Buying a house built on site of ex-petro station

ReadingTim

You may require further, more specialist surveys (contaminated land etc) than a 'normal' purchase, which will probably cost more. The results may spook either you, or your lender. The lender may require you to have a larger deposit, which may threaten affordability, or even the viability of the purchase. You may find that buildings insurance is higher on account of the former use of the land. However, you won't know for certain until you begin the process.

Furthermore, given there has been a house on the site for the past 30 years, these won't be new issues, and are unlikely to be insurmountable, only possibly more costly.

Fuzzyness

AdrianC wrote: »

Your solicitor will. Environmental searches are one of the things you're paying him for.

It's fairly safe to say that cleaning the land properly will have been a very intrinsic part of the development, though, and that a filling station doesn't necessarily imply heavy pollution - the risks are so high that they've been tightly controlled for a long while.

that may be the case now but not so 30 years ago when the house was built. whilst there may have been a degree of remediation/decontamination standards then were not what they are now. i'm sure a local geo-tech consultant should be able to give you a view which should help inform your opinion whether its a goer or not.

System

You may get people turning into your drive from asking their out of date sat navs for the nearest fuelling station

silvercar

Fuzzyness wrote: »

that may be the case now but not so 30 years ago when the house was built. whilst there may have been a degree of remediation/decontamination standards then were not what they are now. i'm sure a local geo-tech consultant should be able to give you a view which should help inform your opinion whether its a goer or not.

Decontamination of petrol storage tanks have always been to high standards. This isn't some little chimney breast that someone may not have supported properly on removal.

Prothet_of_Doom

I know 4 Petrol Stations with 4 miles of me, which have been replaced with housing.

I'd be more worried if a house were built on the site of an old nickel cadmium battery factory. Petrol isn't anywhere near as dangerous as growing veg in cadmium contaminated soil.

Davesnave

Prothet_of_Doom wrote: »

I know 4 Petrol Stations with 4 miles of me, which have been replaced with housing.

I'd be more worried if a house were built on the site of an old nickel cadmium battery factory. Petrol isn't anywhere near as dangerous as growing veg in cadmium contaminated soil.

I'm not sure about that. There was a scare in the late 1970s:

"Shipham has the highest levels of cadmium in the soil anywhere in the UK. Cadmium is a toxic metal associated with old zinc mine workings. However, a study found that the cadmium in the soil is tightly bound up in minerals, and is not readily available for uptake by plants. It therefore does not enter the food chain and has no measurable effect on health."

From:

http://www.bgs.ac.uk/mendips/localities/shipham.html

suki1964

I live in a house built on a former petrol station. ( ok so only two pump village station) and there is no problem

Iirc the solicitor had all sorts of land search papers done by the previous/original owners so was no extra cost to us

Heritic

Contaminated land redevlopment 30 years ago is a completely different situation to what is done today. Part 2a contaminated land came in force after 1995 to deal with the legacy of sites which were inappropriately redeveloped, abandoned or where pollution is suspected. The local authority and environment agency has the power to ask the person that polluted the land or the current owner/occupier to investigate and or remediate. They can even get a warrant to do this under powers of entry. If a significant risk is there either to human health or groundwater then the land could be determined as contaminated land, the ea and la can force the site to be remediated.

The costs for this could be recovered from the owner, the person who polluted it or the person who occupies it, how this is recovered is complicated and hardship can be applied.

I would ask your solicitor to ask the local authority and EA if the site is prioritised for inspection, what information they have regarding the redevlopment and if the developer completed any remediation.

It is also possible that it is not a petrol station and it's just a rumour. You can also buy reports from landmark or ground sure to gauge risk others might exist, i would do this as well. I can make no comment if I would or would not buy but make an informed decision speak to your solicitor.

Good luck

ikeby

Thanks everyone. I will have to give it some more thought.