Here’s the situation…I live in the middle of a large city on the east coast but am nestled into a neighborhood of late 1920s and 30s houses, most of them in beautiful shape. As with all neighborhoods like ours, more folks with money are moving into town and eyeing the lots as tear-downs, even with beautiful renovated homes already in place.
So a couple who sold their company for well, QUITE A BIT, buy the home next to us…now this home wasn’t great as it had been rebuilt in the 1970s but it was a polite house. In that, it nestled well onto the lot and didn’t draw attention to itself.
The new house…oy, the new house. Counting the full basement, it is 4 stories high. I’m not kidding. They’ve somehow gotten around the height regulation (which I believe is around 35 feet) by making the 4th story a “balcony” and pulling it back from the other 3 stories. I walked over there last night (ignoring all of the signs) and the view is spectacular…it towers over every single house & tree in the neighborhood.
For me, it means our natural sunlight is gone (and its not even fully built out yet) and, well, our own house (big by my standards…2800 square feet) looks terrible! And forget any privacy…there’s literally not going to be a space in our house that won’t be visible from their house. i don’t want to leave my house…but i don’t want to fume either.
To make it worse…they’re nice…and they’re very proud of what they’re building (“the whole house is going to exceed energy-smart standards”) and ugh.
UGH. Is there any type of shrubbery you can put up as a buffer? We invested money to plant a wall of shrubs when something we were unhappy with what got built behind us (annoying, expensive, but cheaper than moving).
Since your sunlight and privacy are gone and they have LOTS of $$, I strongly suggest you [cordially] invite them over to you home and show them just how their house has destroyed all semblance of privacy in your own home, due to the size and design of their house.
. Then ask them , in the spirit of being “good neighbors” to, at the VERY least , pay for tall, fast growing trees that can be planted along your mutual property line, so you can have some privacy once again.
I would ALSO contact the town building dept and maker sure their home has met all building ordinance, height and set back requirements.
Does your city not have restrictions on height or % of lot covered, etc.? Where I am, if you want to exceed any of the building restrictions, a variance must be requested. All neighbors within a certain distance are notified and have the ability to provide input.
Yeah, foliage is our friend…we’re already planting fast-growing trees/bushes on our side even though its 6-plus months before they move in. And we’ve had them over to our front porch with the idea that they’d understand just how much their house looms over ours. They oohed and ahed over what they had built…they’re tickled pink.
On the height restrictions, that’s tricky business. Cities measure from the street (in general) and this is built up on a larger mound…and the 4th story is set back enough from the 3rd that I don’t believe its counted.
It is what it is…and I appreciate these good ideas & support!
Once their house it built, it is not going to be shrunk down even if they are in violation. However, you can do something to ensure that the rest of the block doesn’t follow suit. Call the city and ask if they are in compliance with all zoning laws and make sure you know about new plans before they are approved. Get specifics about height, setback, where it’s measured from, etc. Builders will get away with whatever they can. You can cite this house as the big bad one that snuck through and should not have been built if you have to contest another one.
As for your new neighbors, they are not nice. They are selfish and numb to the feelings of others. They may sound sweet but I bet that makes the ramifications of their decisions easier for them.
Be careful with your plantings. If there is still construction going on, the roots could be damaged and the plants could suffer. Make sure their “mound” will not drain rainwater in your direction. Build a little berm behind your new shrubs if you need to. People like that will put in downspouts that direct all the rain right at someone else’s property.
Energy efficient, my Aunt Sally! The most energy efficient decision is to work with the old, small house.
Also, have your H walk around semi-clothed, maybe scratching a lot and looking disreputable, inside the house after they move in. They’ll probably install steel shutters on that side and give you back your privacy!
I have a lot of sympathy for your situation. Welcome to my 'hood. Builders are circling beautiful old homes like vultures so they can bulldoze them and build something humongous and butt-ugly. We paid more than we wanted to for our house, but at least there is mostly a swamp around that belongs to us and that the city protects zealously. Here at least builders don’t put windows on the sides that face the neighbors…
You have my sympathy.
WARNING: EXTRA LONG RANT
I am surrounded by construction --maddening noise/dust–at the moment and everything about my experience of living in my home has changed for the worse since we moved here 10 years ago. We used to have a nice little hill and big field where the kids would go sledding, fly kites. The hill was taken down and a subdivision is being built. A big new house is looming just beyond my fence, darkening/blocking the view I used to have. The deck looks right at mine, so privacy is gone. Beyond that a big apartment complex was built, eliminating the field–years of construction/noise/dust.
Just got new neighbors who have 3 barking dogs. They put up a privacy fence, but the fence is about a foot inside their property. (They didn’t want the posts in a ditch which is the actual line because water runs there when it rains). For some strange reason their teenage kids are walking their dogs through on my side of the fence! They have gates they can use to access their yard. Technically they have that one foot of property on my side of the fence–but what is the fence for if they bring their dogs outside of it? I have picked up 4 piles of poop in my backyard --not near the fence–in the last week. I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but I never had dog poop in my yard before. (I do not own dogs, and I hate dog poop more than… pretty much anything on earth.) I wonder if I should put in gates?
Their cable company strung an extension cord through my yard and another yard beyond mine to connect their cable. Then the company came and dug three trenches in my yard over several days for new lines (my other neighbor refused access–they did cover the trenches)–I thought this would be to bury the cord, but this orange “extension cord” is still strung all the way across my back yard. I need to talk to them about it , but I am so annoyed by the dogs/poop, I’m afraid I won’t be very polite. (And they are “nice people.”) Sorry we ever bought this house.
Our longtime neighbor passed away and the single level house sold about 5 years ago. The house sat vacant for 4 years waiting to get demolished. When the buyer and architect were standing outside one day I casually visited and asked about windows on the side of their monstrosity ( it is going to max out at the 30 ft height limit in a single level neighborhood) emphasizing “ you know we have the large window in the bathroom”. Buyer pretended she didn’t know where their windows were yet.
Lo and behold the giant contemporary masterpiece looms over our house in construction now. Their large bathroom window looks right down into a huge picture window we have had for over 30 years. They didn’t even put in an opaque glass! I don’t know what is worse, them staring down into my shower or me looking up into their bathroom. What kind or architect does that? I cannot change my window easily because the large window is above my shower…blinds/curtains would get wet and it is the source of abundant natural light that I really like.
Even worse is the style of the building. This is an oceanfront surfer / fishing community. Those of us that live here pride ourselves on the low key vibe. This is a horrendous glass and steel space ship thing. It’s very obvious that these people don’t “get it” and do not fit into our neighborhood.
They have blocked the ocean views of several homes behind them…nothing anyone can do. No permission needed, they are within the height restriction. Those neighbors are selling now at a loss in property value, and their listings are lingering unsold. But, they have turned their new build at an angle with full glass walls to capture the coastline OVER the top of my house. I just have to plant a couple of large trees on my property or build a second story and a million dollars of their money has been wasted!! I’m exaggerating, I don’t really know how much their build is costing but I do know they will lose 50% of their view.
I’m already researching trees that grow fast:). I’ll trade two trees blocking view for changing out that dang bathroom window staring down at me
So I think I might have a little more revenge power than the other neighbors.
We were looking at a house and even put an offer in on it. It was rejected as there were too many contingencies (we had a unhelpful agent). While we kept watching the house and neighborhood, some guy with LOTS of money bought the house directly behind them and built a HUGE house that totally puts the house we had been interested in always in the shade. It really changed the character of the house and the agent called us begging us to put in an offer again but by then we had determined that we did not want to live in the shade of a monster house.
We were just able to beg the flipper who bought the house right next to us NOT to make it a 2-story house, since 95% of the homes in the neighborhood for blocks around are single-story and it would really not fit in AT ALL. Instead, he built it with 10 foot ceilings or something, as it’s taller than our house and all the original houses in the neighborhood. I guess we count our blessings that he didn’t go higher, as he could have gotten the permits and would have blocked our PV and solar!
