General Planning Query

[bakerstreet]

Morning everyone.

We are looking to put an offer in on a property in Hertfordshire (Dacroum) and we want to extend the original garage and add a fourth bedroom on top of the garage. However our plans have been a little skewed as we discovered that the next door neighbor has installed a small letterbox window looking into the area where we want to extend.

I've read a few guides on the net all suggest we wouldn't be able to build an extension beyond that window...however some sites have also suggested that their window isn't legal either.

there is also glass bricks on the room above, so that could ruin the chances of extending on the first floor as well.








I've contacted a couple of local surveyors, but I just wanted to get some guidance from some people who may have experience in this.

It's very nerve wracking when we want to put an offer in and we dint know if we can build what we want to build.

Any replies would be greatly appreciated 🙂

[bakerstreet]

Thanks for the replies everyone. It's as we expected.

It's s valid point about the neighbours. I wouldn't want to find myself on one of the neighbours from hell programs.

Could we extend the garage to just before the window? The house ticks a lot of other boxes.

Sadly the garage in us current form isn't going to work...maybe a posh shed at the bottom of the garden is the way forward.

[bakerstreet]

Elysium said:

Is the single storey building linking the two houses the back of your garage?

That would make it link detached, with their side wall on the boundary. If so, the window is not necessarily the issue. The real problem is that the extension would make it a terrace and most local authorities have policies in place to prevent this.

It's a linked detached and the link is the garages and the neighbours have extended up level with the edge of the garage and my initial thought was we could mirror their extension, but didn't realise their was windows until we viewed the house at the weekend.