Doorknocking for the Green Party today I met a woman who became very upset about the wood burning stove chimney of the new house built next door 2 years ago. Its only 4 to 5m away from her daughters window and not much higher. Is this legal?

Don't know about wood stove outlets but a gas flue is 600 mm distance from an opening window. If you look at the "offending" chimney it has complied with this distance from the Velux so guess that it complies with the regulations being it is a new build.

As revor said it will probably comply with the regs however that is not the end of the story. If the use of the chimney causes a nuisance then there are grounds for complaint. Here I would say 'good luck with that !' but I think attitudes have changed a bit recently with regard to the nuisance and dangers of wood smoke - but probably still an up hill battle.

There was a case here a time back where Mikeee5 had a problem that ran from 2012 to 2018. Long long story short his neighbours chimney (using a wood burning stove) was causing a nuisance. Mikeee5 got it sorted in the end (he won his court case and got a solution) but the main problem IMO was the authorities were reluctant to get of their backsides and enforce the available regs.

If you want a read (all 1647 posts over 6 years) then see

http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=9305&page=1#Item_0
Smoke Nuisance – is wood wood?

But as I said I think attitudes have changed (for the better)

https://www.planningportal.co.uk/permission/common-projects/flue-chimney-or-soil-and-vent-pipe/planning-permission/

"Fitting, altering or replacing an external flue, chimney, or soil and vent pipe is normally considered to be permitted development, not requiring planning consent, if the conditions outlined below are met:

"Flues on the rear or side elevation of the building are allowed to a maximum of one metre above the highest part of the roof"

for full details see the link

I’ve read some of that thread Peter- not managed the whole saga! Thanks DJH.

Mike1,

I just questioned it as I worked on a new build a couple of years back where the owners decides they wanted to add solar panels to it thinking it would be okay under permitted development rules. When they mentioned it in passing to the planning officer they were informed that it would need an amended planning application unless they waited for two years after it was signed off when it would indeed be allowed under permitted development.

Now this is in Scotland so maybe it is different elsewhere in the country or may have changed even here.

Posted By: bogal2It’s also not on the elevations on the planning application. Presumably you can’t just throw in a chimney after the event??

There is a distinction here and a few things to be considered.
1. Was the chimney on the approved plans? if not, and it was put on at the time of constructing the house, then the house has not been constructed in accordance with the approved plans.
2. PD rights may have been removed by a condition on the Decision Notice granting planning permission for the house. The wording of that condition usually starts: "notwithstanding the provisions of the Town & Country Planning..." and then lists the Classes of PD that are removed/restricted e.g. A,B,C,D to be thorough it should also cover Part 14 but rarely does.
3. PD rights only kick in once the house is completed and occupied i.e. actually in use as a house, So even if PD rights are intact the chimney would have to have been installed after occupation, to be lawful.
4. given that it is usually PD, would the Council consider it expedient to pursue enforcement? The most that is likely to be achieved is to make them apply for respective Planning Permission to formally regularise the situation.
5. we know from the very long thread about smoke nuisance that the recourse is through Environmental Health department but they are slow/unwilling to act.

I would check 1,2 and 3 first but I fully expect it will have to end up at 5 to get anything done about it.