A woman and her partner spent a considerable amount of time and money re-doing a lot of work on their house and wanted to add a porch – but their neighbour wasn’t happy with the plan
Issues with neighbours is never nice – especially when they try and stop home renovation plans.
Neighbour spats can make life pretty awkward, so trying to resolve tension is usually something many homeowners will try and do. However one woman opened up about her extremely difficult neighbour, who refused to let her build a porch – even though she had one herself.
After renovating her home, the woman and her partner decided they wanted to add a porch to their home, and started work on it. But their neighbour then made a fuss out of the blue, and complained it would “block the sunlight” into her living room.
Airing her frustrations on Mumsnet, the woman added that she and her partner had finally got to the point where they were on good neighbours and didn’t want trouble. In the post, the person, who remained anonymous, wrote back in 2023: “Finally we have been able to start process of adding a much-needed porch! We have three dogs and a three-year-old! We are only house on street that has not added a porch!
“It’s been started about a month ago but slow progress due to rain! But foundations dug and concrete base laid, our drive is covered in bricks, bags of sand etc so no secrecy!”
But her neighbour wanted a word with them over the light being blocked from her house – but the woman does not think it will impact her house at all. “She is a very active woman, out most of the day every day with her horse,” she explained.
“I can’t see how this would impact her ‘sun’ and I want to know how to approach this without causing conflict! I’m generally a bit of an anxious overthinker and would hate to upset her! We are good neighbours! Always try to help her out with bin day, my partner will clear her drains when he has ladder out etc.”
In response, many have sided with her and said it would be unreasonable of the neighbour to block these plans as she already has a porch. One person wrote: “If you have the necessary permissions for it then I wouldn’t worry about it. If she’s got a porch herself then she has a cheek to ask you not to have one.”
While another stated: “If you have planning permission nothing she can do. I would just smile and say nearly all the houses have porches. I didn’t think it would be a problem.”
A version of this story was first published on April 6 2023
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