Environmental search, contaminated land

HomeBuy3780

Got letter from solicitor about environmental search report.

“I have received the result of your environmental search and unfortunately the search company is unable to certify that the property is free from contamination as defined by the environmental protection act 1990.”


The report only mentions: “Existence of former unknown filled ground (Pit, quarry etc.), within 25m south-east of the property.”

What to do next? I have spend £800 so far...

Thanks for reading.

purplebuzz

HomeBuy3780 wrote: »

Got letter from solicitor about environmental search report.

“I have received the result of your environmental search and unfortunately the search company is unable to certify that the property is free from contamination as defined by the environmental protection act 1990.”


The report only mentions: “Existence of former unknown filled ground (Pit, quarry etc.), within 25m south-east of the property.”

What to do next? I have spend £800 so far...

Thanks for reading.

Have you asked your solicitors as to what you should do next? You are paying for their services, what do they suggest?

Doozergirl

I would speak to the local council.

I did this ( I cannot for the life of me remember which department but they do have one) and the gentleman I spoke to was very knowledgeable. He told me that on these searches, hardly any of these potential sites have actually been tested - there are many, many of these grey sites in our district and whilst they had started building a databse, it would take a long time to go through all of them.

They do know where contaminated sites are in the district. He asked me for the location of the house I was looking at, and he knew that it certainly wasn't a site that they knew was contaminated and it was 'unlikely' to be contaminated.

His other point was that the house and it's land was near to, but not part of the gravel quarry itself so the likelyhood of the grounds of the house being contaminated was even lower. It's just that the search company will not provide an insurance backed guarantee that the ground is safe because they haven't been on the ground and checked it.

I found the department by googling and he was so nice - he must have talked to me for fifteen minutes or so - I have always found that the people at my local council will bend over backwards for you, especially I think because you are genuinely clueless and they enjoy sharing their knowledge

I don't know whether a separate indemnity policy would be available to cover it - just in case? You seem to be able to buy one for most things!

noxon

Have you had a full structural survey done or are you planning to? The two people I spoke to for reassurance in a similar situation were the local planning officer and our surveyor. The survey won't go into much detail or test for contamination but a surveyor with local knowledge can be good to talk through these sorts of things with. I figured I was paying a lot and might as well get my moneys worth!

Oh and what purplebuzz said, what do your solicitors say?

Zazen999

Doozergirl wrote: »

I would speak to the local council.

I did this ( I cannot for the life of me remember which department but they do have one) and the gentleman I spoke to was very knowledgeable. He told me that on these searches, hardly any of these potential sites have actually been tested - there are many, many of these grey sites in our district and whilst they had started building a databse, it would take a long time to go through all of them.

They do know where contaminated sites are in the district. He asked me for the location of the house I was looking at, and he knew that it certainly wasn't a site that they knew was contaminated and it was 'unlikely' to be contaminated.

His other point was that the house and it's land was near to, but not part of the gravel quarry itself so the likelyhood of the grounds of the house being contaminated was even lower. It's just that the search company will not provide an insurance backed guarantee that the ground is safe because they haven't been on the ground and checked it.

I found the department by googling and he was so nice - he must have talked to me for fifteen minutes or so - I have always found that the people at my local council will bend over backwards for you, especially I think because you are genuinely clueless and they enjoy sharing their knowledge

I don't know whether a separate indemnity policy would be available to cover it - just in case? You seem to be able to buy one for most things!

Geotechnical dept or the soils dept.....would be the people that know about the soil in each area.

noxon

"Geotechnical dept or the soils dept"
Does every council have one?

I spoke to the planning officer as in my research into local planning applications online I had found that a very near neighbour to the house we were buying had been required to do a set of contamination testing on their soil three months previously as a condition of planning permission for a large extension. I rang up planning and asked why they had imposed that condition as it wasn't clear from the online documentation, though it was clear that the results were not worrying.

Zazen999

noxon wrote: »

"Geotechnical dept or the soils dept"
Does every council have one?

I spoke to the planning officer as in my research into local planning applications online I had found that a very near neighbour to the house we were buying had been required to do a set of contamination testing on their soil three months previously as a condition of planning permission for a large extension. I rang up planning and asked why they had imposed that condition as it wasn't clear from the online documentation, though it was clear that the results were not worrying.

Every county council should - otherwise they wouldn't be able to build roads or pavements, or soakaways etc etc....

keith969

I would second what Doozergirl says. My buyer's search revealed 'possible contaminated land' in the vicinity, the solicitor then had to contact the local council to ask them if, in their opinion, the land could be contaminated.

Originally the solicitor said the council would charge a fee for this, well today I heard that they waived the fee and confirmed the land was not contaminated - its just a load of soil excavated in the 19th century when they dug the local railway cutting, which anyone locally would know...

It does seem a fundamental flaw of environmental searches - they do not have the detailed info to know whether comtamination etc. is real or not, they seem about as useful as hips.

HomeBuy3780

Thanks for all your reply.

Solicitor is like get detailed report or insurance...

I had homebuyers survey done and nothing is mentioned in that.
This is environmental report result.

I will try and give council a call.

The only think i am worrying about is, when I will sell this property, won't the prospective buyers walk away because of this???

Zazen999

With all due respect to anyone...most land is contaminated - there are levels of arsenic for example in most soil....it's just a question of how much and why.....