Here’s another good reason to love thy neighbour!
Should your proposed new home plans fall outside of the standard building regulations, your neighbours may end up playing a part in assisting with the approval of your design.
This can be tricky, especially if they already have their nose out of joint or they perceive your plans will impact on them in a negative way.
Like you would with your builder, it’s important to build a strong, open and honest relationship with your future neighbours – well before you or your builder needs to approach them for their approval of your plans. They’ll be far more receptive to you if you’ve already made an effort to introduce yourself and get to know them.
In most cases, as your builder, we like to meet with your neighbours ourselves. Not only are we keen to build a solid, harmonious relationship with them too, we are also able to take the emotion out of their objections and come up with easy solutions and compromises to any areas of concern they may have.
Case in point might be a window placed at the top of your stairwell that would look out over their backyard pool or directly into their master ensuite. They’d, of course, like to retain their privacy, but you’re only wanting the window there for more natural light, rather than the view. Fogged-glass that diffuses light would be a great solution here, moving or raising the window height, or using an outdoor screen as a shield might be others.
It’s important to be considerate and flexible to your neighbours’ concerns. It can turn into a tiresome negotiation of sorts, and you may need to forego something you had your heart set on, but given that you’ll be living next door to these people and may need to rely on them to collect your mail, bring your bin in or feed your cat while you’re away, it’s worthwhile making it a win-win situation for all parties.