Compulsary purchase - help

Richard_Webster

You have to be very careful. You might get away with selling and not saying anything because it might be difficult for the buyers to prove you knew. However it is quite likely that they will find something somewhere to hit you with in the future as if you complete your sale and your buyers find out they will be very very angry.

So I think you must speak to your solicitor, because you might, for instance, have already agreed that you would notify the buyers of any changes to the answers that you have previously given.. He will probably say that you should reveal something to the buyer's solicitors, which could be vague like "The sellers have heard neighbours talking about some regeneration proposals the Council has, but they do not know full details and the buyers should inquire of the local authority" Problem is that the buyer's solicitors will do this and will probably hear about the proposals in more detail and your buyer will pull out.

The alternative is to take the risk and hope you don't get sued and if you do then it could be long, bitter, and expensive.

If there are definite proposals that involve compulsory purchase then if you can show that you have made reasonable efforts to sell the property and can only do so at substantially less than the market value that would have applied if the Council's proposals had not existed then you can require the Council to buy your property by serving a "Blight Notice".

chris180682

Thanks for the info. I'm going to try and speak to the council (if they'll tell me anything) as if it is a definite thing we think it's probably right to inform the buyer but we don't want to lose the sale if it's something that's not going to happen. It would not be the end of the world for us if the sale fell through providing the council would buy our house at a good price (equal or more than we are selling for now) plus get some kind of compensation for moving which I think usually happnes in these cases, if this was the case and if it happended ASAP it would actually be better for us. I don't know if the fact that it would be us approaching the council to buy our house would mean they gave us less though. I can't believe the timing of all this!

chris180682

ps Could you explain your last paragraph please? Just want to make sure I'm understanding it fully.

sonastin

I think the last paragraph is a way of getting the council to compensate you if these rumours mean that you can no longer sell your house. If its really going ahead, they'll buy anyway. If its not going ahead but because there's talk you can't sell to anyone else, you can make the council buy it in a sort of "put up or shut up" way. Your solicitor can explain the legal side of how you go about it.

It would only apply because you have actively been trying to sell and only if these rumours put buyers off. If your neighbours suddenly decide to put their houses up for sale to try to cash it, its less likely to apply.

silvercar

At the moment you have a load of gossip and rumours and that's it. A couple of houses that are showing as on the market but may have now been sold to the council or may not. Nothing substantial, nothing in writing. I'm doubtful whether I would notify buyer's of anything on this basis.

If things become more official then you can reconsider. Generally under CP, you would be offered slightly more than market value. The danger is that some people hold out for more (either because they think prices will increase or because they think the council may pay more to get the last houses in the area). The problem is that these things have a tendancy to drag out and once that happens the council have some properties on their hands and the public don't like them remaining empty, so they use them to offer temporary housing to those on their lists. Some will be decent people grateful for a home, others will be the great unwashed. Having undesirables as your neighbours and boarded up houses in the vicinity has a downward effect on house prices and the uncertainty on whether houses will be CP'd creates difficulty in selling.

chris180682

Thanks for the replies. Im going to phone the council tomorrow and find out what I can and mention it to my solicitor if the plans are confirmed and take it from there. Ill post any info I get.
Thanks again.

Errata

chris180682 wrote: »

Thanks again. I've looked on the website but there doesn't seem to be anything on, probably because it's just at the consultation stage at the moment. I think we would be stupid to decide not to sell up because of this now anyway as we might end up worse off or it could take years to happen! I've sent a text to my council so I'll see wht they say.

If it's at the consultation stage, I'm surprised the buyers solictor hasn't picked up on it.
As for getting the market price for the property from the council - you'll be lucky.

societys_child

Have to agree with Errata especially the second line . .

Trouble is you've now heard there could be compulsory purchases in the future, and published it on the internet. I'd have quietly ignored the speculation and rumors, unless / until something more concrete came to light.

chris180682

As far as anyone is concerned I have ignored them, I haven't contacted my solictor or EA and I can't see posting on here making any difference. Like I said though I'll see what the council say when I ring up for general info on the project. As far as them not paying market value that could be right for all I know but I think they would have to pay good money, plus the fact its a lot less hassle and much quicker for them if they just get people out of the few houses there is sooner rather than later. Others have suggested they pay over market value and the bits I've read states they have to follow certain conditions and criteria but having said this it wouldn't surprise me if they offered less either! I'll see what happens.

Homersimpson

I've worked on regeneration schemes and am looking at one at the moment, we've been involved for 18months and they have only just got round to applying for planning and putting CPO's on some the houses and land they require. From the inital idea to completion is likely to be 5 years so if your only at the rumors stage you have probably got something like 12-24 months to wait before they CPO the property.

If they have difficulty with funding then it could get put on hold for a while which will cause problems as it will still register as a possible development.

Where I live we have lived with the promise of a bypass being built since around 1989, the highways agency purchased some of the land, several houses and even a pub, they kept the properties tennanted but no one wanted to spend any money on them so they slowely fell into disrepair, finally a few years ago they passed the responsibility for the road that the bypass was meant to replace over to the local authority who couldn't afford the scheme so scrapped it.

The houses that weren't purchased on the route lived under threat of being CPO'ed for 20 years and it was only two months ago that one of the more rundown houses was demolished and is now being rebuilt. If the bypass had been constructed then the house would have been 25-50yards fromthe bypass!

Can you ask you search the local councils planning applications and talk to the planning department. If they are not yet aware of a scheme they might be able to give you a letter like "As of whatever date we are not aware of any developments affecting your property" which would cover you against any future claims by your buyers.