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It's not finished yet so I don't know! Does the overhand count?
Well I don't actually know, but this sounds like an issue that may hang on details, so worth considering.
Don't play the drums..
Perfect.
Build drum room.
Don't learn to play the drums.
8am-8pm start drilling holes in the wall for shelves or the like. Intermittently for the next fortnight.
It's a new build.... Plasterboard doesn't offer much resistance.
Ok, so I stuck a pole through the fence to measure the distance from my fence. 95cm, so less than a meter
I'm yet to work out if the wall is definitely taller than 2.5m which it now needs to be. Not sure how I'd measure that one but I'm pretty sure it's taller than that based on how far above my 6 foot fence it is.
The big question is do I raise it to the planning guys now. If I'm honest, it's 50/50 whether it's actually going to cause me an issue. But if i wait until it's finished then he'll potentially have even more work to undo.
And even if he loses, he'll probably just move it 10 cm to the right, and lop off half a foot from the wall to make it compliant. Albeit, at massive time and expense to him, with very little benefit to me.
Thing is, I have no issue him building it as long as it doesn't impact me. So if it doesn't, I don't want him to have to rip it down and start again for no good reason.
Leylandii, or bamboo - our neighbour has both on our border
It would be a massive inconvenience if Japanese Knot Weed was discovered growing underneath his new structure…🫢
Don't play the drums.
build your own shed close by, take up the saxophone. See how his handicap improves. I’d take loss of light over a learner sax, any day of the week .
We own an ex-local authority house on the edge of a wee town in central Scotland. It's a lovely location, no houses in front of us, just a drop down to the river and a view of the countryside. We've been here for nearly 30yrs and have worked hard to make the house nice and the bottom of our back garden into a wee suntrap that we enjoy in the summer months.
Enter our new neighbour, two doors up the hill. He shuns any sort of contact with his neighbours (a few of us have tried to say hi and chat, but have been soundly rebuffed), and soon after moving in to his house he built a huge garage. In it, he builds and modifies stock racing cars in the back garden of his rented council house. All last summer from 2pm-9pm, weekdays and weekends it sounded like the montage scenes from the A-Team. Angle grinders, welders, hammering and sawing. The impact on our enjoyment of house and garden has been huge. Windows have to be kept closed to cut out the noise and we rarely if ever sit out in the garden anymore. So, I really understand where you're coming from @tpbiker. It's not fair, but people just don't seem to care about being nice neighbours anymore.
I've thought about putting an 'anonymous' complaint into the council about the noise, but what are the chances that all I'm going to create is more problems with a selfish neighbour who now has an axe to grind?
I don't know what you can do tpbiker, but you have my sympathy. Selfish neighbours are a nightmare.
My neighbours have just put a trampoline in their garden for the kids. I hate kids. I hate loud kids even more. But it's their garden and they're perfectly entitled to stick a trampoline in there
There is a huge difference between a massive outdoor building blocking out loads of daylight and a kid playing on a trampoline FFS.
Selfish neighbours are a nightmare.
I live in a village with a pub that's more than 200 years old. Someone bought the house next to it and has been complaining about the noise. So far the best has been a moan that the beer garden - which was redeveloped when I was still in primary school - doesn't have planning permission.
all I'm going to create is more problems with a selfish neighbour who now has an axe to grind?
My big beef is he coukd have quulite easily put it other side of his garden and not impacted any of his neighbours, but didn't as that would impact him. So yeah, selfish.
The fact is though he's an idiot, because whilst he's looked up all the planning rules to ensure he's can build as big as possible without permission, and put it as close to my fence as he thought he could get away with, his selfishness and fact he wanted to push it as much as possible has meant he's misjudged it by 5 cm.
So if I'm that way inclined I can at any point get the council involved
If you don't want to speak to the council if you're not sure it's compliant/going to impact you then your only option left is to go speak to the neighbour and find these things out surely? Obviously that would be awkward as hell but it's got to be better than sitting stressing about it for the next 6 months
Obviously that would be awkward as hell but it's got to be better than sitting stressing about it for the next 6 months
I'm going to mention it next time I see him. Basically tell him to be aware that if it impacts me he'll be asked to get planning permission
Probably a bit awkward but hey ho,
I've thought about putting an 'anonymous' complaint into the council about the noise, but what are the chances that all I'm going to create is more problems with a selfish neighbour who now has an axe to grind?
You mention he’s renting his house though, so he’ll need to keep the council happy or risk losing his lease. Especially if they don’t know about the new garage
Obviously that would be awkward as hell but it's got to be better than sitting stressing about it for the next 6 months
I'm going to mention it next time I see him. Basically tell him to be aware that if it impacts me he'll be asked to get planning permission
Probably a bit awkward but hey ho,
Don't be a wally. Just get the council to check. They deal with this all the time. It's the process and is a damn site* less hassle than some daft threat to call the council and dealing witha neighbour who suddenly jas an axe to grind and a massive finished building he is reluctant to take down and may drag out in the courts.
Why are you trying to make life more awkward for yourself.
*Boomtish
tp - you are asking if you raise it with the planning people now but expect that he "should" (out of some undocumented code of neighbourly courtesy) have popped over to discuss it. If the first he finds out about your concerns is the planning officer turning up with a tape measure he might be asking "why the **** didn't tpbiker just pop next door when I started building this rather than calling the 'stazi'?"
on the one hand you thing there's no real relationship to destroy - let me assure you that the basic relationship where you say hello and take parcels in for each other is something which goes undervalued. Nothing (not even a 4m tall golf shed casting a shadow) will make you want to move house more than having fallen out with the neighbours and being in a constant game of who can be the slightly more passive aggressive **** to the other one. You've already shown how this goes - he builds shed, you wont take in his parcels. Don't underestimate the ability of your neighbour to be a dick...
The best course of action might be to have a nice conversation that says, "I'm sure what you are doing is probably within the letter of the rules, I hope it doesn't block out too much sun in my garden and leave me a soggy mess". Then continue being an adult, and pleasant to him with parcels etc. You are not asking him to change it, you are just making sure he knows you are a better person.
Spot the person who doesn't live in Edinburgh 🤣
Clearly conflicting opinions on how to deal with this!
I'm inclined to have a word, but to be clear he's not 'within the letter of the rules' based on my measurements yesterday!!
Think very carefully how you do that / word it. He may be 100% within the rules (e.g. if he's measured from the correct datum and you've measured from somewhere else - like the wrong side of the fence post). A "threat" to involve planning is probably not a good way to have a friendly neighbourhood relationship. Suddenly cars get scratched, packages get lost, "hello" becomes "a blank stare", your overhanging tree branch gets chopped down, and someone has a slightly loud party and then fists are flying or red faced angry threats are getting thrown around...Obviously that would be awkward as hell but it's got to be better than sitting stressing about it for the next 6 months
I'm going to mention it next time I see him. Basically tell him to be aware that if it impacts me he'll be asked to get planning permission
Probably a bit awkward but hey ho,
You might think that doesn't happen, but every day of the year someone in Scotland is in a court trying to explain that they might have told the neighbour they'd ****ing kill them if they didn't turn the music off but it all started 3 years ago when they lit a BBQ when their washing was out or some other conflict.
If you have a word be prepared to take it the whole hog and get the council involved. All-in or you sit quiet and sulk as a neighbour disagreement on record can also affect property values.
The time for a word IMO was when he started work - a huge outhouse doesn't get built in a day.
I appreciate your concern poly. The wall is 95cm from my side of the fence so I'm pretty sure I'm on safe ground there.
I'm not trying to threaten him though. My issue is if I don't tell him now he'll spend the next month finishing the build, fitting the electrics etc, then have even more work to undo!
Whilst neighbourly feuds do become nasty, I genuinely can't see that happening here. The guys is a mild mannered IT worker with a young family. I'd be pretty sure the worst scenario is we don't acknowledge each other in the driveway in the morning!
I'm yet to work out if the wall is definitely taller than 2.5m which it now needs to be. Not sure how I'd measure that one but I'm pretty sure it's taller than that based on how far above my 6 foot fence it is.
If it was just a couple of inches back from where they've built it it could be 4m tall and totally permitted - so thats double the height of your fence. If you're not sure it's more than 2.5m then it certainly can't be a lot more than 2.5m. And in both the case of the height and the position its so close to the permitted sizes that going through the permission process would likely just result in it being given permission as its impact varies so little.
Your concern basically through its the shadow it can cast and waiting to find out whether that'll be a concern - you can find that out right now with a free phone app so why allow yourself to get anxious about that? I can't really envisage a 2.5m structure @ 1m from the fence casting much more of a shadow than the fence itself does though.
I think either satisfy yourself that it will have the impact you fear - and then you've got a reasoned basis to raise the issue with him. Or discover that that impact isn't really anything to worry about and you can just feel a bit grumpy about it for a while and then let it pass.
The time for a word IMO was when he started work - a huge outhouse doesn't get built in a day.
You are correct. So first I found out about his intentions was when I saw him bringing in all the materials that he'd already bought. I questioned him and he said he was building the outhouse , i didn't appreciate the size of it though nor its position in garden at that time. He said he wouldn't require planning permission.
It was only when the walls went up (prefab so they literally went up in 2 hrs) that I was like 'whoa that's absolutely massive'. Wasn't just me who was surprised, my OH plus the other neighbour one house along were also fairly taken back by it.
We need pictures!
No idea how to attach pics!
Suspect is isn't great to be the neighbour of some with an axe to grind whilst grinding an axle...
I'd be flagging to the council right after having a quick chat with the neighbour to say you hadn't appreciated how large it was and how much it is likely to block sun from your garden. Worth also mentioning it isn't just you that is surprised by the height.
Council come.round, if it all legit then nothing else you can do...if it isn't, he has the chance to remedy it.
I've no idea what a golf simulator is, but does he really need a 4m height for a swing?
I've no idea what a golf simulator is, but does he really need a 4m height for a swing?
the 4m is limit is for the apex of a double pitched roof - so if your walls are 2.5m that allows for a traditional pitch of roof. The roof would have some cross bracing inside (unless theres some hefty steel work) so you wouldn't necessarily get that much height to swing your stick about inside.
If the building is single pitch or flat roofed then you're not allowed to go as high and the limit is 3m. Although a 3m flat roofed structure is probably more imposing than a 4m pitched roof with lower eaves
Measure the horizontal distance .
You have done that.
Measure the slope distance from your boundary to the top.
Then using Trigonometry work out the vertical height..
You can use a electronic distance measurer.
You could do this from the top of your fence and then add the fence height onto your calculation.
Neighbour relationships maybe more important though.
You are not asking him to change it, you are just making sure he knows you are a better person.
A better person stuck with a monstrosity overshadowing his garden.
You're a consistent voice of reason on here Poly, but I disagree with you on this. It's a binary situation, either the structure is compliant with regulations or it isn't, and that's for the council to decide. If it's compliant then TP has to suck it up, if it isn't then the neighbour must take it down. There is no third option to be had here that I can see.
I'm not sure what a 'nice conversation' would gain at this point. The time for a nice conversation has passed. Nice conversations should have been had before construction commenced. Nice conversations at this point are going to result in "**** off" and then the neighbour knows who dobbed them in to the authorities.
No idea how to attach pics!
Upload to a photo hosting site, copy the link.
Or get your hand in your pocket for a subscription. 😁
If it's compliant then TP has to suck it up, if it isn't then the neighbour must take it down. There is no third option to be had here that I can see.
There are several further options - it's assessed by planning and passed anyway, as 'permitted development' is just the conditions where you don't need to seek a planning decision, it doesn't dictate that planning permission can't be granted. It can be assessed and require some minor alteration to make it compliant, which given that its at least close to thresholds for permitted development is a more likely outcome than just flattening it. Or.... his neighbour can just move the fence 3 inches while the OP is out.
Ok, so I stuck a pole through the fence to measure the distance from my fence. 95cm, so less than a meter
People have lost their life savings over arguments about 5cm!!
It's not going to make any difference to your light wether it's sited at 95cm or 102cm from your boundary.
If you do not try to contest it then it will drive you mad and be worse and keep nagging you.
OP, how old is the development? how many units? when I lived on a new build estate you had to ask the management company for consent for sheds/outbuildings over 10M cubed volume. They stopped most oversize ones.
Also check the PD rights were not removed on the dwelling's Planning Consent. I did my time in Building Control for a LA and dealt with these all the time, it's always about the detail
It's not going to make any difference to your light wether it's sited at 95cm or 102cm from your boundary.
This is very true and I'm mindful of that fact. On the flip side if he's ignorant enough to say 'screw you neighbour I don't care about your feelings on the matter' then I'm tempted to say 'screw you, you can knock it down and rebuild it as huge cost and effort if you want'. Sure I'll still have a monstrosity overlooking my patio, but at least he'll also feel the pain
It's a 6 year old development.
It's a 6 year old development.
Have you checked your deeds for covenants yet? A quick Google say max size of outbuildings is a very frequent inclusion and probably a better line of inquiry than if it's 5cm too close for it's height etc.
I've just remembered our first house was in a relatively new development and there was a covenant about no commercial vehicles being parked within the development by residents overnight for the first x number of years. They did....and I've no idea how anyone was meant to police that....or why you'd want to. I suppose it was to stop people taking the complete piss with a whole companies worth of vehicles and gear rather than their berlingo or even a normal sized transit on the drive.
Just wanted to say that those Scottish regs suck. Having a 4m tall building 1m from your fence is shitty.
Play this at extreme volume every time he's in his shack...
Honestly not sure what all the fuss is about
I'd say its similar size to that at least!
Also, that window is getting put out by shank at some point in near future!
Just wanted to say that those Scottish regs suck. Having a 4m tall building 1m from your fence is shitty.
In practical terms I think the difference between 1m from your fence and 2m from your fence is neither here nor there really
It's not 4m high 1m from the fence though. Is it?