Boundary wall extension and gutter overhang

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lemon1984

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We viewed a house today which I absolutely loved. We wanted to put an offer in but something was bothering me before we did so.
The neighbors next door have a small extension at the back of the house for the kitchen and this extension wall is now the party wall. This kind of put me off before even viewing, but I loved the house so much after seeing it, I'm still interested. We would only be hoping in future to put an extension of the same size ourselves, so we would only be loosing a few inches. The same lady sold that house as the one we are looking at, and she said the owner did give them permission to build on the boundary so nothing can be done about that.

The thing that's bothering me is that the gutters and soffit are literally in the garden of the house we are looking at. A good 4 inches over the wall I'd say. I could touch them. The estate agent tried to convince me that they would have to allow us to remove the gutters in future to build our own extension if we wanted but I'm not so sure. Would they have to let us remove them to build an extension? They might have permission to build on the wall, but those are in the garden of that house. If I cant ever extend because of those gutters I think that would be it on that property for me.
 
You should never build on a party wall, whenever you want to build on yourself you will have to consider how you plaster the outside of your wall, you won't be able to without coming back into your site by quite a bit and that will impact the appearance and dimensions and flow of the old area into the extension.

If wouldn't be for me, that overhang and them cleaning or not cleaning the gutters and fascia on your side would be an eternal irritant, I cannot see your theory about building on working out, it's a messed up build.
 
Thanks guys, we may leave it so. I'm not sure why anyone would ever agree to allowing it. The previous house we had looked at had the same thing, but it was their extension into the neighbors garden, so it seems common enough. None of them had planning permission however, are these exempt if under the 40m2 even if on/over the boundary?
 
you'd have to check with the planning office on that, for me their build is outside the boundary of the site so I would offer that it is wrong but I'm not a planner
 
Palerider said:
that overhang and them cleaning or not cleaning the gutters and fascia on your side would be an eternal irritant,
Click to expand...
This happened to us, and it's true: a constant irritation every time I look out of the kitchen window. We did not give permission for the overhang, indeed we went to the Council planning department several times with photos and measurements. We were told it was illegal, but the sort of illegal that the guards don't touch. We would have had to go to court, and solicitor's fees were beyond us.
 
Gervan said:
This happened to us, and it's true: a constant irritation every time I look out of the kitchen window. We did not give permission for the overhang, indeed we went to the Council planning department several times with photos and measurements. We were told it was illegal, but the sort of illegal that the guards don't touch. We would have had to go to court, and solicitor's fees were beyond us.
Click to expand...

We just talked to the agent and the extension is there since he bought the house 20 years ago. He also gave them a written letter stating that he had no objections to the gutters overhang but didnt give them any permission for access or right of way. He had been cleaning them himself when he cleaned his own. So it looks like they are there to stay. Looks like whoever buys it, if they wanted their own extension they would have to move in quite a bit from there so loose a lot of room, or talk to them about possibly removing them temporarily and making two extensions meet. Not sure it's something I could live with.
 
@lemon1984....it is natural to see can you make something work with other boxes are ticked but believe me this is a major flaw, See Gervans post above and keep reading it until you get that house out of your system...
 
It may be possible to extend and put a shared valley in place, but this would involve considerable extra expense to you. As others have said, if there are other suitable properties out there, best move on.
 
If it is bugging you already - then walk away, not worth the hassle and the annoyance. That would bug me too!
 
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