Keeping in With the Neighbours

Keeping in with the neighbours can be critical to any home extension and it's well worth putting some effort into it. This was touched on in our article about Obtaining Planning Permission, in that you don't want your neighbours to find out about your plans when the little notices go up on the lampposts and fences near their homes.

Take Neighbours Into Consideration

Even if the neighbours wouldn't really have had anything to say about the development of your property, in terms of it's style and situation, then the fact that you didn't tell them first might well make them sit up and take a lot more notice than they otherwise would have. You don't have to ask their permission, just have a casual chat with them and mention the work you'll be doing, answer their questions, and gauge their reaction to see if you're likely to have a problem.

Neighbours have a right to prevent you from doing work on your property that will adversely affect their living conditions. Talking their light is one thing that will almost certainly result in a planning permission refusal, so look at how close your neighbours are and where their windows are. If your building will block light getting to their property, resulting in significantly less light reaching their windows, then you will very likely have to reconsider your plans.

Access and Party Walls

Another area where you should take care is if your work will affect a neighbour's access to their home or land. As with most things, this isn't forbidden, its perfectly all right if your neighbours agree to the change and get access that's as good, if not better, after you've finished your work. It's the getting permission that's the tough bit, and obviously you will have to pay for any work necessary to affect that new access.

Party walls, i.e. walls that sit on the boundary line and are therefore owned or used by more than one neighbour, are covered by a separate act, the Party Wall Act of 1996, which was put in force to clarify the processes and procedures to follow when trying to make changes to such a wall. It is essential that any works that might affect a party wall are discussed with the other owners and agreed in writing, and you must start this process at least two months before you intend to start work. The Act also requires those other neighbours not to be unduly obstructive, but it can be difficult to know where the dividing line is between a genuine, if perhaps petty, objection, and being unduly obstructive.

Once you have applied for planning permission the council will put notices up in the area of your house to let people know of the work that is proposed, and your plans must be on display a the local planning office for any neighbours to look at. If neighbours object, then it doesn't necessarily mean that permission will be refused, but the planners will take their views into consideration.

Keep Lines of Communication Open

Once you have planning permission, the dialogue shouldn't stop there. Your builders or other contractors may need access via a neighbour's house or garden, for example, so make sure you agree that up front and see any damage is made good. Let people know what's happening as the work progresses, such as times and dates when heavy equipment or suppliers' lorries are expected, so that neighbours can make sure they don't get blocked in.

Consider buying presents for people who are inconvenienced by contractors' vehicles over the period of the build. In the context of an extension budget, an extra hundred quid or so on nice wine or chocolates for the neighbours isn't a big item, and it may turn out to be a spend that's worth it's weight in gold

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