Obstructing View

[Nurton]

Hi,

I'm hoping somebody may be able to give me some advice, or at least a clue on where to look for more information.

We are currently renting a house in Birkenhead, Auckland. The owners have told us they are planning to sell and have offered us first dibs. We like the house so are interested.

The house is on a hill with 90 degree views over the harbour, which we love. The concern we have is that there is small portion of land infront of our property which is currently overgrown. This land is directly below our 90 degree view. The land is on a left to right slope with the highest bit maybe level with the lowest ground on our section. We know the owner of this land is planning to put in a retaining wall to level the land, we are going to ask them what their plans are.

Things we would like to know:

• If they already have resource consent for a building on this land how can we find out?
• If they don't have resource consent how possible is it for them to get it for a building or trees which would block our view (there has never been a building on this land) in the future?
• Any other advice in this situation? Things we can check?

We may not be staying in Auckland long term so property is likely to become and investment or ultimately sold on, so we are very concerned that such an obstruction to our views would drastically reduce the property's values (or if we stay we will be unhappy as the view is one of our favourite things about the house.).

Thanks in advance for any help and sorry for so many questions for a newbie.

[eri]

i think you can visit council and see their property file by simply giving the address

that would let you now if they have been given consent

and while there ask about limits to fences etc

perhaps offer to pay yourself for a low fence to stop them wanting to put up a high fence

[Rizowz]

see if you could get a view/light/solar easement to keep your view unobstructed?

[TheLiberalLeft]

I've always been led to believe that building rules are applied as they relate to height-to-boundary and the light aspect, but you cannot protect a view. If all else is ok and it's only your view that will suffer, then it's "no soup for you".

[Nurton]

Hi All,

Thanks for the advice. I will visit the council and see what I can find out. We'll also go and talk to the neighbours and see what their plans are.

I am surprised you can't protect/defend the view of an established property, surely a considerable portion of the value of some very expensive houses come from the view they have?

Thanks.

[eri]

Hi All,
I am surprised you can't protect/defend the view of an established property, surely a considerable portion of the value of some very expensive houses come from the view they have?
Thanks.

would any development occur anywhere

if the neighbor could object to it?

i like looking at green fields next to my house

does that mean i should have a right to stop them being developed into a suburb?

neighbor wants to replace the tiny shack on his section with a 2 story mansion

i can stop him because it would interfere with the sunlight to my vege patch and block my views of mt.eden.albert.wellington

farmers don't want to power pylons striding across their farms

so no power for auckland?

wake up and smell the coffee

you have the right to build on your land

they have the right to build on theirs

and the greater good trumps all

these people in auckland saying they don't want to sell their apartments for the proposed urban train loop

they don't get the choice

the law says the gov. can only pay them the last CV

generally they are more generous

but they don't have to be

and nor should they

[Wayne]

you have the right to build on your land

they have the right to build on theirs

Agree with most of what you say. These bits stand out - you mostly have the right to build on your land, with a lot of caveats unfortunately.

[speights boy]

I am surprised you can't protect/defend the view of an established property, surely a considerable portion of the value of some very expensive houses come from the view they have?

You could always take it to a Tribunal claiming ownership of the view.

[TheLiberalLeft]

That's making things complicated, sb. If you're tangata whenua, that's a damned good idea, but what if the view to which you refer is of a cityscape?