House sale & illegal window ?

[lynpy]

Hi

Can anyone shed some light on this for me please.

We have an illegal window (we only have a permit for glass blocks) which overlooks a field which is unused by the owner and the land is 'non constructible'. The owner is happy for us to have a window but he can't swap his piece of land with a bit of ours, in order to make the window legal, as his nephews own half of it. Sadly he's lost contact with them and they're not local.

If we can't locate the nephews to resolve the situation and we sell the house in the future will this cause a problem to the sale? 

Everyone in this village seems to have illegal windows and buildings. Our neighbour has an unmissable 60ft x 15ft illegaly built barn in his garden which is on view to all and most of the village has illegal velux windows !  Noone is affected by our window.

We're still trying to trace the nephews but although they've inherited the land, their mother is still listed as owning it. When I contacted the Mairie of the commune where she was listed they said they'd never heard of her!

The only reason we didn't use glass blocks is because it's in the living area and glass blocks would make it look like a prison or a bathroom!

Any ideas?

Thanks

Lynpy

[Panda]

Hi

I'm no expert but can't see how anyone will know it's illegal when you come to sell and if no one has objected to it being there after a number of years it becomes legal as I understand it.  The house I am in now was built with no planning permission at all.  As no one objected it was accepted on to the cadastral plan after X years and is now 'legal' so much so that a new planning app to double the size has been accepted even though it is on the side of a lake which is notoriously difficult to secure in France.

So I'm sure someone will disagree but I would leave it and see what happens, if you don't sell for a few years the rights of objection will have passed.

 

Panda

[Alex H]

My sister had a similar situation . When renovating the barn attached to their house, they wanted to put in a double door at the rear. This would allow access to land that was not theirsand the neighbours protested strongly. The solution was to allow a window only, but with opaque glass (back to the bathroom again).

I agree that glass blocks would look too 'public toilet' like, but opaque glass comes in many patterns and it doesn't look too bad at all [:D]

 

[lynpy]

Thanks for your responses!

Panda

That's the first time I've heard that if there are no objections after a period of time that the 'problem' becomes legal - I may pursue that a bit more!

Alex, you've sparked an idea! Perhaps I can find some of that sticky plastic stuff that you can stick on the window that looks opaque - that way I keep the window, which the style is in keeping with the house, and people are less likely to object!

Cheers

Lynpy

 

 

 

[clarksinfrance]

Leroy Merlin sells the sticky opaque stuff you put on windows. Just a tip if you use it, get the window scrupulously clean, use a brand new stanley blade, and also use water with a drop or two of washing up liquid in it to float the plastic till you are ready to squeeze the water out from under it.

Have fun