Many of us will have had a spat with our neighbour at some point whether it's complaining about late-night disturbances, parking disputes or simply being too noisy. However, one man has shared his experience with the ultimate nightmare neighbour who decided to build a wall just 'metres' from his window while he was on holiday.
Taking to Reddit, the man revealed he was gobsmacked to discover that his neighbours had gone through with an 'appalling' extension while he had been on a month-long holiday. From inside his property, he took a snap of the wall that sat only '1.5 metres' away and the scaffold that was built immediately outside of his window.
The window which was slightly open appeared as if it could not fully extend due to the new extension sitting so closely. In his post, the man questioned whether or the invasive building work was even legal.
Captioning the post, he explained: "Came back home after a month to find a wall 1.5 m away from my window. Seeking some advice from fellow Reddit users, he questioned: "How is that even legal?"
Since uploading, the man's shocking post has raked in over 2,100 comments from other users who were equally as baffled by the building work. One person responded: "It's appalling, I think the expanding foam hanging down sets it off nicely."
A second remarked: "F*** me, that blockwork is absolutely shocking". Meanwhile, a third wrote: "Every single thing about that wall screams 'nobody can tell me what to do on my own property'."
Another Reddit user who's been through a similar situation said: "No one bothers enforcing it though, my neighbour has an illegal extension up for now 15 years". Someone else who could relate replied: "My neighbor [sic] built a large fence without permits and just tried to assume she knew the property line. She regretted that s***.
"We made her take the fence down and pay us for damages and such. People always try that s***." According to the UK Government website, you will most likely require planning permission before building any form of extension.
However, the HomeOwners Alliance (HOA) states that some extensions don't require planned permission as they come under permitted development.
According to the HOA, extensions are exempt from planning permission when they satisfy a number of criteria. A few examples include:
Extensions must take up no more than half of the area of land (curtilage) surrounding the original house.
Single-storey extensions must not extend beyond the house's rear wall by more than eight metres for a detached house, or more than six metres for any other type of house.
Side extensions must be single-storey with a maximum height of four metres and maximum width no more than half that of the original house.
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