Does anybody know of specific laws relating to people taking photos of a private dwelling then using the photos for other than private use ie forwarding the photos onto a third party without prior permission.

Are there any issues if the owner of the property asks to have a copy of the photos, can this be refused  ?

Thanks
Lucy

Considering the number of people who take photos of 'chocolate box' cottages in the country for many purposes (including entry into photo competitions where the rights to the image are transferred to the competition holder) I doubt there's any law that was enforceable.

I know from a survey of listed (and potentially listable) houses that was done in my old area that photographs must be taken from a public area - footpath road etc. They cannot set foot on your property to take a photograph without your permission,but can snap at will if it is visible from a public area.

This is waht I am thinking as the view to where I think the photo was taken in in deed on my property and so that is what I am trying to find out.

They have used it to try and prove that something we have apllied for planning permission will affect thier privacy but I think the photos will have been taken whilst on our property hence why I want to see them to disprove their claim !

If its a specific shot of a person, you have to get permission; if its a scenic shot and people happen to be in it you don't.  i would think that the same applies here.  They are also trespassing on your property if you didn't give permission and invading your privacy laws.  Stupid laws come in handy some times.  Tecnically they shouldn't be able to use it under the circumstances.

you need to see the photo incase they have taken it at a strange angle to get their point across.  i think someome comes out anyway to inspect what you want to do.

When we were involved in a court case (you know the one Lucy :) ) - some photos of our property were used that had been taken without our knowledge - but they appeared to have been taken from the road, so this was allowable and no trespass had been committed :( If these people have come onto your property to take photos (and you can prove this from the angle, position of the photos, I expect), then I would be having a few words .........  I think that you need to replicate the photos, to see where they were taken from.

Good Luck

Daisy

Most planning officers are pretty good at identifying legitimate issues and yours is unlikely to be swayed by a few photos.  Where are you in the planning application process?

If your local authority has planning applications online then they will print any and all letters of objection, but I expect would exclude photographs.  However I'm fairly sure that these will be made available to view at the council office upon request.  In fact anyone is entitled to see full documentation regarding planning applications.  Have a look at The Planning Portal to see if there is any useful information that might pertain to your situation

Do your applications get passed to a Parish Council before decisions are made?  Most small Parish Councils will conduct their own site visits too and this can be a very good route to use if you have some concerns about the objection and photographs.  Good luck :)

There is no letter on the website or any of the photos. Apparentky the planning officer also did a site visit without notifying us and the only way they would have been able to see where the building changes are going to be made woyuld have meant entering our property.

I dont think they actually came out to be honest as I kleft several messages and also quite a few emails and she didn't respond. Once I did manage to get hold of her she was very vague and said she didn't remeber the case and would have to familiarise her self again.

The application has been refused for the fact the neighbours think it would invading their privacy ( it wouldn't due to the angle of properties ) and also because if we did it would encourage other people to do the same we are prosposing. It is a dorma  the back of our property and it cannot be seen by anybody from off the property and also to add the village is full of dormas and so it is other people that have encouraged our application !

I had forgot about talking to the Parish Council ! I will do that as I know a couple of people of the committee and know they are very sensible and will help if I ask.

The neighbours are just being difficult as he has never liked us since we moved in and so is doing this just because he can rather than having true reason to object ! It makes me laugh as the only bit of their garden we could possibily see is right at the bottom and they never use their garden only to hang the washing out or to practice his golf swing and believe me he needs the practice !! We know as we are always out in our garden when ever we can and they are never out unless taking photos of our property of course !!

D as soon as I have the photos I will be able to tell where they were taken and will definately say something !

We are also waiting to hear the full report which our architect has requested so it may throw some more light on the situation.

> D as soon as I have the photos I will be able to tell where they were taken and will definately say something !

> We are also waiting to hear the full report which our architect has requested so it may throw some more light on the situation

Good luck :) :)

You can appeal and it would help if the Parish Council have no objections to, or support, your application.

The Planning Portal should help you to check guidelines on privacy and photographs showing line of sight would be useful, but I'd also complain to the Planning Officer's manager that the site visit was made without your knowledge and without entering the property.  Your appeal should include information to demonstrate that precedence has already been set.  Did you seek advice before the application went in?  A lot of authorities have a pre-application process in place that should minimise the risk of permission being denied.

Shame about your neighbour though - no process can ever protect you from a neighbour with an axe to grind. 

Hi

We first applied via permitted development but as we live in an area of outstanding natural beauty we had to go for full planning.

I have just had a nosey at the last Parish Council meeting and they had no objections so have asked them to support us in an appeal.

I am also going to complain about the site visit but may wait until the appeal process is finsihed as don't want to agravate the planning officer or do appeals get looked at by somebody else ?

What is also really bad is the site maps and lacaation maps associated to our application on line show one map that is in a totally different location ! It all seems a bit shody in the way it has been done !

>I am also going to complain about the site visit but may wait until the appeal process is finsihed as don't want to agravate the planning officer or do appeals get looked at by somebody else ?

Yes good point and you can add your concerns to the appeal.  I think appeals are dealt with slightly differently in each authority but it usually involves 'management' getting involved to double check the policy and process used by the planning officer in charge of the case.

Good luck :)

Just as a point of interest our Parish Council conduct site visits for every planning application and neighbours are always invited.  It means that some objections can be dealt with 'on the ground' and before the application decision is made.  It appears to make quite a difference as applicants are able to answer questions and show objectors the plans in situ.  Online plans are so small that neighbours often don't understand what they are looking at and they sometimes panic unnecessarily.

The planning officer is possibly either very lazy and doesn't have a clue or could be a friend of the neighbours.  I'd go to her managers.  My aunt had to take down a porch that had been up a year when she stopped her neighbours using her driveway, it had been alright before and passed.  Turned out the neighbour knew the councillor.

I wouldn't wait to complain, it might stop you having to appear, they 'put it down to adminstartive error' lol. 

> Just as a point of interest our Parish Council conduct site visits for every planning application and neighbours are always invited

Wish ours did :( We put in a planning application a few years ago to build an extension. The application went through without any problem - the only query was from neighbour A who queried the old septic tank, but there was no problem. When the builders were in and doing the foundations, the foreman dscussed the build etc with OH and queried the design of the back of the extension. The bedroom was designed to be about 6 feet shorter than the ground floor  - difficult to describe the reason, but due to attached garden room and continuation of the garden room roof. Anyway, OH and builders decided to scrap this design and just continue the bedroom straight up from the ground floor - so the 'footprint' didn't change at all. OH rang the planning department and they agreed that this would be OK. They said that a retrospective P/A would be needed, but it would be approved and that we could carry on with the building. Our architect said he would prepare the new plans etc. However, we didn't hear anything and realised a few months later that he hadn't done this - so hurried him up ! By the time the p/a went in the building work was finished. Then Neighbour B decided to object saying it obstructed their light - the extension is about 30 foot from their house. They went to the parish council meeting and persuaded the council to object to our revised plan. The district council, however, passed the plans as they had said they would. The first we knew anything about the objection was when the parish council minutes were published in the village magazine and Neighbour A said to us  " I see your plans have been turned down" !! - which they hadn't, as we had had the approval through the post a few weeks before !!!! We were also very annoyed as the magazine reported a comment at the meeting saying that we were negligent because we/our builder hadn't stuck to the plans :( Neighbour B didn't speak to us for about a year - why didn't anyone come and talk to us and we could have told them why the design was changed and that it had all been done with the permission of the d/council :(

Oh dear I have just rung the Appeals Officer for some advice and after a fifteen minute conversation where he ended up asking me if I liked bananas and whether my answer was yes or no ( he did actually ask me for an answer and wouldn't get to the point until I told him :-O ) could be the same interpretation of the Planning Officers view on the application then that is how decisions are made.

I also mentioned about how the site visit and also the incorrect documentation and he said that is not part of how an appeal will look at this and it will be down to somebody coming out again with the plans and deciding if they like it or not and then that will be the final decision !

I asked if I could see the information form the next door neighbours and they said I would have to pay !

I think my agent is going to have to get this sorted as I may well end up upsetting somebody if I get this sort of 'help' again when I ring !! LOL

Sounds like they're a chimps tea party.  Whatever was he asking about banannas for , would be a laughing matter if wasn't so stupid.

I do hope you get somewhere with it.  Did he say anything about the planning officer coming when you were not home.

No he refused to discuss any of the specific questions I wanted to ask and just kept blavering on and wouldn't let me speak !

He said he could not comment on anything that was the fault of the process the Council were following and he would only be willing to discuss the legitimacy of the decision even though at the end of the day if they didn't like bananas then there was really nothing much that could be done about !

All I wanted to do was get advice of the grounds that we could use against the decision and what we need to do in terms of evidence and rights of appeal about the planning process followed. After the banana question I decided it wasn't wasting anymore time talking to him so imnterupted him and said I think I had enough imformation for the moment and said goodbye !

We are paying the Architect for his services so have told him to start to get this sorted !