Buyer's solicitor asked for copies of planning apps

djm1972

I've just heard from my solicitor that my buyer's solicitor has written to them asking for copies of a couple of nearby planning applications that have shown up their local search. My solicitor has advised me that she is currently investigating how much it will cost to obtain these copies from the council, apparently in order for me to pay for these copies!

I'm not particularly happy about this for 2 reasons.

1) Surely if my buyer (or their solicitor) is concerned about a nearby planning application that has shown up in the local search it is their onus and should be at their cost to obtain the details. They paid for the local search after all, why shouldn't they pay for any follow up research that they believe is necessary.

2) Our local council makes all planning applications available free in PDF format online through their public access portal!

Having thought about this overnight, I'm tempted to go back to my solicitor and say that I refuse to pay for these, but before I do, I thought i'd ask if anyone had been in this situation before and whether it was standard practice for the seller to have to pay for copies of local planning application on behalf of the buyer?

Thanks!

Hippychick

If the planning was for work that had been done on your property then I would expect the seller to pay for it, but if it is for neighbouring property and you say it is available online for free why should you.

I would tell your sol that and tell them to go look it up themselves if they are really worried.

ps. Did you get a notice of planning through your door? perhaps you can pass them a copy of that for info.

djm1972

Apparently they are for neighbouring properties! I have not had any work done (it is a leasehold flat) myself, and although i've not had any planning info delivered here I have seen the notice outside a nearby property (garden backs on to our development) for conversion of an old Victorian property into flats, so I'm presuming it refers to that in at least 1 case.

danm

i dont see why you should pay for information to be used in their decision making process.

It like you paying for their local search or their survey. The buyers need to satisfy themselves at their own expense

djm1972

Agreed.

I have asked my solicitor to advise that if the information freely available on the web via the local council's planning portal is not satisfactory then I am not prepared to pay.

After all, as I understand it nearby planning applications would only come to light if my buyer has paid for a local search (which is optional, I have not chosen to pay for it on my purchase) and so if they want the information they should have to pay for it themselves!

Doozergirl

I'd go as far as to find the links to the relevant planning appliations on the portal and email those to my solicitor to forward to them.

But agreed that I would not pay, and if they don't want to pay either, why don't your buyers go down to the council and ask to see the planning applications themselves? They'll get a lot more pertinant information from a planning officer than they would a solicitor.

angel1976

Hi,

We had the same situation when we were buying except that I was the buyer. Basically, our solicitor wanted to see certain planning permissions for the development where our house is. It became a real stalemate as our seller's solicitor wouldn't do anything, our seller refused to pay to get the permissions and it would have taken my solicitor 6-8 weeks to apply for them from the council plus whatever cost the council was charging!

In the end, I went to the council planning office myself, found the planning permissions and got copies of them made, all in under an hour and the council didn't charge me either (I think it was 5p a copy otherwise). The thing is if I didn't do it, god knows how long the wrangling would have gone on for. I personally don't think it's worth the aggravation and if you want the sale of your place to go through, it's best to bite the bullet and just do it!

Good luck, Angeline

djm1972

Thanks, Angeline.

I totally appreciate your point about just letting them get on with it and biting the bullet; but like you said it could be nobody knows how many weeks for a postal application to be made by my solicitor, and then back to their solicitor etc. etc.

Therefore; in the event of a stalemate; i'll just give my buyer's a call, explain the situation - find out the planning numbers myself, download them off the web, print them out and pop them through their letterbox, all in 24 hours!

I'm beginning to wish I hadn't bothered selling and just let this place out instead!

Melissa177

Agree with everyone else - I actually paid £20 for a special "Neighbourhood Report" when I bought my flat; it included details about local planning decisions.

The vendor should not be expected to pay for information that is for the buyer's benefit, in my opinion.

I would be tempted to point them to the council website, and explain that this data is available to them free should they choose to look it up.

Richard_Webster

This whole business is a pain.

Normally the planning permissions/applications shown are supposed only to apply to your property. (Everyone thinks that a local search shows what is happening nearby - it doesn't and your solicitor should explain that to you.)

What happens is that for convenience in providing search results Councils often group nearby developments into areas for admin simplicity. (If you do a saerch on an estate proeprty in parts of NewForest the Copncil will show details of every permission given for an extension anywhere on that estate! ) So if Builder A got a planning permission to build Acacia Gardens and Builders B & C then apply for permission to build on "land adjoining Acacia Gardens..." the Council shows all the permissions on a search against a house in Acacia Gardens whereas actually some of of them have nothing to do with the property at all. Also sometimes before Builder A got his permission for say 20 houses the previous landowner got a permission for 18 houses (which was never actually implemented) and when builder A bought the land he went back to get another permission to build 20. That earlier permission will also show on the search.

So it is quite easy to find that there are 5-6 permissions allegedly affecting the property. The buyer's solicitors want to see them because they think they may be important. I have had some exceedingly tedious arguments with buyers' solicitors over this kind of point. I tell them as the house is in Acacia Gardens and planning permission 12345 was issued to Bloggs Builders who first sold the house we are now selling then all the permissions on "land adjoining..." are irrelevant but they won't listen and insist on seeing them. Obviously if the client can obtain them cheaply from the Council this can be a help. I have had some seller clients who have got so wearied with the delay caused by the argument that they tell me to spend sometimes up to £100 to get totally irrelevant copies just to shut the buyer's solicitors up and remove an obstacle to exchanging contracts!

This will all get worse with HIPs because we are then supposed to supply copy planning permissions as part of the pack and some sellers will get charged for getting copies from the Council at maybe £5-£20 a go to gon in the HIP!


As a conveyancing solicitor I believe the information given in the post to be useful but I accept no liability except to fee-paying clients