Objecting To Your Neighbours Planning Permission. What Do You Do?

The last few years have certainly seen some changes in the way we live our lives and no more obvious is this than when it comes to our work lives. The covid pandemic most certainly was the biggest factor when it came to working. This is mainly because at times there was a work from home rule that the vast majority of us had to adhere too.

This consequently changed how we organise our homes. All of a sudden we needed a workspace in our homes. This could have meant that we ended up converting a bedroom into an office and yes, that is ok but maybe some homes aren’t big enough to accommodate an office.

The one thing I noticed in the area I live was the amount of house extensions that took place through the covid pandemic. They seemed to literally pop up everywhere and one of the reasons behind this could be that people now working from home on a more permanent basis wanted an office within the home and a house extension is the perfect solution.

When a neighbour decides on a house extension they have to first acquire planning permission. The reason behind this is to make sure it doesn’t impact the neighbours with, for example, a loss of light to their property. This article: How to object to planning permission on the grounds of loss of light gives very insightful information about what to do if you need to object your neighbours planning permission.

I am now going to highlight a few things you can do if your neighbour has planning permission for an extension and you object.

If you have issues about a neighbours planned extension it’s very important to make it clear to your neighbour at a very early stage. A good time to start is before any building work has commenced.

There are two ways to do this. You could either write to the neighbour expressing your concern about their proposed extension or if you are friendly maybe have an informal chat. Although I would recommend that it is written down so that a paper trail is created to show your concerns were there from the beginning.

It is your right to express your concerns to the local planning authority when any planning consent has been given. Your local planning authority has a duty to consider the impact on neighbours and the local environment. The local authorities have to consider the impact on your daylight and sunlight that an extension on your neighbours property would have for example on your back garden.

Local planning authorities will quite often ask for a sunlight/daylight from the applicant applying for planning permission. If on some occasions this doesn’t happen then you can instruct a legal firm to acquire a report. Of course it’s important to remember that you have to pay the cost of this.

If you are not happy with a planned neighbours extension there are definitely ways you can raise issues with your planning authority and if necessary use a legal route if required.

Have your neighbours had an extension that you were not happy with? I would love to hear in the comments how you dealt with it.