DubNerd said:
"I don't want to kick up a fuss unnecessarily.
The new building will certainly be something of an imposition on us."
Our back garden is narrow and north-facing.
They plan to build their single storey extension right up to the boundary.
This will cut off about a third of the sky visible from our back window and make the back garden something of a tunnel.
The extension will be a flat roofed kitchen with skylights that will be just a few feet below our back bedroom window (on their side of the boundary obviously).
They also plan to build a new seven foot dividing wall along the whole back boundary.
There is a lot there..... All reasonable too in my opinion. To your credit it sounds like you are trying to be very fair-minded and react in a neighbourly, good-spirited and appropriate manner.
But... I would not be happy at all, this sounds like a hell of a lot of burden and ongoing, long-standing imposition for you and yours with stellar benefits and no downside for your delighted and ambitious new neighbour.
I'm sure we can all agree its common enough to be in (as a guest) or alongside peoples homes and marvel at the scale of their extension shoe-horned into an impossibly small space and wonder how were they ever in a million years allowed build it. When its a bright and sunny day and you look out on a damp back garden coated in moss with no sunlight and no better vista than 20 metres of somone elses brand new pebble dash it can be a bit much.
- There's a balance between you being a tolerant, reasonable, accommodating person and them having everything all their own way. Perhaps if they need all this extra room and sun over and beyond that of the other 4 houses in the row they should have bought a very different house in a very different location.
If I was you I'd rather risk the fallout rather than live with the consequences - Remember too this person may not be as decent and accommodating as your good self - They could be a piece of work seeing what they can get away with here. Not trying to be dramatic or fan flames etc - I've just observed people at work in this area and sometimes their morals come well behind their desires to get everything they want.
They are seriously planning to more than double the size of this house.... I honestly do not know but can anyone verify - Might people with their architects direction sometimes submit optimistically scaled developments as a "feeler" to see just what they can manage to get away with?
Anyhow best of luck with it all - Hopefully the end result is acceptable to you when all is said and done.