Homeowner faces bulldozing £400k dream home - because it's 50cm too wide

Homeowner faces bulldozing £400k dream home - because it's 50cm too wide Idnan Choudhry has vowed to not give up, despite already spending £30,000 fighting the council over 'ridiculously small measurements' A homeowner who spent £400,000 building a dream house for his family says he now faces having to tear it down - after building it just 0.5 metres (1.6ft) too wide. Idnan Choudhry, 31, could be ordered to bulldoze his five bedroom home in Walsall, West Midlands, following a four year planning row with his local council. The quantity surveyor had previously been granted planning permission for a replacement home in 2022 - but has now seen retrospective planning application refused after the house was already built. He claims to have followed previously approved architect's plans but was left stunned when an enforcement officer told him the house was just half a metre too wide and was too close to one of his neighbours. Despite making alterations to the house, including reducing the size of the dormer, Mr Choudhry was then refused retrospective planning application for a second time. Walsall Council this time claimed he had not overcome the previous reasons for refusal - and even introduced further ones including a "top-heavy and incongruous" appearance and loss of privacy for neighbours. Mr Choudhry, who paid £337,000 for what was previously a three-bedroom house, has vowed to continue to fight the local authority, having spent an extra £35,000 to date on hiring lawyers and new architects in a bid to save his property. Mr Choudhry, who has three children and also lives with his parents, said: "We're being made out to be criminals but we have tried to do everything by the book. "I know some people buy up land and throw things up but we went through all the proper processes, or so we thought. What has happened over the last four years has caused me and my family a great deal of anxiety - it has been a nightmare. "I don't know why the council is penalising people who have been granted planning permission and they have just kept moving the goalposts." The long-running saga began four years ago when incorrect plans for the home were first approved. The permission was subject to a condition that a 45-degree line of sight from neighbouring windows would not be breached. But the drawings submitted with the application indicating the line of sight were later found to be inaccurate in what Walsall Council described as an ‘oversight’. The authority then served a Breach of Condition Notice but later withdrew it as it could not be lawfully implemented because of the error. An enforcement case remains open and under investigation because of the continued unlawful development. Last year, applicant Mr Choudhry submitted his first retrospective planning application in a bid to have the replacement home regularised. The application received five objections and was eventually refused on the grounds of causing ‘unacceptable levels of harm’ to number 6 Brookhouse Road, being visibly incongruous, and that the front boundary impacts visibility for pedestrians and drivers. Mr Choudhry added: "We bought this house back in 2020 with the intention of turning it into our forever home. We have since spent around £300-400k and a lot of love trying to make it look nice ever since. "I've spent around £30,000 on the side just fighting the council on this and hiring architects and lawyers. We carried out the first lot of work under permitted development before putting in a full planning application in the summer of 2021. "In March 2021 the council came on site and we ran through everything with a planning officer, who was lovely and helpful and everything seemed fine. There was a lot of meticulous communication and after a final amendment we had full planning permission in April 2022. "So we began the work until we had a surprise visit from an enforcement officer after a neighbour complained. They started taking all kinds of measurements and said to halt the work - all the while we had no roof. "We were currently living in it and I couldn't cancel the roof, so I went ahead and had that put on to keep my family safe and dry. Then we were told we had breached the 45 degree angle by half a metre - but by this point most of the house was completed. "So I hired a second architect to try and get the house altered to what was acceptable. I made all the alterations I thought they wanted doing and reduced the house in size, I knocked down walls and pillars and I actually made it smaller than they were requesting. "I thought it was all for the betterment of the house and I was complying to what they wanted even though I felt it was unfair." In March this year, Mr Choudhry submitted a further retrospective application in an effort to regularise the three-storey home. In response to the latest application, 22 comments were received in support of the application and five comments in objection. Walsall Council said the latest application does not overcome the previous reasons for refusal and even introduces further ones. They include poor visibility between drivers and pedestrians, significant breach of the 45-degree rule, inaccurate existing site plan, a top-heavy and incongruous appearance, and loss of privacy for neighbours. He added: "On June 30, we had a notice of demolishment come through and they were refusing permission again. I've engaged fully with the council every step of the way and I will continue to fight this to save my home. "I've contacted the ombudsman and hired lawyers and I won't give up. It has caused an extreme amount of stress and I'm being faced with aggressive tactics and all over ridiculously small measurements." Detailing their reasons for refusal previously, Walsall Council said: "While submitted plans show the reduction of the first floor by 0.54m to the shared boundary with No.6 which would minimise the current impacts to this neighbour regarding loss of light and shadowing and sense of enclosure from dominance of this nearest built elevation, we are unable to impose the necessary planning condition to secure this on the basis that this current application cannot be supported in relation to other un-resolved matters. "This is compounded by the as-built larger dormer which contributes to the impacts to this neighbour. The as-built dormer measures 2.6m high, 3.6m wide and 3.9m deep in contrast to the approved dimensions of 2.4m high, 3m wide and 3.5m deep. "This results in the dormer being more visible and prominent in the street-scene which contributes to an overly dominant top-heavy and incongruous appearance to the detriment of the local character of area. "The front boundary wall and gates would obstruct visibility between drivers and pedestrians, particularly given that the access is located on the inside of a bend, where visibility is already limited." Walsall Council has been approached for comment.