I have a problem with my mum's next door neighbours. After receiving planning permissionfor a two storey extensionto the rear of their house, the project was completed. That was all above board and no problem at all. However, all along, they were planning to also build themselves a single storey attached side garage at the same time, without informing the planning department. This attached garage was built from the side of their house - across the full width of their driveway and also, slightly but definitely onto my mum's driveway. I would say that it get's increasingly more and more onto my mum's side as the extension goes back...to a distance of about 7 inches. Their fascia and guttering actually finish over my mums garage roof.
My mum - an old aged pensioner who has lived there for 45 years - approached them at various times to complain, but on each occasion, she was either ignored, or told to go away.
I made a complaint to the planning department (leeds) and they sent a lady out from the compliance department who told them that their build would indeed require retrospective planning permission. They sent in retrospective plans for the newly constructed garage and I was told to present a objection case to the planning department, before the decision was made.
The decision is due to be made anytime soon - 16th November or before.
His first two sets of plans for the rear extension had no mention of the attached garage and were recommended for approval by the chairman of our village council's planning committee. The chairman is a close family friend of my neighbour. When the retrospective plan was submitted, his architect had drawn a gap between the boundary line and his garage - intimating that the build was nowhere near the boundary line. The local council...again chaired by his friend...also recommended that the application be passed.
At that stage, I was in the process of writing my letter. I had to start again to include the non-declaration of interest by the local councillor and to include the fact that the new plans were factually incorrect. It takes me ages to write anything and even longer to type it out!!
I outlined the facts in my objection letter to the planning department. Firstly, that the local councillor involved was friends with the applicant. Secondly, that the newest plans sent in were inaccurate. Thirdly, that the building had been built onto my mum's land. I included several pictures of the house prior to any building work, the boundary line as it was, how the boundary line was no longer visable as they had built over it, etc, etc. Fourthly, how the garage looked from our property. (ie, photographs of unpointed brickwork, lumps of cement at the base spread over our driveway, cement on the brickwork - plus photographs of damage caused to our garage by their builders.
I also sent an additional letter into the planning department a few days later to advise them that the garage had not even been constructed with proper footings or onto any sort of base. The back wall of the garage (the part attached to the back wall of their new extension) did have footings, but the rest of the build did not. The entire side wall and the front two pillars/overhang were just laid onto the existing driveway base - ie, tarmac laid by gypsies in the mid 1990's.
I thought that this would have been enough factual information and photographic evidence for them to reject the application. However, I fear for the worst.
I contacted them today about a related issue in respect of one of the letters I sent in and thought it would be a good chance to find out how the case was going. Nothing negative was said...but you know when you are not receiving the right signals don't you? I felt as if she was saying 'as long as the bricks match...that's all we are bothered about!! The person dealing with the case also mentioned something quite disturbing that some of you may be able to help me with. She said that the fact it was not built without proper footings is of no interest to them. (????) She went on to say that as the neighbour used an independent inspector, that meant that it was nothing to do with them and that I should contact the independent inspector. I think that this was another of his 'friends' so that wouldn't do me a great deal of good anyway. Surely someone must be responsible for dealing with illegally built buildings - or is anybody allowed to build without footings nowadays?
Anyway, the way I look at it is that I have two main reasons for them to reject the application.
1) They have built onto my mum's land.
2) The building hasn't been built on proper footings.
It seems as though these two points aren't going to make any difference whatsoever and it looks like the retrospective application is going to be passed.
To any normal person, this seems like such an injustice. The fact that you can be minding your own business and someone can build without footings, onto your land, damaging your property in the process, just seems ridiculous.
I just wondered if any of you had any urgent, helpful advice for me in this matter. Anything at all would be very much appreciated.
My mum - an old aged pensioner who has lived there for 45 years - approached them at various times to complain, but on each occasion, she was either ignored, or told to go away.
I made a complaint to the planning department (leeds) and they sent a lady out from the compliance department who told them that their build would indeed require retrospective planning permission. They sent in retrospective plans for the newly constructed garage and I was told to present a objection case to the planning department, before the decision was made.
The decision is due to be made anytime soon - 16th November or before.
His first two sets of plans for the rear extension had no mention of the attached garage and were recommended for approval by the chairman of our village council's planning committee. The chairman is a close family friend of my neighbour. When the retrospective plan was submitted, his architect had drawn a gap between the boundary line and his garage - intimating that the build was nowhere near the boundary line. The local council...again chaired by his friend...also recommended that the application be passed.
At that stage, I was in the process of writing my letter. I had to start again to include the non-declaration of interest by the local councillor and to include the fact that the new plans were factually incorrect. It takes me ages to write anything and even longer to type it out!!
I outlined the facts in my objection letter to the planning department. Firstly, that the local councillor involved was friends with the applicant. Secondly, that the newest plans sent in were inaccurate. Thirdly, that the building had been built onto my mum's land. I included several pictures of the house prior to any building work, the boundary line as it was, how the boundary line was no longer visable as they had built over it, etc, etc. Fourthly, how the garage looked from our property. (ie, photographs of unpointed brickwork, lumps of cement at the base spread over our driveway, cement on the brickwork - plus photographs of damage caused to our garage by their builders.
I also sent an additional letter into the planning department a few days later to advise them that the garage had not even been constructed with proper footings or onto any sort of base. The back wall of the garage (the part attached to the back wall of their new extension) did have footings, but the rest of the build did not. The entire side wall and the front two pillars/overhang were just laid onto the existing driveway base - ie, tarmac laid by gypsies in the mid 1990's.
I thought that this would have been enough factual information and photographic evidence for them to reject the application. However, I fear for the worst.
I contacted them today about a related issue in respect of one of the letters I sent in and thought it would be a good chance to find out how the case was going. Nothing negative was said...but you know when you are not receiving the right signals don't you? I felt as if she was saying 'as long as the bricks match...that's all we are bothered about!! The person dealing with the case also mentioned something quite disturbing that some of you may be able to help me with. She said that the fact it was not built without proper footings is of no interest to them. (????) She went on to say that as the neighbour used an independent inspector, that meant that it was nothing to do with them and that I should contact the independent inspector. I think that this was another of his 'friends' so that wouldn't do me a great deal of good anyway. Surely someone must be responsible for dealing with illegally built buildings - or is anybody allowed to build without footings nowadays?
Anyway, the way I look at it is that I have two main reasons for them to reject the application.
1) They have built onto my mum's land.
2) The building hasn't been built on proper footings.
It seems as though these two points aren't going to make any difference whatsoever and it looks like the retrospective application is going to be passed.
To any normal person, this seems like such an injustice. The fact that you can be minding your own business and someone can build without footings, onto your land, damaging your property in the process, just seems ridiculous.
I just wondered if any of you had any urgent, helpful advice for me in this matter. Anything at all would be very much appreciated.
