Vendor / Estate agent didn't mention wind farm!

Cumbria_Collie

Hi, We bought our dream property last summer, deep in the country, splendid views, quiet and tranquil. We have now found out that a wind farm is about to be built less than a kilometre away. The turbines will be 150 metres high and will stand on the ridge opposite our home. Had we been aware of this we would probably not have bought the property. We were not told about it by either the vendor or his estate agent nor was it mentioned on the vendor's property information form. Our Solicitor(licensed conveyancer) is being very cagey and doesn't return phone calls. Apparently this windfarm was the subject of an enquiry in 2010 so I would have thought the estate agent would have known. Can we pursue anyone or is it just a case of "caveat emptor"?

Guest101

Maybe your conveyancer, but if you didnt ask about upcoming building work, then the EA or vendor can claim that you must've known about it already

Wellieboot

Ooohhh. Is that a big kettle of fish I can hear being opened?

I am afraid that I can't help you with the legal implications and am just sorry to hear you don't like windfarms. We have one very near (and in sight) of our holiday property in Cornwall (built years after we bought it) and genuinely think it adds to the beauty and interest of the landscape.

All of us use electricity and it has to come from somewhere. I'd rather have a windfarm near my property (something that can easily be dismantled, if needed, when better forms of energy are found) than a nuclear or fossil fuel power station ANYWHERE.

IMHO the only way anyone can object to these developments is if they live completely off grid and provide all of their own means of power.

I completely understand and commiserate that you have found your perfect home and are dissapointed that this is happening only a year later, but do try looking at the wider picture. Maybe you can see them in a different light too...

jessbob

As your Conveyancer whether anything was revealed on the results of the local search and environmental search. If enquiries were underway regarding the wind farm in 2010 then I would have thought that there should have been something revealed in the searches.

welshwizard1927

Caveat emptor! Let the buyer beware!

You have no recourse against either the vendor or the estate agents - their job is to sell the house, not to point out problems with it.

Whether its something your conveyancer should have picked up on depends on how thorough you requested the searches to me. I'd have thought if this would have had a material impact, it would have been picked up at some stage.

Put it all in writing to your conveyancer - request the details of the due diligence undertaken and request a reply within 14/21/28 days.

Naf

Effing NIMBYs!

martinthebandit

I suspect it will come down to what sort of search you actually paid for, the cheaper ones only tend to look at the immediate area around your property and would certainly not pick anything up nearly a kilometre away.

Cumbria_Collie

Wellieboot wrote: »

Ooohhh. Is that a big kettle of fish I can hear being opened?

I am afraid that I can't help you with the legal implications and am just sorry to hear you don't like windfarms. We have one very near (and in sight) of our holiday property in Cornwall (built years after we bought it) and genuinely think it adds to the beauty and interest of the landscape.

All of us use electricity and it has to come from somewhere. I'd rather have a windfarm near my property (something that can easily be dismantled, if needed, when better forms of energy are found) than a nuclear or fossil fuel power station ANYWHERE.

IMHO the only way anyone can object to these developments is if they live completely off grid and provide all of their own means of power.

I completely understand and commiserate that you have found your perfect home and are dissapointed that this is happening only a year later, but do try looking at the wider picture. Maybe you can see them in a different light too...

I take your point. There was a windfarm built about 5 miles away that at first appeared enormous and a major blot on the landscape. Now, 2 years later, we hardly notice it. As I said, we'd probably not have bought the property and the actual impact of the windfarm remains to be seen (or heard!). However we feel a bit disgruntled that it wasn't mentioned in any searches etc. It transpires also that the estate agent is also a land agent and has had dealings with farmers and wind farm proposals all over the surrounding area....Hmmm.

Cumbria_Collie

Naf wrote: »

Effing NIMBYs!

Very constructive...well done.

theartfullodger

Don't worry too much: When the daft subsidies are withdrawn when the economic disaster gets worse the wind farms will 1st stop being used then slowly rust then fall over.... (No, really, check in 30 years time...)

G_M

Presumably when you went in tothe council offices and chatted to the Planners, looked at the Local Plan etc, they also hid this from you?

It amazes me how little research people undertake themselves, either on their £00,000s property, or the area they are moving to. Even to the extent many people don't even review the documents their solicitors send them ("that's what I pay a solicitor to do").

Frankly, the furory that windfarms provoke it is almost impossible NOT to find out about them in advance. Local paper? Library? The neighbour (you did knock on the neighbour's door before buying....?).

They recently built 5 turbines near me.There was a massive campaign against them (and a tiny campaign I started in support!).

We need them. Whether they are or remain, 'economic' is only half the story. The real madness is our dependance on gas from Russia (!!!) and oil from the middle east/Africa. And the miniscule reserves we keep in the UK (it's more economic to deliver it 'just in time'!!).

Every tiny KW we generate at home is a KW less we need to rely on from Russia.

(sorry folks - rant over...)