Neighbour building lift ext - advice needed

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SabineMum
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Neighbour building lift ext - advice needed

Postby SabineMum » Sat May 31, 2014 11:08 pm

Hello,

Our neighbours are building a lift extension, which innings elf is nothing exceptional for the area. We have one - built by the former owners - and many others on the street. However, I'm rather concerned by two aspects of their extension and wondered if anyone had either built or has a neighbour who has a loft with the same specs, i.e.:

- the main window in their loft bedroom will be a French door with a balustrade meaning that they will possibly get a very good view of us in our kitchen below (we have a kitchen extension with glass roof)

- the other part of their extension, half a landing below their top floor bedroom (if that makes sense), will go all the way back. We didn't think this was something that was possible (ours and our neighbours doesn't go all the way to the back of the house), but apparently if you 'virtually' build the top room first and then the room below (although they will of course build them at the same time), then you get approval from the council. We're obviously concerned about the extra loss of light into our garden, but mostly about the fact that they're planning to put a window on the side as well as the back again overlooking into our kitchen. Even though the glass will apparently be frosted, who knows what the next owner will do with that window? Since that part of the building will be unknown I the council as permission isn't required, what could we do then?

Many thanks in advance for anyone with experience of these issues who might want to advise.
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2009Kat
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Re: Neighbour building lift ext - advice needed

Postby 2009Kat » Sun Jun 01, 2014 8:01 am

Hi Sabinemum

We have just had this done!

- loft window/door. Yes we can see into neighbours kitchen. However, we could see into it anyway from our existing 1st floor middle bedroom so this doesn't really add anything. Also our loft room is our guest room so not frequently used.

- rear extension - we had to get planning permission for ours (as I think we wanted bigger dimensions than we could have got through without). We got it no problem. On our street, we were the 3rd house to do this and 3 more currently doing it. Council now giving more permission. It was a condition of our planning permission that we had a frosted window in the window facing sideways . This is a bathroom so we wanted it anyway. I don't know whether we could change it but I can tell you the cost of our new windows would make me think twice!! In terms of loss of light for neighbours, the council looked at this when considering the planning.

None of our neighbours objected to our plans. I suspect some of them may want this extension at some point themselves!
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Tilly&Roo
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Re: Neighbour building lift ext - advice needed

Postby Tilly&Roo » Sun Jun 01, 2014 11:53 am

Hi 2009Kat, we wanted to do this but our architect told us we can't. He said if we wanted to go all the way out we would need to build that part first under permitted development and then apply for planning for the rest. We've literally only just submitted our plans so I would be very interested to hear how you managed to get planning for it as if it's possibly without plans being rejected I'd like to have ours changed asap. Did you have an existing loft before?
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2009Kat
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Re: Neighbour building lift ext - advice needed

Postby 2009Kat » Sun Jun 01, 2014 12:13 pm

Hi Tilly - the position you set out was our fallback but we got permission. We didn't have an existing loft conversion - a natural 3 bed house (now a 5 bed). If you want more details you are welcome to pm me. There are some houses near us which are natural 4 beds which I think helped.
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Tilly&Roo
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Re: Neighbour building lift ext - advice needed

Postby Tilly&Roo » Sun Jun 01, 2014 4:04 pm

Great, thanks. I'll ask our architect to look into it!
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Tilly&Roo
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Re: Neighbour building lift ext - advice needed

Postby Tilly&Roo » Mon Jun 02, 2014 6:37 am

Hi Kat, can I just check if you are in wandsworth?
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SFMC
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Re: Neighbour building lift ext - advice needed

Postby SFMC » Mon Jun 02, 2014 9:13 am

Hi Sabinemum

We have a similar window in our loft bedroom - it is almost floor to ceiling with bifold doors so we can open it up completely and a juliet balcony. Our next door neighbour to our left has a class roof conservatory so we can see into it if we really try and peak out and down. However, just to reassure you as it is our bedroom we are really only ever in the room to sleep at night. And we basically almost always have our blinds down even during the day - as we close them to sleep and close them for privacy when we are changing. If we do ever have our window open it only on the few occasions when it is so hot we need a cross breeze to sleep (a rarity in summer!) and even then we have the blinds down.

Hope this reassures you that your neighbours won't often be looking down on you!

Regarding the second point I'm not entirely sure what you mean - a first floor rear extension? This is not allowed on our street by the planners. Though no houses have this. Mind you I'd love to be able to add another bedroom to our house. I would imagine once your neighbours do it , other houses will follow. I imagine only the argument it is blocking your sunlight you could argue - I heard on our street they don't give planning permission to building larger then a certain percentage over the original size of the house even though we have really big and wide gardens.

It seems planning permission changes all the time as this year rear extensions are now allowed double the size they were when ours was done.
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shaneleone
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Re: Neighbour building lift ext - advice needed

Postby shaneleone » Mon Jun 02, 2014 11:45 am

Our next door neighbours just had a loft conversion with the double doors and small balcony as you described, and we also have a number of windows in the room of our kitchen. However, they already had a bathroom window and a first floor bedroom window looking out into/onto our kitchen, so it didn't really change anything in that regard. So far, they always seem to have the blinds drawn and the doors closed - so I don't feel like we've lost any more privacy.

I am also not entirely sure I understand the second part of the build, but it does sound worrying to me. Our neighbour's loft extension comes out as far as our own - about halfway along the rear first floor, and even then I feel we've definitely lost some light and sky views. But if their build had gone all the way to the rear first floor, I think that would have had a significant impact on the natural light into our kitchen, as all we would basically be able to see out of our skylights would be their wall. I'm surprised this is getting permission honestly.
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AlisonThacker
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Re: Neighbour building lift ext - advice needed

Postby AlisonThacker » Mon Jun 02, 2014 3:23 pm

Open Space London did ours and they were absolutley fantastic. It may be annoying for neighbours to lose a marginal amount of privacy/light but if you're the one having it done, you want someone that's going to get the most space possible and that can now include 'first' and 'second' floor rear extensions.

Anyone can object but in order to make the most of your property you need to make it as big as possible and having a design and build company that specialist in Victorian houses makes a big difference as they know the planners better,
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Louby79
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Re: Neighbour building lift ext - advice needed

Postby Louby79 » Mon Jun 02, 2014 8:18 pm

We are literally doing this at the moment - four weeks in. We did two separate applications planning permission for the bit over the main house so that we could get the extra 20cm on the ridge (husband is tall and need as much height as poss) and the back part under permitted development. Council as far as I can tell wouldn't approve this if it was all under planning permission (they only gave us half of the back bit of the house) but they can not stop it going through as permitted development. Loads of people are doing it though down our street and seems to be a loop hole that is common knowledge. The frosted windows are for the bathroom and can't see future owners wanted to change an ensuite to another bedroom (eps with how the stairs work) and we can already see into our neighbours garden from the first floor, so the Juliet balcony makes no difference. Can see why as a neighbour you would be worried, but given half a chance i know our neighbours would do the same!
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