What can we do about a neighbor who is building a garage with a roof against our property line?

Questioner

We have a new building. This is heated with a heat pump controlled by solar panels on our garage with a flat roof, which was built a few cm from the property boundary, entirely in accordance with the zoning plan regulations. Our new rear neighbor has requested a different permit from the municipality to build a garage with a roof that drains to our property with a gutter that connects to our garage (gutter partly on our land) outside his rear property area, against the street (we both have corner plots) and partly against our garage. He had previously told us that it would be a flat roof and was therefore not honest. From the moment he reported his plans, we requested the permit and plans from the municipality in July. We never received any response by email. After months of calling about clarity and getting our hands on the environmental permit and us repeatedly reporting that we could not find an announcement anywhere on overheid.nl, a man from the municipality called us on 15/10/2021 that a permit had been issued in the meantime? When we asked where the announcement was or whether the permit should be sent to us so that we could file an objection, we were again given vague answers. The neighbour has been building his garage for 3 months now without us having seen a permit and now admits that a roof is coming on. Unfortunately, this takes away the sunlight for our solar panels and we are now looking at an unfinished wall of 3m along our driveway up to the street. What can we do about this and what can we appeal to? The zoning plan states that an outbuilding may only have a maximum height of 3m., nothing is mentioned about rounding off with a roof, it must be in the rear yard area. According to the law, a roof may not be placed against the property boundary without a permit and according to the zoning plan, the municipality may not allow deviations of more than 10%. Can the municipality allow this permit?

Lawyer

If you believe that the permit has been issued incorrectly or that construction is taking place in violation of regulations and rules, you can submit an enforcement request to the municipality. Then there is more going on, such as the fact that sunlight is being deprived of the solar panels, which is a situation of neighbor law and you could hold your neighbor liable for that damage (if the roof does not conflict with the regulations). Would you like to contact me for more information or some help?