Side and Rear Extension

[Ambaz79]

Hello All

 

We are on a 2nd planning application as the 1st one was refused on the grounds of Design and Dominance to my Neighbour on our western side.  The 1st application was refused without any communication between us and the planning officers although we did reach out to them on a number of occasions (calls and Emails) with no response.  On our 2nd application we had the opportunity to talk to the planning officer who talked us though the changes required and said this should now be in a position to be re-submitted for a more favourable result.  We then submitted the 2nd application and had a email on Friday evening to say the scheme still has a big overbearing impact to my neighbour as well as a few design issues.  Design issues are splitting a 1st floor window into 2 and changing the design of the roof to lower the ridge.  Both have been done very easily. 

 

The main sticking point now is the dominance to the neighbours window that faces east to our flack wall that is 2 story.  The Neighbours window is a corner window that has a bigger section facing south as its a south facing plot and around the corner is the east facing windows facing our plot.  I have attached a few drawings to show the windows in question. 

 

Distance from our extension to Boundary is just over 1.66M. 

Distance from boundary to the neighbouring window is 1.6M.

Neighbours property  is around 50cm higher than ours is its on a slight hill.  

 

I have a few questions with regards to this application.

 

1. Is the window on the corner treated as 1 big window or would the window to the east be treated as a single window and the window to the west be treated as a separate window. 
2. How does/should the planning officer decide what part of the window is the primary/principle side.
3. They have now also said we would need to build in line with the current house that's there.  This means stepping back the extension by just over 2 Meters and also includes the ground floor extension.  Would a ground floor extension really cause this much of a over dominance.
4. Do views to the North of this window also count towards over dominance as this would be a un-natural way to look as the person would be either looking into there alley way or directly onto our plot.

 

I hope I have given enough into to help you advise me on this.  A few pictures attached.

 

Thanks

Edited August 4, 2021 by Ambaz79

[Mr Punter]

If I were your neighbour I would not be happy with a 2 storey flank wall 3.3 metres away from my South / East facing corner feature window.  It sounds like they will allow you to have a 2 storey extension, but no closer to the neighbour.  You could probably also have some single storey element.  Are you unable to get satisfactory accommodation within this restraint?

[Ambaz79]

The 2 storey element is a view from the east facing window.  Totally understand that this would not be an ideal thing for my neighbour but these are south facing plots so really the view should be directed to there garden and not our garden (ideally).  A compromise we have suggested to my local planning offer is we remove the 1st storey element to the west and just have a ground floor element only.  They have kind of said they are not keen on this too and would like us to remove the whole side extension.  This is really more the problem as this would make my lounge allot smaller and we would have over 4M of land to the side that we would not really use any other way.  

[SuperPav]

The usual advice of get a planning consultant would apply  Hard to comment on some things here with the limited information and lack of elevations.

 

1) What is the footprint of the original house, specifically what (if anything) can you do using PD rights. There could be some games to be played here.

2) What/if anything has your neighbour said about it - both to you directly but also as part of any comments on the planning application? Do they have any *specific* concerns?

3) What is the current boundary treatment - fence etc.

4) Appreciate those drawings may be a bit distorted, but how much are you going out rearwards as it almost looks like you're doubling the depth of the house?

 

Your questions about how the corner window should be treated from a planning assessment are a bit irrelevant to be honest - it looks like there's more than just the corner window on their eastern elevation anyway. 

[Ferdinand]

Welcome.

 

I think we really need a bigger slice of the plan, showing for example the orientation in the plot, the road etc.

 

F

[Ambaz79]

Hello All

 

Thank you for taking your time to look at this.  

 

I have attached as much as I think I can.

 

I don't have any clue on how PD rights could be used and how.  Maybe the info attached today could help advise on this.  

 

Before I submitted the 1st plans we had a chat with my neighbor (and emailed the original plans to him before submitting) who said he would like us to be as far as possible from his house and ideally in line with the original house so the extensions goes back but not to the west towards the boundary.  As we wanted to extend towards the west we decided that I submit the plans and proceed as needed and he would comment on the application.  I think this was a fair way to deal with it and I want to be clear we are not as war or anything.  I guess he wants to protect what he can and I want to extend to what I have planned and create my dream home.  

 

He has made a comment on the first application to say the extension to the west would be too dominant and overbearing.  Then on the second application he commented and referred to the 1st refusal notice where reason 2 of the refusal notice was the building would have a overbearing impact on the neighboring amenities.

 

Current boundary between the 2 houses is a standard fence panels that is around 6ft high.  One point to note is the road is on a slope so his property is built over a 30cm higher than ours so he has high ground compared to us.

 

There is on one of the images attached the orientation of the plot so you can see the rear is south facing.  

 

Also something to note is my next door neighbor on the other side has just had planning accepted last year to demolish his house and build a brand new building there.  I don't know if this has any impact on the other side. 

 

We are extending around 7M back at a height of around 5.2M.  The extension overall would more than double the size of the existing house.

 

Our house currently is by far the smallest house on the street.

 

Again thanks for all your advice on this.

Edited August 7, 2021 by Ambaz79

[Ferdinand]

Will try to get to grips with this today.

[Mr Punter]

Could it be better to demolish and rebuild so you are not constrained by the existing structure?  You would also get the VAT back and have a brand new house.  I doubt there would be much difference in the costs.

[Ambaz79]

Hello, we have looked at this option but due to the fact we have a mortgage they have said they would not allow us to Demolish. We are in a 3 year fix with them. We looked at this option in the early stages to. 

[Dave Jones]

read

 

https://www.molevalley.gov.uk/CausewayDocList/DocServlet?ref=MO/2012/1612&docid=435467

 

[SuperPav]

I've had a look at this including the houses either side and the planning history, and as some informal feedback my thoughts below:

 

Both comments by the neighbours are reasonable. The fact that the last application was also rejected on overbearingness (rightly or wrongly) means you're off to a bad start in terms of getting your proposal through as is.

 

The fact your house currently sits so near to #16, with a tapering/diagonal plot is always going to require some compromise as you extend rearwards.

 

Some of the proposed works seem somewhat inefficient from a cost/work vs value point of view - is the garage wall to #16 really moving by about 500mm? 

 

Where do all of your services currently run?

 

If it were me, I'd be tempted to lose the garage in its current location, put a second bay to match your current one to that side, over the existing footprint, then extend rearwards in the current width, perhaps by more than you have currently (8-9m?), and then bung an attached garage on the side facing #20. Even if you had a double length garage here, it would only be a single storey side extension to #20 which is a material improvement over the last application. 

 

I would also advise you to keep the garage wall to #16 in its current position - putting foundations right up against current ones right on the boundary (+ ripping out the old ones for the new floor), + limited access for building and maintenance is going to be a real pain. Worse so if there are any services or even rainwater drainage running along this wall.

 

Apologies for the MS paint quality of drawing, not on the good computer at the moment!