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Neighbours moved in and built 3 large cat pens on decking covering the majority of the garden, 0.5 m away from neighbouring boundaries without planning permission. Retrospective planning had to be put in following a site visit which was refused on 1.8.22, the appellant then appealed this decision to the secretary of state, site visit took place on 10.1.23 even though they withdrew their appeal on 9.1.23 (Council are now pursuing the appellant for their costs). Part of the refusal was down to a) the impact on neighbouring properties and 2) loss of amenity, stating that it was 'sandwiched between 2 properties'. Given it has been refused, how long does the appellant have to remove the structures / decking please? As it stands, if we wanted to sell our property we would be unable to as these massive structures that are there without planning permission, would put any perspective buyer off. Thank you

It would depend if the LPA have issued any time limits within their decision and/or enforcement notice.

No that's the issue we have. No time limits have been set nor has the council issued the Enforcement Notice. They are just relying on what the appellant has told them ie, that the huge pens are up for sale. These could take months / years to sell, and in the meantime we just have to live with the huge, overbearing structures inches away from our boundary / property

If there is breach of Planning, the LPA can serve an Enforcement Notice along with attaching conditions to remove the unauthorised structure(s).

If you’re not wanting to wait for the LPA to action this, you can lodge a complaint with the Council for them to investigate. That may hurry things up a little.