My mother was 90 (died a while back) and we co-owed her house. Unknown to me, the next door neigbour built a 2 storey extension using the party wall of our single storey bathroom, and its about 18 inches over hanging, inc the eaves and guttering.Obviously he cant maintain it without my permission.

Further his downpipe from his guttering empties out onto our lower ajoining roof, instead of turning going the corner and and draining into the ground on his own land. (they also got hold of her debit card removing vast amounts of money! another story )

I phoned the council as to why they signed this extension off. and why wasnt i contacted; they basically siad ‘hard luck’, we have no interest into who owns the ajoing property.

silly qestion but …Is a short downpipe emptying out onto a single storey neighbouring roof against building regs…
and anyone have any suggestions regarding litigation? my house price is reduced due to this debacle; am thinking of seeing a solicitor and getting it sorted.

Check the planning portal. Your being fobbed off there, did you ask on a Friday afternoon? part of the application is to notify adjoining properties owners. demand the council show you the planning submission, permissions granted and if it didn’t require them the building regs certificate. If it has none of the above pretty sure it can be legally taken down

I’m very surprised they got planning permission for that. I’m building something similar and I couldn’t get permission unless my second storey was no closer than 1 metre to the boundary. Hassle the council again and take legal advice, the council informed my neighbour about my plans.

As above, I had to work hard and record formal party wall agreement when we built – and I had to send all the lawyers letters to building control prior to sign off.

Any chance of a picture? I’m a Party Wall Surveyor (sorry).

I’m a Party Wall Surveyor (sorry).

Lolz Ioddrik

I’ve just asked the Stepson who works in Planning Enforcement. It says pretty much what the council have said – it’s now a civil matter, and they won’t get involved. It would be advisable to firstly approach the matter in a polite manner (even though their appears to be some bad relations) and seek redress through negotiation. Should this not work, write a couple of letters outlining the precise issues that are being faced and therefore you can show to a solicitor that you have taken all reasonable steps to address the problems. You will then need to contact someone with experience in the field. A quick search on a well known search engine has provided this as one of many links that may help: https://www.lyonsdavidson.co.uk/can-homeowners-overhanging-eaves-gutters/
Unfortuantely, local authorities do not have the power to deal with such issues.

I would however still look at the approved plans for the extension and ensure that the plans match the finished development and log a case with the enforcement team. Please bare in mind however that the assessment will be on the overbearing impacts/loss of privacy and the design.

1) have they got planning permission ? I would have thought the council must answer what was asked for amd what was granted – if anything

2) probably start with a conversation with the neighbour to hear their side of the story

3) lawyers possibly – be aware that can/will cost 10’s of thousands – probably worth it due to devaluation

4) if what has been built is outside regs / planning it must be modified or taken down OR you can agree compensation

I would suspect you will find they “have received permission” from your mother – verbal very probably 🙁

2) Jamba, see the debit card comment, I’d guess a sensible conversation is unlikely.

First thing I’d do is check the online planning portal, and make sure what it says is what has occurred.

Building control won’t be interested in your position (the neighbour may have trouble selling), but it’s a separate thing to planning permission – you need to ask the council planning dept as well. However, unless there’s been deliberate deception, once it’s been there four years without objection, it’s deemed to have planning permission.

In my experience with planning/building control (im a builder), they would never let you discharge gutters onto a neighbours roof.

Sorry, there is no planning argument here unless the impacts demonstrably introduce planning concerns e.g. loss of light/overbearing impacts. The drainage concerns are a civil matter and not planning, sorry. Regardless of previous issues a reasonable attempt needs to be made still and if no reward is obtained through this it will only add to the arguement at a later date if called for it.

Interesting first post.

^^^ nice spot, wish I’d noticed

I have no knowledge of these things and can sometimes be a bit hot headed but why not just remove the pipe if its on your property?

How did they manage to build an extension without you noticing? Did you not visit/talk to your mother?

knock the bathroom down .

Pretty sure their extension will fall down if its ontop as you say 😉

If notification was sent but you didn’t notice and respond in time, then it’s fairly much tough.

Got one myself with neighbours planning a new house in their garden. The time to respond with complaints is very short. Just a couple of weeks. If you’re away, then also tough.

I pretty much have nothing I can complain about anyway as the only real impact will be on property value and that is not a valid reason for complaint apparently.

Thanks for all your replies – yes I could put up a pic.

The neighbour is my sister and her husband! She, aa former nurse, was my mothers carer. My mother had breast cancer. The sister failed to report the tumour that had come thru the skin 6 months erarlier.
We got the police involved when we found £60 000 had been removed from mums b
BANK 0ver a 12 yr period, without mum knowing – thE POLICE were useless!

I am considering taking civil action against her/them for her lack of care and over the extention. My mother died 3 wks after she disclosed about the tumour to another sibling – all too late. The sister ‘nurse’ merely stuck a plaster over it.

Can I politely ask why you signed up to a mountain biking forum to post this conundrum?

Maybe he was here already under a different name. Yonks ago I was given a second log-in for personal stuff.

Can I politely ask why you signed up to a mountain biking forum to post this conundrum?

Because mountain bikers –

1 – Live in houses
2 – Have neighbours
3 – Can be quite helpful at times

probably

Add a piece of down pipe to the one emptying onto your roof. With a couple of elbows you should be able to feed it through one of their downstairs windows . . . . .

It’s not really a planning dispute then is it? It’s a family feud.

People talk about mountain bikes here? 😯

It’s not really a planning dispute then is it? It’s a family feud.

This.

And it sounds like both legal advice and counselling needed….