Hi di hi peeps.
Has anyone here ever had to deal with a new build occuring right on their property boundry? And to boot it is a two story house which will look directly into our back garden! Not happy Jan…sigh…
Cheers - Steve
1 Like
Yup…and here it is. Windows facing us were not on the plans, and it is also 1.5m higher than it should have been as they didn’t drop the basement far enough. We asked him to put frosted glass in the two windows facing us (they are bathroom and toilet) but he didn’t even do that.
Planning is very different here (and we are in a natural park…)… All you can do is ask your mairie what the position is.
Our new build (well, the garage portion of it) is right on the boundary with our neighbour’s garden whilst the house is 3m from the boundary.
The roof is mono pitch which means a higher than normal back wall but that is the way the planners wanted it.
It’s either not less than 3m from the boundary or on the boundary - no compromises there, I’m afraid.
Our neighbour isn’t a happy chappie and still mumbles about it to this day but it’s his own fault really, we shared the drawings with him before submitting the plans and he did nothing about it 
1 Like
This is the “thing” being built. We are looking at the legal options open to us as well as thinking of planting tall trees to block their view - maybe creating an orchard with. We were never given the option of looking at the building plans, but a couple of years ago when we found out that they were going to build four houses on the land we were told that they would only be single story. Unfortunately, we did not get that in writing!
If you want to screen it plant big shrubs or a hedge. closer to you. That will screen better than planting on the boundary. (Draw it on a piece of paper and you’ll see that something 2m high closer to you will screen better than further away)
3 Likes
Thanks for the info Jane. We are on the same page re where the trees should be planted. I sent an email to Jardiland Beziers asking for one of their tree specialists to come and discuss our needs.
Cheers - Steve
2 Likes
JJ. There is a law in France which you can forbid your neighbour from looking directly into your garden.
I have visited many houses which directly overlook another garden, they are forced to blank, block or divert the view.
I’m not a lawyer, so I don’t know the exact statute.
1 Like
Thanks for that info Robert. I shall share this info with our neighbours whose gardens are also being overlooked. Looks like a visit to our local Notaire will be taking place very shortly. We have used them before and have complete confidence in their abilities. We also took out insurance cover to deal with any issues with neighbours. I am also a FB friend with the English speaking receptionist, who is being very helpful with links to various websites regarding this issue. Stay tuned ya all 
2 Likes
If it is more than 2 metres away there is no recourse that’s what we were told we we tried to change it.
Jane, the edge of the garage is less than one metre away from our back boundry. When they redrew the boundry area of the land behind us, we were informed that our actual boundry was one metre forward from our fence line - basically into the ditch behind us where water runs off. So, I feel we have a good case for something to happen. Fingers crossed and all that!
1 Like
Are these rules/laws/regs all local? When we bought our then very small house back in '92 the MD of the firm that built it, who was also the maire of the neighbouring commune came to explain aspects of the construction and options that were available to us.
The most obvious was to make an L shape by extending the end containing the bedroom outwards towards the boundary with the lane.
The edge of the house was 6 metres away from that boundary, and he ruled out any extention there on the grounds that it would be too close even though we said that 3 metres would be enough for us.
Fortunately our friendly estate agent, after long negotiations with the owner of part of the forest on the other side, concluded a very good deal for us and we were able to go much further in that direction instead.
Hi David. We are gathering our ammunition and shall see what can be done. Stay tuned
Thanks for the link Graham. Every little bit helps!
1 Like
Have you spoken with the people ? Aren’t the plans available at the maire to look at.
We are in the process of obtaning the relevant documents before we go to our local Notaire
One thing which concerns be about building ON a boundary… is that, surely, the foundations will overlap onto the other property… ???
Our property is 1,642 square metres in total and our maison is sort of in the middle of it, so there is a lot of space between us and them. It is the two story bit that is annoying!
I thought they were building on your boundary… ??? which is why I mentioned foundations encroaching…
Our boundry is ways back. Apparently they should be at least three metres from our boundry no matter where it is.