Extending up to the neighbours side of house?

[Dr Murdoch]

Can anyone offer any advise on building up to the neighbours property? I'm looking at a house to buy, for it to work for us we would want to extend on the side to provide a garage and a room above.

What distance from the neighbouring property could the limits of an extension sit? Below is a photo of the access (to be built on) and the neighbouring property (on the left).



Any comments/advice welcome!

[Ricky146a]

You will need planning permission to build on to the side of your house in any event.
I suggest you consult with your local council as they may have rules in place that will specify the gap you must leave to avoid the 'Terracing effect'. If this is the case then I suspect you will not have enough space considering the room that a double skinned wall would take up.

[Countdown]

I am not a planning expert but as your Neighbour has a window that faces your house would you get permission to block his “right to light “?

[Dr Murdoch]

Thanks. The garage would start behind the front window of the neighbouring property, so wouldn't effect their light (it would start at approx the join line in the concrete surface, and the window on the right is in the house to be developed)

[LeadFarmer]

Regardless of regulations, your new wall would need to be away from the neighbours house to allow for your guttering etc. Even then, it could be very difficult accessing your guttering etc for maintenance.

On my road lots of houses have had extensions almost completely butted up to the neighbours house. I imagine dealing with any maintenance issues such rendering or damp etc would be very difficult indeed.

[RATATTAK]

Not suitable for a garage ... definitely unsuitable for any sort of room over a garage

[barryrs]

Looks like a drainage mine field as well and you will need a build over or build near agreement with the provider.

[Little Lofty]

I agree, looks a bit narrow for a garage or bedroom, your probably going to ps off your new neighbour from the outset too.

[jjlynn27]

Pure curiosity; even if there were no technical issues mentioned above, would the math really add up, in a sense of the cost of doing the above vs final increase in value?

[RATATTAK]

jjlynn27 said:

Pure curiosity; even if there were no technical issues mentioned above, would the math really add up, in a sense of the cost of doing the above vs final increase in value?

No

[Wacky Racer]

With the greatest respect:-

Forget it and look for another house.

Not really a good idea to ps off your new neighbours before you move in is it?

[King Herald]

One of the houses up our street has had a single story extension added, that appears to be built directly onto the neighbours house, there is no visible gap.

In effect the houses are now ‘ link detached’ instead of detached, so whether that affects the value of the other persons house I don’t know.

Maybe they are currently good neighbourly friends, so agreed it is okay, but if Mr Extension moves out some day and Mr Noisy moves in, has band practise in that extension......

[Sonie]

It could turn your neighbours house to look like a semi/terraced and devalue their house.

I’d look elsewhere and spend the money on something more suitable

[Escort3500]

Ricky146a said:

You will need planning permission to build on to the side of your house in any event.
I suggest you consult with your local council as they may have rules in place that will specify the gap you must leave to avoid the 'Terracing effect'. If this is the case then I suspect you will not have enough space considering the room that a double skinned wall would take up.

Wouldn’t necessarily need pp; best to informally consult the council with a pre-app enquiry. However, as others have said, your idea does look a bit ambitious and fraught with potential problems OP.

[King Herald]

Several grey water drains, a gutter down pipe, and a couple of manholes covers to contend with as well.

[hyphen]

Sonie said:

It could turn your neighbours house to look like a semi/terraced and devalue their house.

I’d look elsewhere and spend the money on something more suitable

Wacky Racer said:

With the greatest respect:-

Forget it and look for another house.

Not really a good idea to ps off your new neighbours before you move in is it?

+1

Why do these strange people buy detached/semi and then terrace the damn thing.

OP- these kinda things appear on 'neighbours from hell' type of programs, appears that planning for such is allowed, unfortunately.

Edited by hyphen on Saturday 20th January 23:35

[Mandat]

Countdown said:

I am not a planning expert but as your Neighbour has a window that faces your house would you get permission to block his “right to light “?

If your assessment is based purely on the OP's photo, then I would say that the rear window directly adjacent to the side window would provide plenty of light, meaning that the potential injury caused by blocking out the side window would be negligible.

This of course is only relevant to "right to light", and other statutory procedures could be used to stop such a proposed development.

[Ricky146a]

Escort3500 said:

Wouldn’t necessarily need pp; best to informally consult the council with a pre-app enquiry. However, as others have said, your idea does look a bit ambitious and fraught with potential problems OP.

A side extension must be single storey as per planning portal to be permitted development.
https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/commo...

[Strudul]

Wasn't there a thread the other week about someone wanting to buy the house next door to prevent them doing just this?

[Escort3500]

Ricky146a said:

Escort3500 said:

Wouldn’t necessarily need pp; best to informally consult the council with a pre-app enquiry. However, as others have said, your idea does look a bit ambitious and fraught with potential problems OP.

A side extension must be single storey as per planning portal to be permitted development.
https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/commo...

Apologies, I missed it’s to be 2-storey