Garage conversion, front wall and party wall question

[Star29]

hi,
A long story short, my neighbours have caused me a lot of stress with my building work currently so i want to make sure they are covered too.

1. They have now have changed their attached garage to a room. How do i check that they meet building regulations?
I checked planning portal but no application is under their house for change of use.

2. They have also built a wall both sides of their driveway (we are semi detached). The driveway is sloping so the wall nearest our porch is over a metre high and then is the same level to the front so becomes shorter. it is not tiered. is this allowed since the highest point (over 1m) is not near the road

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/permission/commonprojects/fenceswallsgates/

3. Finally we drafted a party wall agreement and gave it to our neighbours but they haven't signed it. We did follow up with them a few times but they paid no notice to us. the work has almost finished now, should i be worried?

Any advice would be great.
Normally we wouldn't really care about point 1 and 2 since we are pretty easy going however they have caused us undue stress with our building work so i want to make sure where we stand.

Many thanks
Star29

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Bit sad but anyway,

1: More than likely doesn’t need PP and certainly won’t need a change of use unless they’re running a barbers or similar type of business. Regs you would have to speak with the council.
2: Big deal dob them in then.
3: If work commences and a Party Wall Agreement has not been signed then its content is worthless.

Bit sad really.

 

[Architexeter]

1. No planning permission required (unless or PD rights removed or specifically set out as parking in original permission(normally only in developments of 25 years or younger)).
Yes, Building Regulations required.

2. 1m high rule is adjacent to road (for highway safety) - so up to 2m high adjacent to house is fine but should be 1m high near the road - this is a grey area exactly how far from road this kicks in but there is a lot of appeal history, see other posts.

3. Its their obligation to undertake Party Wall etc. Act compliance. If the work has caused any damage to your property you can claim against them and the fact that they ignored their obligation would not ride well.

 

[Star29]

yes it is a bit sad, however if someone is going to go out of their way to make my life a misery then we need to ensure we know where we legally stand with their changes to their property.

thanks for the comments.