Our neighbors now look down on us

Q. We’re not sure what to do about our neighbors who raised their house. They now have windows that look right down into ours, and their decks look over our privacy fence because they’re now so much higher. This has become a real problem for us because we feel that our privacy is gone. There is such a difference in the height, and we want to know, is this legal for them to do? Shouldn’t we have been notified? Aren’t there rules about these changes that give other homeowners some rights? We feel like our home is gone, more than from the storm. What can we do?

A. I know what you’re going through, and for neighbors who show up at public hearings to protest these new house raisings, it probably seems that architects don’t have a conscience about this latest problem, but we do care. There are many questions about house-raising rules, such as the blocking of views and sunlight, the orientation of windows to neighbors’ windows, what to do with unsightly foundation walls and the general dwarfing of surrounding homes. I make an effort to reduce the perceived scale of taller homes with trim moldings, roofs to divide the height, etc.

I wonder whether your neighbors got permits. In most cases, even though many communities have relaxed height requirements, they still require variances for excessive height changes. Checking public records will tell you how a much taller home was allowed without your notification. It may be that the home met all of the basic height requirements, especially since homes have always been permitted to be two stories tall, and among a neighborhood of one-story dwellings, the first one to build a two-story home looks out of place.