Building a garage on the boundary is not possible according to the architect.

Hello everyone,
our property ( X ) has been leveled and the heights taken. Actually, we had planned to place our garage at the front left on our southwest side.
You can see on the scan that the right boundary stone is at 0 and that there is a slope of 0.85 towards the second boundary stone. We actually want to position our garage there because of the sun path and because the neighbor has large windows facing us. Our architect says it is only possible on the right at the boundary of the existing house No. 17.
Our neighbor on the left next to us has already started building and has dug into the property. He is 2.61 m below our right boundary stone, if I understood that correctly.
I still do not understand why we are not allowed to build our garage on the boundary with the left neighbor. After all, he has dug into the terrain.

Can someone please explain this to me or give feedback that our architect is wrong?! We are building in NRW if relevant for boundary construction.

Read up on this:



Your problem sounds quite similar to me.
Maybe can respond to you then.

Hello Watcher78,

the -2.61m is almost certainly the top edge of the finished basement floor. With a floor height of about 2.90m, the top edge of the finished ground floor would then be about +30cm above ground level.

There can be several reasons for the garage position, but the architect should be able to explain this. For example, it could be due to the building window. If, according to the development plan, the garage must be placed within the building window and there is no building window where you want to put the garage, then it initially won’t be possible. However, there are solutions for this too.

Further information can only be given in connection with the development plan including the written part.

Best regards
Dirk Grafe

Hello Dirk Grafe,

thank you for the feedback and your explanations. I don't quite understand what is meant by the +30cm now? That we then end up 30cm too high, or how should I understand that?

We do not have a development plan, we build according to § 34 of the Building Code, so there should be no problems. I know it had something to do with the height that we would be too high to build the garage on the boundary there. Alternatively, one could place the garage next to the house but then it goes down to our basement level. We don't want that because then you would always have to drive backwards uphill out of the garage and it is, of course, more costly.

I understand it as meaning that there is 1 m between both front measuring points for us and this meter is missing in height for us to build the garage on the boundary there.

Hello Dirk Grafe,

thank you for the feedback and your explanations. I don’t quite understand what is meant by the +30cm now? That we would then be 30cm too high, or how am I supposed to understand that?

No, that was the explanation that your neighbor is not digging 2.60m deep into the terrain, but that is his basement level. No one builds a ground floor 2.60m deep, so he is not digging in, rather his design height is roughly as high as yours. But that doesn’t matter anyway, because the heights for buildings directly adjacent ON the boundary, but ON the (respective) building plot are generally measured in relation to the existing/natural/original ground surface of one’s own property.

We don’t have a development plan here, we build according to § 34 of the Building Code, so there shouldn’t be any problems. I know there was something to do with the height, that we would then be too high to build the garage directly on the boundary. Alternatively, you could place the garage next to the house, but then you’d drive down to our basement level. We don’t want that because then you’d always have to drive backwards uphill out of the garage and of course it is more expensive.

I understand it so that there is 1 m between the two front measurement points at our place and we then lack that meter in height to build the garage on the boundary there.

Yes and no. It depends on how and whether you model/raise/lower your terrain. If you fill up 82cm on the west side, then these 82cm are added to the garage wall height, meaning you should only be allowed to build a garage with approximately 2.20m clear height on the west side without having to obtain a building servitude from the neighbor. This problem does not arise on the east side. Or you leave the terrain as it is, then the garage stands roughly as you describe with the corresponding disadvantages.

Best regards
Dirk Grafe

Hello Dirk,

thank you for the detailed description. So that means talking to the neighbor or he agrees to the matter or just placing the garage to the east.