Does my Neighbour have Planning Permission

Daveone

Hi Everyone

Hoping for a bit of a pointer here as I am totally unfamiliar with the area. My in-laws have a house that they are renting out in South Dublin. They used to live there 10+ years ago and have rented it since. It's currently empty so they are thinking about selling.

The next door neighbours have at some point in the last 10 years built a considerable enough extension that blocks off a fair amount of light from their backyard. The extension would definitely be big enough that PP was required

I have a sneaky suspicion this was built without planning permission.

My questions:

• Are there public records of planning permission for a given address?
• Is there a statute of limitations on illegal buildings?

Many thanks

Penn

Daveone wrote: »

Hi Everyone

Hoping for a bit of a pointer here as I am totally unfamiliar with the area. My in-laws have a house that they are renting out in South Dublin. They used to live there 10+ years ago and have rented it since. It's currently empty so they are thinking about selling.

The next door neighbours have at some point in the last 10 years built a considerable enough extension that blocks off a fair amount of light from their backyard. The extension would definitely be big enough that PP was required

I have a sneaky suspicion this was built without planning permission.

My questions:

• Are there public records of planning permission for a given address?
• Is there a statute of limitations on illegal buildings?

Many thanks

Yes, you can search the applications on the council's website based on their address. As for buildings built without planning permission, if it was constructed more than seven years ago, the Council cannot issue any enforcement proceeding against it, though they would have to go for retention permission in the future if they wished to sell or extend again.

If they built it within the last seven years, you can contact the Council Planning Department who will review the extension. Ultimately though, it's likely the neighbours will just then apply for retention permission regardless. Depending on the scale or impact of the development, it may still be granted anyway.

.......

You can search here based on a variety of parameters, there is also a map search which can be easier sometimes.

https://www.sdcc.ie/en/services/planning/planning-applications/search-and-view/