Millymu

Hi All, Just wanted to update, the planning permission has been granted and the report says, hear hear!, our extension has no impact whatsoever on the neighbours who objected! In writing, from the council. Party wall award is served as well and we now need to proceed with the licence to alter. Anyone has been dealing with this, please? Any advice? Thanks a lot! M.

I am sorry to hear of your experience. This must have been horrible! Well, to be honest, it did not work with our neighbours..we mentioned what our plan was when we first moved in, months ahead before actually submitting the drawings to the council. We changed plans twice to accommodate and listen to their feedback. Until the point where they felt entitled to stop us and being obstructive instead than constructive. They also invented that we have never given them the chance to explain themselves, which is untrue and unfair towards us. The truth is that, some people are impossible to please. And does not matter how above and beyond you go for them, the more you do, the least is appreciated. We have been reminded of this the hard way. And it's ok. It's a lesson learned, and two people less invited to our housewarming party!

Thanks a lot everyone, this is really helpful! I got a bit emotional writing this post, and maybe a little carried away! You are right "Mr Punter " I should never use the words "nasty and lies", these are not helpful and will never be. While I have not heard them lie in our face, it was directly mentioned to us that "someone" has spread misinformation. I am really not a fan of this circles of gossips and really hope everything will end soon enough. It's not like me to write my experiences on public platforms, I am usually very reserved, but it really helped to get everything out. I became thinking that maybe it was our mistake involving them from the beginning, but we thought that, as we share a small building it was the right thing to do. Rookie mistake! Thanks again! M.

Good morning Everyone, We have sent a planning application for a rear extension in our share of freeholder terraced Victorian conversion. We own the ground floor flat and we wish to extend outwards. The neighbours upstairs already have a loft. During the process we have been very open and accomodating with our neighbours upstairs regarding the works, presented the works to them, let them speak with the building company, listened to their concerns and so on. But the more we opened up the more hostile and nasty they became. During the party wall process they have presented a list of 57 demands, disputing the works, as well as saying to our face that "they are ready to bring us to court but we will never renovate our apartment" . They also start spreading lies about us with other neighbours who we share the right and left boundaries, convincing them to go to an extent of hate, and sending multiple emotional letters petitions to the council, none related to the works. The neighbours upstairs objections is that, once the extension is there, they won't be able to have a view of the garden or access to the garden for maintenance of their apartment, which by the way, belongs to us and they don't have right of access to, with or without the extension. The council has now suspended the approval and it is now on committee due to the number of objections. We wrote to the council to defend ourselves from the allegations they have presented. We hope for the best. We are now in need to put a solicitor to mitigate the "licence to alter" matter, as soon as the party wall process ends and planning permission is approved (hopefully soon). We stopped responding to all the nasty messages and left the communication to be handled just by the surveyors appointed. The neighbours are now asking for a security deposit of 20k to be held and they are delaying the surveyor process. We would like to ask if anyone of you has found themselves in this position. It is a very bad feeling and would be good to have someone to relate to. We are not doing anything out of normal, what we are doing is pretty standard and our extension is exactly the same as others in our street. We have followed all the legal process by the book , being honest and always in good faith. We are told by our solicitors to be patient now and put the best smile on. Just to piss them off. But it's not easy. I am sharing my experience in the hope that someone could give us their advice of how they have navigated this, and what was their experience and outcome on these situations. Thanks a lot for listening to me! Milly.