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Small dreams - minor/major? cock ups.


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30 working days into the little build now. I've had some incognito battles with the neighbours many of whom had complained/objected to the initial planning applications. (there were two not undertaken by me) 

 

I understand other people having alternative viewpoints even though its more hassle for the council & me of course but such is life. 

 

I'm still so excited to eventually be moving into my own little place that it would take some doing to really annoy me. 

 

One of the outcomes from the complaints is that I have a first floor opaque window in my bathroom - which faces to the road & despite me mentioning this needed to be added to the plan when we submitted for reserved matters my original notso-good architect didn't add it. I guess it might be that he felt too many changes might risk it not going through altogether - or that because it was somewhat different to the outline plan the council might have said we needed a whole new application. Planning have said I can submit a variation planning application - with the associated fee of course. Best just to get on with that - or worth a small battle with my architect? What would you do? 

 

Secondly in all the hustle & bustle I forgot to take note of one of the conditions attached to reserved matters in connection with the driveways (mine & the host house who's garden I am in) namely: 

 

The submission of details of drainage as required by condition 4 needs to be submitted as a formal application/submission (to discharge the condition) with form and fee and you will need to confirm the precise details of the work.

 

I guess they are allowed to continue to charge where they can - perhaps another case of getting my credit card out & cracking on with it. 

 

Maybe I just needed to come on here and moan a little. On a positive note though - windows are in and I have an actual real working door key. <sits back & smiles serenely in a manic fashion>

Edited by simplepimple
missed a letter
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Hey ho - there will be bumps in the road but stick to it and the rewards will follow. Small wins help and once we get into the sunlit uplands of spring and you really crack on .... our experiance with the neighbours has been good but they were, and still are, a bit worried about our rather 'out there' design. 

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Have a good moan it does help

 People tend to want things to be as they have always been 

The more you do for these complainers the more they will want 

 

some of the conditions our seller tried to impose where ridiculous

One I can remember is that only immediate family live in the completed property 

Not sure what that was about 

Each day the neighbour was waiting to winge about something

It does start to grate after a while 

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43 minutes ago, simplepimple said:

 

One of the outcomes from the complaints is that I have a first floor opaque window in my bathroom - which faces to the road & despite me mentioning this needed to be added to the plan when we submitted for reserved matters my original notso-good architect didn't add it. I


ok so... are you saying you have a clear window installed, or no window on the plans and you’ve installed an opaque window ..??

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The 

40 minutes ago, PeterW said:


ok so... are you saying you have a clear window installed, or no window on the plans and you’ve installed an opaque window ..??

 

The architect omitted to add the window on the plans - although there is a small narrow box shape where the window is - I guess he forgot to enlarge it. So no window on the plans but a window on the house. 

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Pp

3 hours ago, simplepimple said:

Planning have said I can submit a variation planning application - with the associated fee of course. Best just to get on with that - or worth a small battle with my architect? What would you do? 

 

How much is the fee? Sometimes there are more important things in life to worry about.

 

3 hours ago, simplepimple said:

Secondly in all the hustle & bustle I forgot to take note of one of the conditions attached to reserved matters in connection with the driveways (mine & the host house who's garden I am in) namely: 

 

I have a planning condition that we never got discharged. Now >10 years later they can't enforce it. Probably a god job as not sure we comply with it. Not sure what a future buyer might think about that but hey ho.

 

If you are sure they will accept the application to discharge the condition is probably just pay it.

 

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They haven't indicated it won't get accepted - but to be sure is another thing altogether - however it doesn't look over anyone's garden - it's not the nice people next door who I bought the land from - it's the others opposite - & it did get refused on the first application. Nothing worse than thinking you've won .... but then you didn't. 

 

I feel better after my moan though. (and I've just been round and through my front door for the first time) 

 

It's in the region of £234 for the amendment - I usually find the quicker you pay it the faster the irritation goes. A bit like an itch. 

 

£234 would have bought quite a bit of nice laminate flooring though..... ?

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1 hour ago, simplepimple said:

They haven't indicated it won't get accepted - but to be sure is another thing altogether - however it doesn't look over anyone's garden - it's not the nice people next door who I bought the land from - it's the others opposite - & it did get refused on the first application. Nothing worse than thinking you've won .... but then you didn't. 

 

 

I sympathise to a degree with frosted bathroom windows - unless you made it above shoulder height.

 

Hairy Rs first thing in the morning in the window across the road are not my thing, either :-).

 

Though you may get away with a relatively mild frosted pattern.

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4 hours ago, PeterStarck said:

Do you know when the 10 years period starts from?

 

Good question. I believe its from first breech. So if the planning conditions says "before work starts" or "before occupation you must do xyz" then the date you start work or occupy the house would be the date of first breech. 

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  • 2 months later...

A quick update. 

 

Retrospective planning for the upper window & not having larch cladding has been approved. Yay! 

Reading the neighbourly complaints on the planning portal  was pretty brutal though. Apparently I'm a stupid superficial developer in cahoots with my architect. Nice. 

 

My plan is to claim the cost of the retro planning from my architect (I've spoken to RIBA for guidance on this) but will wait until the driveway condition has been discharged. 

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12 minutes ago, simplepimple said:

A quick update. 

 

Retrospective planning for the upper window & not having larch cladding has been approved. Yay! 

Reading the neighbourly complaints on the planning portal  was pretty brutal though. Apparently I'm a stupid superficial developer in cahoots with my architect. Nice. 

 

My plan is to claim the cost of the retro planning from my architect (I've spoken to RIBA for guidance on this) but will wait until the driveway condition has been discharged. 

 

Give them a couple of years and the neighbours usually calm down, as long as the thing is resolved to a stable status quo.

 

Once something cannot be changed, people are usually accepting even if they don't really think it their taste.

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