Development behind my home

onlyonelisha

Our mortgage provider, Northern Rock, never flagged up 'potential development land' behind our home. 11 years later we have a mortgage elsewhere (again nothing was flagged by these either), and 52 houses being built at the end of my garden in 18 months time. i keep being told that our mortgage surveyor should have picked up on this as the land had been highlighted by our local authority. Do I have anywhere to go with this? Regards

haras_nosirrah

if planning permission had already been granted when you bought then this would have been something for your solicitor to have picked up - nothing to do with the mortgage provider

dunstonh

Our mortgage provider, Northern Rock, never flagged up 'potential development land' behind our home.

It is not for your lender to flag up.

i keep being told that our mortgage surveyor should have picked up on this as the land had been highlighted by our local authority.

That is not something that a mortgage valuation would get involved with (even the more expensive structural survey wouldnt).

If you asked your solicitor to run local searches then they would have picked it up then providing planning permission was in place at the time. If you didnt ask the solicitor to run searches then its your fault.

haras_nosirrah

onlyonelisha wrote: »

Our mortgage provider, Northern Rock, never flagged up 'potential development land' behind our home. 11 years later we have a mortgage elsewhere (again nothing was flagged by these either), and 52 houses being built at the end of my garden in 18 months time.

Was planning permission granted when you bought or was it just a field which is now being developed 11 years later?

Any field could be built on at some point in the future - new houses have to go somewhere. Unless there was planning permission already granted 11 years ago then there wouldn't have been anything for the solicitor to bring up. I live with a field behind me - at the moment it is a football club so hopefully it won't be built on but I guess you never know.

planning_officer

Also, many local searches only pick up past planning applications on the site you are buying and not on adjacent land. Unless you have specifically requested a search to encompass adjacent land, then your solicitor wouldn't be expected to pick it up.

roonaldo

This is nothing to do with Northern Rock. Your solicitor does searches but you said this was 11 years ago! so im unsure how you expected anyone to be aware of what was happening to the land 11 years in the future.

[Deleted User]

onlyonelisha wrote: »

52 houses being built at the end of my garden in 18 months time.

You must have a massive garden.

Dinah93

As standard your solicitor will ask the local authority for a search on the land you're buying. This does not cover any adjacent land, boundaries not in your ownership or informative about open space in your area. You would have to specifically request a search on any nearby land, and pay the extra. It is unlikely it would have been designated as development land 11 years ago when you purchased, in the last 5 years most council's have had to allocate their development land for the next wave of 10-20 years or so, during which consultation on all sites will have been in the paper and on the council website.