Buying a house next to a neighbour who has extended?

Hi everyone!

ive done a search but couldnt find any existing threads so here goes.

we are currently looking to move so spend most evenings on rightmove as you do.

we have seen a few houses which we like the look of but i've been put off by the fact that the neighbours have built an extension on the side of their house which means there is now hardly any gap between their extension wall and the wall of the house for sale.

i guess my question is two fold,

1. from a builders point of view what are the possible issues with this. I'm thinking about, if in future you need to do some maintanance on the house wall, how the heck do you do it? if the gap between the houses is now only a foot or so?

2. does anyone live in a house where the neighbours have extended on the drive so the walls are very close together, and if so, is it almost like living in a semi-detached in terms of noise from next door?

any opinions on this from either a builder or someone living in a house like this would be much appreciated, i dont want to rule out a perfectly lovely home for no reason.

thanks!

Dave.

Well if the fence line is the boundary he's on his side and that's that if permission was granted etc,the wall of the house your looking at would be impossible to maintain.

Even if you buy an house similar the neighbour could extend any time as people do. Im no expert but some extensions i have seen like this would worry me in case of damp etc, perhaps im wrong?

They are yeh but usually it's a small path down the side or at least enough to physically get access to each wall. I'm talking about the situation where you can't physically get access to the wall of the house, it's crazy that it's allowed to happen imo.

Don't buy it ....

They are yeh but usually it's a small path down the side or at least enough to physically get access to each wall. I'm talking about the situation where you can't physically get access to the wall of the house, it's crazy that it's allowed to happen imo.

Thats what I mean tedrodgers regarding my worry of damp. The shorter the gap the more likely i would worry about damp, any maintainance needed would be impossible. I agree with you this situation is crazy.

.....as already posted..don't buy it!.........the world is full of idiot house owners,idiot builders and idiot planners.........kerching!!!!

A problem it might cause is sorting any problems with the roof facias on that side. My parents next door neighbours wanted to put a sloped roof on their extention which would of caused the same problem, the extention was built so it was very close to my parents house and they werern't happy about that so blocked the roof plan.

I'd say stay away as i don't know how you'd fix any issues. Saying that the extention bext to my parents has been up 20 odd years and never gave them any problems to the side of the house

Hi Dave,

Do you have any photos? may be able to review and advise.

Cheers,

Pete