Environmental searches (and Radon)

Tunstallstoven

Hi all

We are in the process of buying a house and wonder whether it is worth having an environmental search done.

We have spoken to the local council who have verbally confirmed that the house is not built on contaminated land. The history of the land is agricultural.

Our conveyancer has said it is up to us, but they would recommend having the search done.

We have checked the postcode on Homecheck. All is low except:

Subsidence: Medium
Historical Land Use: Medium
Pollution: High

Do we need to check for subsidence in the area if our Homebuyer's Report shows no subsidence of the house itself? Would we need to do further checks (and would subsidence be included in the Environmental Search)?

The house in rural Norfolk with no present industry aside from farming. Any ideas why pollution is listed a "High"?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Max

PS - the house was built in 1993. Would any of this needed to have been established prior to the house being built, seeing as it is relatively new?

timmyt

for £35 do it. but not a Lender requirement.

subsidence - ask the seller if they know of any.

dont trust homecheck, just a free search result to get you to buy their searches.

Tunstallstoven

Our solicitor is charging £50 for the search.

I know it isn't much money, but we have had two purchases fall through on us and our dead end conveyancing has cost us well into the thousands with nothing to show for it. Due to that nasty dent we really are trying to watch the pennies at the moment.

Thanks also for the advice about Homecheck - I'll take that with the proverbial pinch of salt then!

Any further advice gratefully received.

And one other thing, we've been told that because the Local Search (in the HIP) is over 6 months old, the lender would require a new one to be done. Is this correct?

Cheers

Max

Richard_Webster

And one other thing, we've been told that because the Local Search (in the HIP) is over 6 months old, the lender would require a new one to be done. Is this correct?

Depends on the lender - Halifax, Abbey, Nationwide and many others will accept search validation insurance (typically costing £20-£30) provided the search is no more than 12 months old - but Nat West won't accept this so search has to be repeated.

Tunstallstoven

Any ideas about Northern Rock? And any opinions about whether it's worth having the Environ. Search?

Many many thanks for the help.

Richard_Webster

Northern Rock accept search insurance provided it protects them (which it should).

Although the Homecheck is very basic it has flagged up a Medium and a High so the I would do the Environmental Search to see what there is.

Trouble is that more and more people are doing these searches and so you almost have to do it in case your eventual buyer does one and comes up with some nasty entry. Most of the nasty entries are theoretical ones that say that because of some former industrial activity or the presence of a "tank or energy facility" there could be some pollution, but usually nobody actually knows if there is any real problem. All the locals wonder what the problem is as they have never had any experience of pollution....

So a reason for doing an environmental search is to have the opportunity now to check these points out before buying to assess as far as you can whether there is a real concern that would discourage future buyers.

Mankysteve

For the radon one it requires a detector placeing. Many area are a high risk for radon. They reckon its the 2nd biggest cause of lung cancer.

System

I don't think Norfolk is a radon risk area. High radon areas tend to be where the bedrock is granite. e.g. Aberdeen.

timmyt

Max_Dread wrote: »

Our solicitor is charging £50 for the search.

I know it isn't much money, but we have had two purchases fall through on us and our dead end conveyancing has cost us well into the thousands with nothing to show for it. Due to that nasty dent we really are trying to watch the pennies at the moment.

Thanks also for the advice about Homecheck - I'll take that with the proverbial pinch of salt then!

Any further advice gratefully received.

And one other thing, we've been told that because the Local Search (in the HIP) is over 6 months old, the lender would require a new one to be done. Is this correct?

Cheers

Max

in red - correct, they would require it, though as RW explains indemnity insurance is a cheaper route.

I would never advise it. Your HIP search is likely to be a personal search, which whilst ok to use, most lawyers would prefer an official search. But to then have insurance backing up an old personal search...good grief, just get a fresh official search, far better and safer....otherwise you might end up posting a new thread saying 'compulsory purchase order not revealed in our local search etc'