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!

[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)

[Dr Murdoch]

Thanks for the responses so far. Just a few points / queries:

I'm not sure why the neighbours would be pissed off, they might, but they may not. Any works will improve their neighbouring house which is significantly 'letting the side down'. 'IF' I were to purchase I would run the plans by them first, listen to their thoughts and go from there.

Still not getting the comment from 'right to light'? There or no windows on the side of the neighbours house, any extension would be set back from the front of their property. Could someone clarify?

I would keep the properties separate, and thats why I posted really, to see what the distance needs to be.

Some comments about just buying another, houses in the condition we hope to achieve after renovation works will be significantly more expensive to buy. Oh, we're buying to live in it, not to make a profit.

Thanks again OP

[Dr Murdoch]

Little Lofty said:

You generally are allowed to build right up to your boundary, the party wall act is in place to facilitate this. It will need PP and it will have to be set back. To me it still looks too narrow, if that gate is 900mm and the fence 1000mm then your looking at a room internal dimension of 1600mm, as even if it goes right up against next doors gable wall you still loose 300mm for the cavity wall, the old saying you couldn't swing a cat comes to mind, you probably need to go and measure the width as anything less than 2400 and your wasting your time money. The neighbour will be pissed off, they nearly always are if your building right up the border, their condensate pipe from the boiler runs along that wall so just little things like that can cause all sorts of conflict. I buy and sell houses for a living, I would never buy a house and build right up to the border as I know the hassle that it can bring, and I wouldn't even be living there.

Thanks LL for the constructive response. I'll see if I can nip round there and measure the width (its unoccupied).

[Dr Murdoch]

Well I measured the width and it comes in at 100" (8.3ft).

Looks like I'll give it a swerve, its a semi-detached and without a garage its a no go. Ideally I would like a detached and a garage, might be prepared to compromise on one, but not both.

Cheers