Vendor / Estate agent didn't mention wind farm!

googler

jamesd wrote: »

If the agent knew, the agent was obliged to disclose because it is a material fact.

Well, there's the problem, because the CPRs are VERY woolly on what constitutes a 'material fact', as opposed to the PMA, which is very specific about the prescribed matters which EAs have to describe correctly.

A wind farm a kilometre away from the home under discussion? Material or not? At what point does it become/not become material? At 500m? At 5km?

jamesd

Indeed, working out material can be an issue, as can distance. There are a few easy tests. Say if another potential purchaser had noticed and pulled out of the purchase of this property or any other property the agent had sold because of this development. That would make it very clear that buyers believed it to be material.

I covered the agent. The vendor won't initially have a legal obligation to disclose but pre-sales questionnaires would, I hope, have a question that should cover this area, particularly in a place where developments of this sort are apparently common. Failing to disclose in response to such a question would be a problem. And of course the conveyancing solicitor could reasonably be expected to be aware of this and ensure that such a question was asked.

Nice can of worms, of course. Glad I'm not the one with the problem.

G_M, even if we don't source directly from Russia, some of our pipeline imports would be affected by issues with Russian supply, but the physical gas flows are also likely to reflect pipeline availability and there would be limits on just how much gas could be directed away from the UK to deal with a need in say Germany.

In the shorter term, Japan's moves to restart nuclear power generation should reduce pressure on LNG supply and prices and help.

G_M

jamesd wrote: »

G_M, even if we don't source directly from Russia, some of our pipeline imports would be affected by issues with Russian supply, but the physical gas flows are also likely to reflect pipeline availability and there would be limits on just how much gas could be directed away from the UK to deal with a need in say Germany.

In the shorter term, Japan's moves to restart nuclear power generation should reduce pressure on LNG supply and prices and help.

Which is exactly my point. Not the specific "Russia can cut off our supply" but the general "We are so far fromself-sufficiency that any event could impact us":

* a civil war in Nigeria
* terrorists targeting the tankers
* Saudi Arabia getting embroiled in Middle eastern conflict
* The Syrian conflict spreading
* Iran...
* Egypt...
* Russia...

And that's before considering natural disasters (as you point out: Japan)

Hence my belief wind farms are important as one tranch of the many solutions we need.

Far too late of course- we should have been using the good years when North Sea Oil was abundant and money was available, to plan and invest ahead.

ACG

Putting aside the whole argument for or against wind turbines (for reference im actually for and wouldnt mind one bit if they were in view)... its not the estate agent or vendors job to tell you about these things.

It is however for your conveyancer to check for planning permissions etc. You need to take this up with them not the estate agent.

googler

ACG wrote: »

Putting aside the whole argument for or against wind turbines (for reference im actually for and wouldnt mind one bit if they were in view)... its not the estate agent or vendors job to tell you about these things.

it is, if they are 'material' to the sale - which is where the legislation is woolly - and vague legislation is bad legislation...

Cumbria_Collie

Some good replies, thank you all.

The vendor's property information form was a joke....almost everything was answered, "don't know", "not to my knowledge" etc. Our conveyancer said that this was not unusual where a property had been vacated due to ill health, as in our case, and someone else (often another family member) had taken it over. We didn't worry too much as we'd had a full building survey done. I now know that when the wind farm was first mooted the local district council wrote to the property occupiers informing them of the proposal. This, of course, was not mentioned in the vendor's property info. form.
We'll keep going, mainly because we feel we've been deceived. However the wind farm is a now fait accompli so we'll just have to learn to love it. It certainly won't make us move house.
As an aside, this thread was never about the rights and wrongs of wind farms or our personal feelings towards them,which are generally neutral. I know that wind farms are an extremely emotive subject to some people both pro and anti. It's just a shame that a few chose to muddy this thread with irrelevant comments.

Dan-Dan

We stayed in a caravan in GT Yarmouth that was on the beach and looks directly at about 25 of them , lovely view , but then i suppose they are in the sea

Naf

Cumbria_Collie wrote: »

...It certainly won't make us move house.

Pleased to hear it.

G_M

Cumbria_Collie wrote: »

The vendor's property information form was a joke....almost everything was answered, "don't know", "not to my knowledge" etc. Our conveyancer said that this was not unusual where a property had been vacated due to ill health, as in our case, and someone else (often another family member) had taken it over. We didn't worry too much as we'd had a full building survey done. I now know that when the wind farm was first mooted the local district council wrote to the property occupiers informing them of the proposal. This, of course, was not mentioned in the vendor's property info. form.

We'll keep going, mainly because we feel we've been deceived. .

Ah! Well, the 'deceipt' is now better explained.

If the property was being sold by someone else (common after a repossession, or a death/probate etc) how do you expect them to answer the Property Information Form? Other than "Don't know" or similar?

There was a thread here recently where the Q "Is the attic insulated?" had been answered "Yes, with manure". Now that (we all assumed) was a joke.

But if the council's letter had been received by (and perhaps disposed of by) the sick owner, the family who were (presumably acting as POAs) selling would have had no knowledge.

They could have answered "No" to all the Qs, but that would have been dishonest, since they lacked the knowledge.

So "Don't know" was the only option open to them.

Cumbria_Collie

On reflection I think we'll just let it go. Had a word with our conveyancer this afternoon, she'd been beavering away behind the scenes and she's come to the same conclusion as most on here. Yeah, we MAY have a case against the estate agent but it would be difficult and probably expensive to prove. We still love the house and its location and we're slowly bringing up to a more modern spec. Life's too short to fret about something we probably can't do a damn thing about. Thanks for all your interest and comments, even the stroppy ones.