Privacy and overlooking as a planning objection

An overlooking planning objection succeeds when it puts numbers in front of the officer. Which window, in which room, how far from the proposed window or balcony, and at what angle. Councils assess privacy against separation distances taken from their own design guidance, and an objection that gives those distances is doing the officer's measuring for them.

An objection that says the extension will invade our privacy gets one line in the report. One that says the proposed first floor window is 11 metres from our living room window, directly facing, against a guideline of 21 metres, gets a paragraph and often a condition.

How councils assess overlooking

Overlooking is part of the amenity assessment, and it turns on whether occupiers of existing property would suffer an unacceptable loss of privacy. Three variables do the work.

The distance between the new opening and the existing one. The angle between them, since a direct facing relationship is treated as more harmful than an oblique one. And the status of the rooms involved, because the planning system protects habitable rooms, meaning living rooms, dining rooms and bedrooms, more than it protects kitchens, bathrooms, landings and utility spaces.

Gardens are protected too, though less strongly. Loss of privacy in the part of a garden closest to the house carries more weight than overlooking of a distant corner, and officers generally accept that some overlooking of rear gardens is normal in built up areas.

Existing conditions matter. In a Victorian terrace where every rear window already faces another at 15 metres, a new window at the same distance changes little. The same distance in a 1960s estate laid out at 25 metres is a material change.

Separation distances in local guidance

Most authorities publish separation distances in a householder design guide or a residential extensions supplementary planning document. The figures vary, and none of them is national policy.

Find the actual document for your council before quoting a figure, and cite it by name and paragraph in the objection. Quoting a number from another authority's guide is the fastest way to have the point dismissed.

These distances are guidelines rather than rules. A scheme that breaches one is not automatically refused, and a scheme that meets one can still be unacceptable where levels, angles or topography make the relationship worse than the plan suggests.

Angles of view and oblique overlooking

The geometry is what most objections miss.

A window set at an angle to the neighbouring window produces a view across rather than into, and officers discount it accordingly. The usual working approach treats a relationship as oblique where the angle between the two window planes is substantial, often taken as 45 degrees or more, and it treats a direct facing relationship as the worst case.

Sloping sites change everything. A window at the same distance but 1.5 metres higher looks down into a garden and through a window that would otherwise have been screened by a fence. Where levels differ, say so with a section, because a plan cannot show it.

Corner relationships deserve care too. A side facing window on a new extension can overlook a neighbour's rear garden along its whole length, which is often more intrusive than a rear window facing another rear window.

Balconies, terraces and roof gardens

Raised platforms are the sharpest privacy issue in householder work, and the permitted development rules reflect that. Balconies, verandas and raised platforms above a modest height are excluded from the householder extension right, so they need permission.

Two reasons they attract objections. A person standing on a raised terrace has an unobstructed view over fences, unlike a person seated inside a room. And the use is intermittent and social, so the perception of being watched is stronger than with a window.

Where a scheme includes a terrace, look at what encloses it. A 1.7 or 1.8 metre privacy screen on the flank, specified as obscure or solid, changes the assessment substantially, and asking for that screen is usually more productive than asking for the terrace to be refused. Our note on objecting to a larger home extension under prior approval covers the narrower grounds that apply where the works come forward that way.

Watch for flat roofs with no balustrade shown. A flat roof accessible from a door or a window is an implied terrace, and the answer is a condition preventing its use as amenity space.

Screening and obscure glazing as mitigation

Officers reach for four remedies, and knowing them lets you propose the right one.

• Obscure glazing, with the window fixed shut below 1.7 metres above the internal floor level so it cannot be opened for a clear view.
• Relocation or reduction of the opening, or replacement with a high level or roof light.
• A privacy screen to a balcony or terrace, specified by height and material.
• Removal of permitted development rights for future windows in a named elevation, so the mitigation cannot be undone later.

The last one is often the most valuable and the least requested. Without it, an approved blank flank wall can acquire a window under permitted development once the dust settles.

Obscure glazing has limits. It works for bathrooms and landings and is a poor answer for a main bedroom, because the occupier will eventually want to open the window. An objection that points this out is engaging with the mitigation rather than rejecting it, which reads better.

Evidence a neighbour can supply

You do not need a consultant. You need measurements and photographs.

Photograph the affected window from inside the room, dated, showing what is currently visible. Photograph the boundary from your side. Measure from your window to the boundary and, using the applicant's dimensioned plans, work out the distance to the proposed opening. If the plans are not dimensioned, say so, because an officer cannot assess distances that are not shown.

Sketch a section through both properties with ground levels marked. Hand drawn is fine. Then state your room uses, since the applicant's drawings will not show which of your rooms is a bedroom.

Where the drawings omit your house altogether, that omission is itself a point worth making. Our companion note on privacy objections and the evidence that works goes further into assembling the bundle, and where daylight rather than privacy is the concern, a Daylight and Sunlight Assessment is the technical document an applicant should be providing.

Conditions that address the concern

Ask for what you want. Objections that request a specific condition are more likely to change the outcome than objections that request refusal, because a condition lets the officer approve the application while dealing with your point.

Useful requests, in the order they tend to be granted: obscure glazed and fixed shut windows in named elevations, a privacy screen of stated height and material to a terrace, a condition preventing use of a flat roof as amenity space, removal of permitted development rights for new openings in a named elevation, and a landscaping condition requiring a boundary hedge to be retained at a stated height.

Submit the request inside the consultation period, usually 21 days from notification, and ask the case officer whether the application will be decided by officers or referred to committee. If it goes to committee, the conditions you asked for will appear in the report, and a member can ask about them. The report types index explains what each supporting document should cover if you want to check whether the applicant has submitted enough.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.

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