Building a porch - notifying the neighbours?

M

muffin1973

Registered User
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633
Hi all

We are looking into building a porch onto the front of our house. Does anyone know do we have to notify our neighbour/get his agreement? My Father in law thinks we might have to, and the last thing we want is to have it built but then have to take it down again because of a complaint or whatever.

Our neighbours door and our door are side by side, just separated by our wall. Our neighbour is a tenant so we would have to track down the landlord.

thanks

M
 
Citizens info says we wont' need planning permission in this case:

Building a front porch so long as it does not exceed two square metres in area and is more than two metres from a public road or footpath. If the porch has a tiled or slated pitched roof, it must not exceed four metres in height or three metres for any other type of roof.

It'll be within all those parameters so shouldn't' need planning permission.
 
I'd have thought that you would talk to the neighbours and/or the landlord out of common courtesy.
 
We'd say it to the neighbours right beside us, but we don't know the landlord/never met him. Really just wondering are we legally obliged to tell the owner of the neighbouring house.
 
No, you are not legally obliged to tell them, but you may wish to mention it out of common courtesy as already suggested, they will be interested in what is happening when the builders arrive so better to forewarn them. Its a small porch that is exempt development, any reasonable neighbour will not have a problem with this.
 
Runner, thanks for that.

Leo, my husband had a look at the wall that divides our property from the one next door and it looks like the previous owner built up the dividing wall against what would have been an old iron railing so it’s all on our side, in fact they seem to have more space on their side, you can see the line down the front of the houses and the wall is way over our side. A friend told us there may be issues with party walls etc. but from the look of it we’re well within our own property boundaries so am hoping it wouldn’t be an issue? We would be building the porch against the wall alright...
 
The iron railing would mark the boundary. It sounds like the wall will fully be within your property so. Just make sure the roof detail doesn't overhang the party line and you should be fine.
 
Hi Leo, that's what I was hoping you'd say, will note that re the roof as well - thanks so much, really appreciate the advice.

M
 
Make life easy for your self regardless of the legal situation. Your neighbour might want to extend also. Dont worry about the landlord. Let the occupier know your intentions before you start.

A disgruntiled neighbour is a pest. Dont cause it when you dont have to.


Do it any way but keep you neighbour informed and ask would they want to be included.

When you might be in a difficult situation the importent thing to do is mamage the situation before you start.

But do it anyway.
 
Leo said:
Are you saying they should ignore the law here?
Click to expand...

I think they are saying what several others have already said in one form or another:

- if it meets the conditions for planning exemption (which it seems to) there is no legal obligation to inform anyone

- regardless of the strictly legal position, they are best to inform the people living next to them out of courtesy and an attempt to foretstall any problems

In a similar situation a couple of years ago, we showed neighbours plans of an extension we were about to build, even though there was no legal obligation to do so. As it happened, they didn't like one (minor) aspect, which we were happy to change beforehand (it would be have been costly to change after it was built). As someone said: you want to try and avoid problems with neighbours....
 
Ang1170, I think likewise, but want the poster themselves to confirm. As phrased, it is open to interpretation.
Leo
 
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