Hessian Building Code - Garage Border Construction

Good morning everyone,

the Hessian Building Regulations state regarding the boundary development of a garage to the neighbor:

Garages including storage rooms on a neighboring boundary of the property up to a total length of 9 m, including roof overhangs; above ground level, the boundary-side average wall height must not be higher than 3 m and the area of this wall must not be larger than 20 m²,

We have basically exhausted this. This was with the old ground level of the neighbor. Now he wants to raise his ground level by about 1.5 m and support it against our property with L-shaped stones.
Can I therefore still build something onto the garage since, in principle, the dimensions of the boundary development

No, or not without the neighbor’s consent, since the heights are always measured based on the location of the terrain at the boundary on the building plot, that is, where your garage stands.

However, I don’t believe your neighbor can just fill in 1.5m without further ado ...!? In NRW, you would generally need a building encumbrance or at least the consent of the neighbor(s) as well as a corresponding building application for the filling. This may be regulated differently in Hesse and depending on the specifications of the development plan, but it is definitely worth taking a look at the development plan (if available). If there is no development plan, the respective state building code (state building code) applies.

Best regards
Dirk Grafe

Thank you for the information. I hadn’t thought about that at all. What are the maximum heights that can be filled there? Living in Hessen. In principle, this would concern the approximately 15-20m limit.

You can't say that in general. First source: development plan. If nothing is stated there, Hessian State Building Code.

I would like to briefly interject and ask a question in this context:

Assuming the aforementioned garage is not directly on the boundary, but 50 cm away on the owner's own property. Would that be permissible? The state building code actually suggests that the garage must indeed be directly "on" the boundary must – so not 0.2 or 0.5 or 1.8 meters away – correct?

What consequences would the builder of the garage face?

That always depends on the applicable provisions in the development plan or the currently valid state building regulations. Almost any other variant can be remedied by building encumbrances or similar measures, meaning that permissibility is only discussed for cases that can be approved without further assessment or exemption rules. Therefore, legal sources initially only contain the standard case.

In NRW, the boundary distance would generally not be a problem; by definition, it would remain a boundary-adjacent garage regardless of its position within the range between 0m and 3m boundary distance. To understand how this looks in Hesse, one should consult a local architect or a publicly appointed surveyor.

Best regards
Dirk Grafe