Composite: GuardianDesign; deepblue4you;Joe_Potato;Shedwa;UroshPetrovicr;vavlt;O Kemppainen;Aleksandra_Pikalova/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Composite: GuardianDesign; deepblue4you;Joe_Potato;Shedwa;UroshPetrovicr;vavlt;O Kemppainen;Aleksandra_Pikalova/Getty Images Homes ‘Just look at this monstrosity!’ Inside Britain’s bilious back yard shed wars The number of luxury sheds and garden rooms has rocketed since the pandemic – fuelled by those wanting an office, a gym or extra living space. Meanwhile, the resentment between neighbours has been rising, too
Prefer the Guardian on Google L inda loves her shed. She loves that she can work there rather than in her dining room, which her toddler likes to tear through. She loves its Scandinavian vibe – it’s clad in wood and set on decking at the bottom of her garden. She loves the views of the countryside from the window by her desk. Or she did. Her desk faces the wall now, because she’s too nervous to face her neighbour. She never sits on the decking, either. “What if they see me?” she says. “It’s a horrible feeling.”
Linda’s neighbours are unhappy about her shed, or “garden room”, which is actually two rooms. They do not like its size (7.25 metres by 2.74 metres, or 3.5 metres if you include the raised decking) or its position, about 30 metres away from their house. Linda says they have barely spoken since the construction, which is awkward, as the gardens are separated by a low fence.
The neighbours say the shed is more than half a metre too tall and too close to their property for it to be a “permitted development”, one that can be built without applying for planning permission. In England and Wales, there is a height cap of 2.5 metres from the ground if any part of the outbuilding falls within 2 metres of a boundary (it is within 1 metre of a boundary in Scotland). If the building is further from the boundary, it can be 3 metres or 4 metres high, depending on the roof type. The council agreed and told Linda she needed to apply for retrospective planning permission. She says it was an “honest mistake” and that she received the wrong guidance from her builders. “I was mortified. I would never have done it intentionally,” she says.
Before the build, Linda says, she had a friendly relationship with her neighbours; they would lend each other tools and garden materials. She says she had had an informal conversation with her neighbours about building a garden room in the space and heard no objections. Her neighbours say they were not consulted at all before construction, which took about a month.
Linda says she found out the extent of her neighbours’ feelings about her shed only in the paperwork for their planning dispute. They said they could see it from every window of their home and that they felt they had lost all sense of privacy, which had affected their daily lives and mental wellbeing. They also said an estate agent told them it had negatively affected the value of their home.
View image in fullscreen ‘Planning rules for these outhouses are monumentally complex.’ Photograph: stocknshares/Getty Images Retrospective planning permission for her shed has been granted, on the condition that a privacy screen and other planting are put up. Was it worth it? Yes, Linda believes, but she says: “I wish we had known to go about it the right way; it would have saved us money and a heck of a lot of effort and time …”
The dispute between Linda and her neighbours is just one example of simm…