Any planning experts? Specifically outbuildings.

[kenny]

The guy sounds like an unreasonable arse.

Hope things work out.

[campbell]

Neighbour disputes can just escalate so badly though.

Keep thinking through each step with a cool head. Sleep on some of it if need be. Keep the moral high ground. Keep in mind you intend to be there for the long term, but it's amazing how quickly one might start to feel "chased away" from your own home (disaster).

I know you'll be doing all this obviously, but really would hate to see the heat of the moment let you down, Steve :-/

Rooting for you here.

[Sanjøy]

Would a SE Garden party help ?

[Stevoraith]

When he was at it again the following evening I went out around 8pm and politely asked how long he'd be.
"How!?" was his answer.

You should of replied, "how what?", that would confuse him!
Or, "perhaps you meant, 'why'?".

Best of luck

/pedant.

Exactly. That's the type of person I'm up against. Not much intellegance but brought up with a wee bit cash (step dad is wealthy-ish) which is a lethal combination in my opinion- he's been spoiled and can't understand why he can't just do what he wants, when he wants.

The noise problem fortunately seems to have gone away for now.

Good advice Campbell, thanks. I am quite laid-back and do tend to think things through before acting, my wife however is a bit more hot-headed and lets things get to her more. Unfortuntately she does feel 'chased away' and wants to move- not an option though since we've spent every penny of our savings on landscaping the garden and putting in a new kitchen this year!

Here are some updated pics;
From my daughters room, gives a good overview of the area. Remember, my complaint is that he wants to put decking on that roof!


Kitchen window- if there's decking ontop of that he'll be able to see right in


Taken from head height while on my patio- the roof (i.e base of the deck) is about 3-4ft above


Another one showing the height. The lowest fence in the pic is a 6ft fence!


And Sanjoy, garden party might be an idea

[renmure]

There can be no way whatever that he would be allowed to put decking on there.

[j2 lot]

No way he will get away with decking on top of it. Get the planning dept in - or wait until he puts the decking up before you call them, then he will have to take it down

[campbell]

Did you say something about light levels? One defence would be to extend the height of the boundary fence by several feet (6 or so!) along the extent of his new construction. Whilst it will lower your light a little, it will prevent over-looking and you could put a nice creeper on it

However I think Jim is on the money, rules around over-looking should ensure decking is never passed by building control.

Anyway, this is a Contingency Plan. You are still working on your Mitigation Plan which is to gently persuade him away from going too far...and to keep the missus bound and gagged indoors! Actually in all seriousness, her feelings on the matter are going to make life very harsh for you both and so it's important to reassure her that you are doing all you can, and to have her take a positive attitude to the potential final outcome. Even if it ultimately fails, it's better that she spends the next few months in cheery spirits rather than bad.

Take it from me.

Remember. Even if you get your own way over this, relations with this "neighbour" will be tricky - perhaps even moreso if he has to climb down, so important to be squeaky and not burn a single bridge wherever poss.


Campbell

[renmure]

Usually I would agree with your ever-sensible approach Campbell, however looking at these pic I think that any neighbour who would even suggest puttng decking up there deserves to be confronted with the full force of objections via officialdom. If they are so thick as to think that would be acceptable, never mind whether it would be allowed, they deserve to be fallen-out with.

[campbell]

No truck with that, Jim. Just looking at the long-game. Clearly I agree that the regs should be presented and enforced. And Building Control people should see to that. One might win the battle...but the war? Who wants to gamble with their cherished home, and risk *feeling* chased out of it?

Don't get me wrong. If the last remaining option becomes Custer's Last Stand, then so it should be. But my approach would be, exhaust every single reasonable avenue first. Including making allowances for the short sightedness of the other party

[j2 lot]

making allowances for the short sightedness of the other party

thats not short sightedness - thats blind stupidity. He can't believe he can get away with that - can he

You are right that the best way to handle it is to deal calmly and rationally but from the story so far I would guess that the guy won't respond to the gentlemanly behaviour.

Fingers crossed that you are right though

[campbell]

I wouldn't normally come at such things in this way. I'm the first to enjoy a good bl**dy spat and to "stand up for my rights". BUT when you are dealing with your principal private residence, as the taxman would call it, it is madness to let emotion take over. Steve's already alluded to the strength of feeling from Mrs Steve and that's heartbreaking. So all I'm saying is tread cleverly rather than bare-facedly, at least until all the cards are dealt.

I have some experience in this - although not prepared to get into it here - and had I let raw emotion get the better of me we would not be living where we are today. End of.

Anyway, at the end of the day Steve's on the case and the righteous shall win through I am sure

[Stevoraith]

It's fair to say that I have, at one point or another, held every opinion on this page.

I was inclined to "make allowances for the short sightedness of the other party " as you put it Campbell, but this did cause a bit of friction between the wife and I as she didn't think I was doing all that I could to stop it and she thought that I'd be happy for him to go ahead.

The gentle persuasion route has been abandonded though I'm afraid. Between the last update and this one, I had spoken to him, explained that I had contacted the council about my reservations and told him point blank that as soon as he started to construct decking I would be contacting a planning enforcement officer to make sure that what he was doing was within regulations.
He was actually quite pleasant, we discussed options as to what he could do, although his offering was to plant conifers up the side of his outbuilding to shield it. Obviously not really an option since they would have to be 15ft high before they started to block the view and that would take a few years!
We parted on reasonable terms though and had been speaking up until the recent altercation.

At that point I decided that my 'softly, softly' approach was bearing no fruit so I bowed to the pressure of the wife and submitted a complaint about his building.
Now, I actually have no real problem with the building itself but if it is in contravention of some rules and he has to pull it down, it solves the problem at a stroke!
The more likely outcome though (I hope) is that when the enforcement officer is round to look at the building they offer him some advice about the decking and at least persuade him to seek official permission.
I have mentioned his plans in my complaint so they will be aware of it.

The only solution I can come up with which will allow him to install decking is that he puts a 6ft screen on the side of it. From my point of view that's not ideal as it will look a bit ugly but it will at least stop the problem of overlooking.
Raising the boundary fence is not an option as it is already 6ft all the way along (on my side- his ground is a foot or so higher) and as the rear garden faces north east, the evening sun comes into the garden between the houses and over that fance. Any higher and we would completely block out the sun.

Like you guys though, I still can't believe that he actually thinks it is acceptable to ptu deckign on there.

I'll keep you updated with progress though since there seems to be a bit of interest.

Cheers for all your words of encouragement!

[mckeann]

its too late to kill him and bury him in his own foundations, but have you considered building something of your own to bury him under?!

[Dark]

As I said at the beginning of this thread, there is absolutely no way he'll get away with sticking decking on top of his cr@p extension.

A quick search of the internet shows that anything higher than 1 foot from the ground or anything that would impact the amenity or privacy of another property must have planning permission. Which he won't get!

Getting the enforcement officer around is the right thing to do. With any luck the extension will have broken planning or building regulations and he'll have to pull it don anyway!

The only issue you might have is that the enforcement officer can't take action unless your neighbour actually installs the decking so you'll always be looking out the window every time he gets his tools out!

Forget any thoughts of mitigation like screening, etc. No way you want to give any impression of acceptance. The decking is not allowed, it's wrong, he shouldn't be doing it, no way, end of!

Mark

[BiggestNizzy]

You have already tried the polite approach and he didn't listen haven fallen out with some of my neighbours over them being a bit of a dick it's easy to live with. Call the planning department.