ᐅ Patio Roof for a Semi-Detached House

Hello.

We live in North Rhine-Westphalia and want to build a roof over our terrace.
The dimensions are such that no building permit / planning permission is required.
However, our neighbor is opposed to our plan.

We contacted the city and were told over the phone that we are allowed to build the roof without the neighbor’s permission.
Now that our plan is becoming more concrete, we would like to have this statement from the city in writing, but they are now saying we need to apply for a building permit / planning permission.

I wonder — and I haven’t found anything about this online — why the neighbor can object at all? After all, the roof will be on our property.
How is it possible to maintain a 3m (10 feet) distance from the neighbor with a semi-detached house?
And why is our neighbor such an @$$hole? :-D I’ve been asking myself this for 35 years and there are no answers yet ;-)

Thank you in advance for any helpful responses.

Many questions 😉

One more: why don’t you play it safe and apply for the roof covering / canopy?

Do you mean a canopy like the awning shown in the photo?

ypg schrieb:

Many questions 😉
One more: why don’t you play it safe and apply for the roofing?

Because that could be associated with who knows how high costs and effort

NatureSys schrieb:

Do you mean a canopy like the awning in the photo?

Exactly, the canopy should be basically over the awning and extend as far as it does.

This may sound very pedantic, but this is how authorities think:
Does the authority say that you need a building permit / planning permission in order to build? Or do you have to submit a building application so that the city can legally confirm through the building permit / planning permission that you are allowed to build?

It is quite possible that you are allowed to build, but the city does not want or is not allowed to provide you with legally binding information about this unless they receive payment for processing the building application.