Three luxury homes worth almost £750,000 may be bulldozed because they are too tall.

The two-bedroom houses which will feature designer kitchens and top of the range bathrooms, are partially constructed.

The homes are part of a development called Aspen Court which is being marketed by property company Silver Homes as "an exclusive, gated development of luxury townhouses and cottage-style homes".

Buyers are being tempted with maple inlay doors, contemporary iron gates and fully installed security systems with remote-controlled integral garaging with the townhouses.

Planning permission was granted for seven four-bedroom terraced mews houses, three three-bedroom terraced mews houses and three two-bedroom homes together with garaging and parking at the site off Fairfield Road in East Grinstead.

The houses in question, due to be completed by February, are each on the market for a guide price of £239,950. The larger properties on the development have price tags of up to £500,000.

But Silver Homes has hit a stumbling block with the smaller houses, which are being built on a slope.

Mid Sussex District Council, which granted permission for the development, says they are more than a metre too high and in breach of planning conditions.

The council's north area planning committee is meeting tonight at The Ark, Turners Hill, to discuss the breach.

Planning officers are recommending enforcement action be taken against the development which could mean knocking down the buildings.

A spokesman for the council said: "It has to be remembered we have a duty to the neighbours."

Two large Edwardian detached properties with spacious grounds were demolished to make way for the development.

Work on the small houses began at the end of July this year but came to a halt at the end of August when the council received complaints about their height.

It launched an investigation and began to examine drawings of the site. A firm of consultants were hired to look at the extent of the breach.

It was discovered the houses were being built 1.3m above the approved plan and one of the buildings could end up 1.8m higher above ground level than approved.

A report to councillors says two properties are directly affected by the unauthorised development.

It says it would be possible to look into one of the bedroom windows of the existing neighbours even from a distance of more than 14m away.

It states: "Even for an urban environment, these relationships are not considered to be acceptable.

"If the original application had been made on the basis of the current situation a recommendation of refusal would have been made."

The developers offered to put up a 2.4m high boundary fence and include some additional landscaping to reduce the impact but the council report says the measures "do not overcome the significant harm identified".

An enforcement notice was issued to the developers.

Councillor James Joyce Nelson, who represents the ward in which the houses are being built, said: "If the developers have not stuck to the rules, they have to put the matter right whatever that entails."

Jean Everhurst, has lived in nearby Fairfield Road, for 20 years, said: "It did strike me the buildings were very tall.

"If developers violate their planning permission they should be made to pull them down because if one does it then others may follow."

Andrew White, managing director of Silver Homes, said: "We've made a mistake is the honest answer. We got it wrong."

Mr White said construction on the houses had got as far as the first floor and were a third complete when the error was noticed.

He said Silver Homes would enter negotiations with the district council about how to remedy the problem and whether a compromise could be met.

He added: "If we can't, then we will have to take them down."