighbour is building an extension onto the back of her house - we live in a terrace of single storey bungalows. The extension is massive in height - our back gardens slope downwards so when I asked the builder why the wall (built parallel to my boundry wall - six inches gap between them) was so high he said he had to build the foundations up to meet her existing floor level? Also, he has build up six blocks higher than the existing rear wall - (not the gable end). I believe its to pitch the roof down as she wants velux windows. Now, I don't want to deny my neighbour the right to build onto her home, but now I have this hulking grey block mass completely blocking all sunlight to the back of my home and garden! Also when sitting on my sofa I'm now facing a blank wall! I'm so upset over this - I think this will strip thousands of the value of my home? Also, the builder has cut the gutter straight across (on her side of the boundry by a couple of inches) and said he will "patch it up" even though my gutters were designed to flow into hers? The downpipe is at the end of her wall. She has no planning permission, nor did she get an architecht or engineer. I was never shown any plans. Is there anything I can do?

Developments that are exempt from planning permission are exempted under s. 4 of the planning and development act http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ZZA30Y2000S4.html or under regulations made there under (The current ones are the 2001 ones, but these may have been amended http://www.environ.ie/DOEI/DOEIPol.nsf/0/fad163d4e576ac3a80256fa3003d0f77/$FILE/part02.pdf


and

http://www.environ.ie/DOEI/DOEIPol.nsf/0/fad163d4e576ac3a80256fa3003d0f77/$FILE/schedule2.pdf

As you can see at the begining of schedule II (linked above) extensions to houses are exempted from planning permission if there previous was no extensions and floor area does not exceed 40 square meters. (or 12 meters if house is terraced). Also as you can see there are alot of other conditions such as not exceeding hight of rear wall.

If it's not exempted development, you can get the council to issue an enforcement notice or else take high court action yourself but bear in mind retrospective planning permission can be applied for and granted.

Edit: I just parsed that link for you - hullaballoo.

Thanks for your advice - as I can see, the builder has exceeded the height of the existing rear wall by 5 blocks (laid sideways) as the roof will slant down from this height - I have emailed the local county council planning dept and asked them to do an inspection and emailed in photos - I wonder how long it will take them to respond - do you think I've a chance of it being lowered? The builder already told me it wouldn't harm the development if he took off "2 courses" - I will take that as that he realises hes gone over the height of the existing rear wall! Pity I'll never be friends with my neighbour again tho.

Sorry to bother you again, but would a room sized 12 feet by 12 feet be larger than 12 square metres? I forget how to calculate it....

dermot_sheehan

Deleted User wrote:

Sorry to bother you again, but would a room sized 12 feet by 12 feet be larger than 12 square metres? I forget how to calculate it....

It would be 13.38 square meters
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=144+square+feet+in+square+meters&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official

Idleater

Deleted User wrote:

I have emailed the local county council planning dept and asked them to do an inspection and emailed in photos - I wonder how long it will take them to respond...

Erm, one piece of advice that I can give you is to phone the council involved. Email has not been a reliable form of communication in my experience.

L.

Hi all - just to let you know that the council responded to my email ( I had attached photos ) and got back to me today and said they are going to do an inspection of the building work. Thanks for the pointers. Loueze.

Adey2002

I'd be interested to know how you get on with this one.. could you post back and let us know..

Victor

Deleted User wrote:

Sorry to bother you again, but would a room sized 12 feet by 12 feet be larger than 12 square metres? I forget how to calculate it....

Note it is footprint area, not floor area that counts, i.e. measure to the exterior face of walls.

well, neighbours extension is nearly finished - they capped the large wall and said they are going to sort out the gutters - still awaiting inspection by council, they said would take 3 to 4 weeks for an inspector to come out, by which time job will be done! Will post back.........

Seion

still awaiting inspection by council, they said would take 3 to 4 weeks for an inspector to come out, by which time job will be done!

Well, I wouldn't worry about this at all - the council have been known to take an extremely dim view of people breeching the law in this regard. In fairness to them, they sort of have to, otherwise there would be chaos as people all across Dublin threw up extensions to beat the band.

Personally, I am aware of a case where someone who had built an extension onto a terraced house in Dublin city was forced to demolish it at their own expense. Frankly, if your neighbour has exceeded the guidelines laid down for an exemption, she would be better having her builder cease work while the issue is sorted. Otherwise, she will simply be paying to tear down a structure that she's paid to have put up.

If there was no architect or engineer involved in the project though, there is no guarentee that the builder is fully aware of his responsiblities. He may simply be taking orders from the person paying for the building work, and may have decided it's not his job to worry about whether his clients breech the law or not.

Either way, if it's against the law, and the council inspectors acknowledge that, I'd say there's a very good chance you could force your neighbour to either tear down the structure or modify it so that it falls within the regulations. Should make for interesting glances over the washing line though!

Victor

The council won't get involved in the height issue, that between you and your neighbour, but will get involved in the exemption limit.