Selling a house - does a seller have to inform buyer of proposed development

stolt

we are just selling our house a large house that is on the main road but our close encircles the large houses garden was at some point up for planning submission of flats i complained as did others in our road and the council rejected the application.
should i have mentioned this on the SIP, because as far as we are concerened its over, the large house is now being rented out for 12 months.

did i do the right thing? reading this thread has made me worry now.

Becks045

I am slowly getting somewhere! Having re-read the local authority search which I managed to get a duplicate of, I noticed that the council refer to a local development plan which may effect properties in the vincinty. I have obtained a copy of this document and its there as clear as anything saying they are building hundreds of new flats.

I have contacted my solicitor to ask why they didn't investigate this on my behalf or give me the information so I could invesitigate it. Their response was they take no resposibility and if I wish to seek legal advice I should!

I think that pretty much sums up that my solicitor failed to invesigate what had appeared on the local search so now I've left without my sea view, no light into my property and will be overlooked by some ugly new build!

I am of course taking matters further to seek compensastion from my solicitor.

Does or has anyone ever sought compensastion from their solicitor before?

teabelly

I think you'd need to contact the law society as it sounds like your solicitor has been rather dozy. The law society should be able to advise you on what to do to resolve the situation. No idea whether you can reverse a property transaction and insist the vendor has their flat back and you have all your money back :-)

http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/home.law

Becks045

I'm now in contact with the law society's complaints department who will follow-this up for me. I am also going into see the council tomorrow as they are letting me view the planning files to see if the person I purchased from did object the flats. I really hope they did as that will be my evidence that they knew about the development but failed to declare it.

Fingers crossed!

pinkshoes

Some solicitors can be a bit dozy... although saying that, I still think the vendor is at fault here, as I'm sure they must've known about the development, therefore lied to their solcitor about it, thus selling using false information.

You should get an EA round to value the flat with a view of 100s of flats rather than the sea!

noyk

Good luck Becks, and good for you for being proactive about it and not just accepting. Keep us updated.