A legalise type question about neighbours Windows

[essexbearhunter]

Landscaping for privacy is quite a common request in garden design (due to the density of modern housing).

A silver birch will give marvellous dappled shade with most of the canopy well above ground level and is far more decorative than a Leylandii. Mine grew well....too well for my very narrow garden... and got to over 20 ft. which should more than shield you from an upstairs window.

The current vogue for decorative grasses and bamboo might solve your downstairs window problem...but choose carefully - or plant in containers - because some are incredibly invasive. Grasses are great for giving a soft boundary to a garden which could feel too closed in with a fence or trellis.

 

[Jocelyn]

Most of the panes are already obscured glass and have been for some years!

I'm sure that it's best to wait a while to see what the CO says about the new plans before getting too worried, and the building definitely needs some TLC .

 

[Moo]

Has anyone suggested stained glass as an alternative to boring old osbscured?

 

[Penners]

Has anyone suggested stained glass as an alternative to boring old osbscured?

Trouble is, modern stained glass doesn't impede vision much. It just changes the colour of the light.

So the neighbour would have an excellent view of a blue and red Jocelyn.

 

[L1zzy]

Thanks all and your guidance has kinda teamed up with my instincts - yes I did know about the window when I bought the house but it isn't until you move in that you realise the neighbour is rather weird and unpredictable. So having read recently to look at life as 'It doesn't really matter' I shall adopt acceptance and forget all about it. You all made me feel i was being an intolerant neghbour - au contrair in fact ......but I stand admonished!!Cooer I feel like I've been sent to coventry!!

PS this same naghbour has by stealth stolen my elderly neghbours parking area and currently has 2 untaxed lorries parked there along with scaffolding ,a large pile of stone. 6 gates etc etc all on view for the rest of us....... not that I want you all to feel sorry for me - I guess I should be grateful its not a skip!!

 

[biffvernon]

Moo wrote:
Has anyone suggested stained glass as an alternative to boring old obscured?

Trouble is, modern stained glass doesn't impede vision much. It just changes the colour of the light.

I had a customer who had a neighbour who didn't want to be overlooked. Fortunately my man didn't want to overlook, so he asked me to make an obscured stained glass window. It is actually triple glazed; a stained glass layer then a double glazed sealed unit made of one layer of low-e float and another layer of textured glass.

 

[Jocelyn]

Well Penners, the air is often red round here and I suppose I might just own up to being a true blue.

Stained glass is a possibility, an alternative to the proposed frosted glass which throws up some interesting shadow puppet images at night !

This is certainly a tricky one and a sense of humour as well as a happy compromise is essential.

 

[Moo]

a sense of humour as well as a happy compromise is essential.

Well, you've got them both in spades, Joss, so there's bound to be a happy (multi-coloured?) ending.

 

[Penners]

frosted glass which throws up some interesting shadow puppet images at night !

 

[ilikecobwebs]

I think you can only insist that people use obscured glass if it is in a new extension that is likely to intrude upon privacy. Our immediate neighbour split his bedroom up many years ago to form a bathroom, and the new window to the outside was in plain glass. This was ok because it didnt overlook anyone. Eight months ago, the people next to him built a second floor extension for a bathroom and the window looked across directly into his bathroom...more than six feet away but close enough to bare all, as it were.
There was quite an arguement about the glass because our neighbour insisted that fuzzy glass should be put into the new extension, and the people having it built wanted clear glass.......despite the intrusion into the first guy's privacy.
He held his ground, however, and the others had to have obscure glass as part of the planning requirements. (note that the first guy had had his bathroom window in place for over 22 years, clear of intrusion).

In the case of this writer, however, its unlikely that she can insist on the same, especially since she wasn't there first, so to speak.

 

[andrew gayton]

I have a very similar situation; so i kept the window shuttered and put in a rooflight.