Owning your own home

Posted on
Page
of 2,492
First Prev
/ 2,492
Last Next
  • ah ok that makes sense

  • the garages must be bought because the doors must be made

  • I don't think you need planning permission for a garage, subject to some restrictions on size and position. I'd suggest speaking to a planning professional or a solicitor before pissing your neighbours right off. Fair play though, it probably wouldn't have occurred to me to pull down my elderly neighbours' garage in order to ensure that I don't lose half a metre of garage width.

  • Ha, that half meter is vitally important though and I shouldn't have to loose it.
    It seems that you might not need planning permission for a garage if its behind your house. Their garage is built on to the side of the house.

    But then if planning permission isn't/wasn't required then there might not be anything stopping me rebuilding it in the same spot.

  • It looks like the one metre rule pertains to the distance between the garage and your dwelling.

  • Ah I think that may well be right.
    I’m going to ask a solicitor before I do anything drastic.

    But even if planning permission wasn’t required and I didn’t want to rebuild, it still doesn’t seem right that you could be left with this predicament.

    If I wanted to repair the render and brickwork on the wall facing their garage, it would be practically impossible to do because the gap is so small.
    So what would happen if really essential repair work was needed?
    It seems the previous owners at the time didn’t have the foresight for any issues.

  • Whose is the space in between the garages? Could you not build all the way up to your neighbours' garage and have some kind of party wall agreement? Or does the fact that it used to be access, even if it's not any more, mean that's too risky?

  • Or is the boundary somewhere between the garages, in the rubble? Probably worth looking at the deeds.

  • Yeah so the boundary is somewhere between the garages in the rubble. At least I think that’s were it is.
    I’ve wondered exactly where the boundary and if the neighbours garage infringes on it.
    The path that used to be there let the other folk take their bins through to the front rather than taking them through the house.
    Now that the path has been built over, as far as I understand, the other house that would have used the path now take the bins out via said garage!

    My neighbours are pleasant and we chat pretty much every other day. I don’t want to put them out in anyway and obviously won’t chap the door one day telling them their garage needs to be demolished!
    If I can simply rebuild my garage in the same spot without having to worry about it’s proximity to the other garage then I guess there’s nothing to worry about.
    But if I’m not able to do that… it’s going to be quite brutal explaining things to my neighbours.

  • I’ll need to look at the deeds.
    Before the neighbours garage was there, it was a path and I’d guess a sort of driveway for them.

    I would have thought the boundary line for my property would lie somewhere proud of my garage wall. It’s how far proud is the question. If it’s a meter proud then the neighbours garage is partly on my land.
    But if it’s more like half a meter then it’s right on the boundary line.

  • As their garage has been there so long isn’t there a danger that you’ve missed the boat for enforcement?

  • the garages must be bought because the doors must be made

    I agree, the time to hesitate is through.

  • If and when they come to sell the house, wouldn’t they have to remove the garage if it doesn’t have planning permission?

    Two major caveats to this advice - I know only a little on planning law, and I know fuck all about Scots law generally.

    However, in the Sunlit Uplands of Engerlandshire, if the garage has been in place for 20 years you could regularise the position by applying for a Certificate of Lawful Use. Essentially, once a structure has been in place for a sufficient period of time without the local planning authority doing anything about it, you're home and dry (subject to exceptions).

    If you wanted to rebuild then I think you'd still need planning consent for any demolition and rebuilding (unless you rely on the 'nah, mate, just very extensive repairs' loophole) but if you had a CLU the chances are you'd get permission if you were merely replacing like for like.

    But, as I said, IANAPlanningL.

  • I would have thought the boundary line for my property would lie somewhere proud of my garage wall. It’s how far proud is the question. If it’s a meter proud then the neighbours garage is partly on my land.

    Again, I don't know anything about Scots law, but in England, if someone built a garage on your land 20 years ago, it's not your land any more. Subject to many complex exceptions involving the Land Registration Act 2002 Schedules 4 and 6. Neither or which, I believe, apply in Scotland.

    Bottom line, as ever, is a nice cup of tea, a friendly chat, and a solution which works for everyone. The alternative is a world of grief, years of stress, and paying arseholes like me enough money that we start thinking that maybe it's time for another Porsche.

  • @TotalShanner You only get the option for a friendly chat once, but the option for stress and bills repeats indefinitely thereafter. Play it carefully.

  • Are these garages on Cookie Street?

  • Thanks very much for the input, I appreciate it.
    It seems like there’s not a lot I can do without causing everyone a whole lot of grief!

    A friendly chat over a cup of tea is more to my liking. The rubble issue affect us both as their garage also has water coming through.
    Without rebuilding the garage, the only real way to get the rubble out would be to bring my garage wall down then rebuild it.
    But there’s a lot of other work that needs done which is why starting from scratch is appealing. But maybe the amount of work needing done could get me round the ‘extensive repairs’ loophole and essentially just rebuild it anyway.

    I’ll need to wait for the right moment to bring it up though.
    The woman has had some serious health concerns over the past year. The man retired a couple years early to help her at home and I’m not sure how many miles she’s got left on the clock. So you can imagine I’m not exactly keen to bother them with this sort of thing right now.

  • Everything else to one side it means I can’t make some doors, so the chippy chippy wins by default, and I’m not happy with that.

    Don't give up, IT geeks everywhere are hoping you've got this.

  • Sitting room almost done, fireplace look like it’s fully cast iron, sanding it down seemed to show this;

    Question; strip it back to black or stay with white?


    2 Attachments

    • 1A3FD37F-7788-4440-BD8F-0CFB86CEF193.jpeg
    • BB378AE0-99B8-493D-B6E7-10DA439BF242.jpeg
  • Doesn’t look like cast iron to me. Is it magnetic? In any case, I wouldn’t strip it, total ballache. Sand it smooth and paint it a jaunty colour.

  • If that is cast iron I’d give it a fresh coat of paint. There’s a shop by us who restore them, but they pull them off and media blast them.

  • I stripped a fireplace and surround once. Took ages. Used paint stripper rather than sander.

    If I had to do it again I would just get it dipped, then worry about buffing any rust and paint it myself.

  • Haven’t tried magnet, very cold to the touch and can’t be wood.

  • My doubts about it being cast iron stem from the fact the sanded corner isn’t showing bare and shiny metal. It might be granite, I suppose. In which case, a shame it has been painted but even more reason not to strip it unless professionally.

  • Granite make more sense as it does look and feel it.

  • Post a reply
    • Bold
    • Italics
    • Link
    • Image
    • List
    • Quote
    • code
    • Preview
About

Owning your own home

Posted by Avatar for Hobo @Hobo

Actions