Developer's broken promises

michael1234

Hi

About 9 months ago, a developer put in for planning for a large development of about 50 flats next door. We (possibly stupidly) agreed to generally be positive about the development in return for a brick wall being built along the boundary instead of a normal fence.

At the time, we were assured of this and were given a formal email as well as lots of other correspondence captured on email about ther intentions. This is from a large company with several hundred developments of similar size across the UK.

Now they are apparently getting cold feet...

From past experience, given that the emails are held on a third party server (Google Gmail) I reasonably confident that the content of the emails won't be disputed and would be admissable. What I'm not sure about is if a company sends you a letter that basically says "Dear My xyz, Should we obtain planning permission we will build you a wall as per the plan attached blah blah..." is that enforceable in any way?

anselld

Is the wall in question shown on the plans as approved for the development? If not then you can probably forget it. If so then it would be a planning breach not to complete it and you should seek enforcement action from the Council.

KingS6

Can you give some bearing with what you mean by them getting cold feet? Are they now point blank refusing to build the wall? Pulling out of building the 50 flats altogether or something more vague?

davidmcn

michael1234 wrote: »

What I'm not sure about is if a company sends you a letter that basically says "Dear My xyz, Should we obtain planning permission we will build you a wall as per the plan attached blah blah..." is that enforceable in any way?

Possibly. Does the "blah blah" include a timescale?

jimpix12

IANAL but emails are generally admissible in courts in the UK, however it depends on many factors, plus you need to factor in the costs of pursuing litigation (or at least investigating it).

Your best bet is to talk to a solicitor about it if they aren't forthcoming with more information. A gentle reminder that you have the emails still and will pursue the matter further if warranted, might be all it takes.

Rodders53

Reading between the lines, has Planning permission been granted for the main development? or is that negotiation still on-going?

It reads to me that 'if they get planning approval for the development then they will build a wall' (and the wall should form part of the planning submissions tabled...

Alternatively, they may be saying they need to submit another application for the proposed wall... which they may or may not get approval for?

You can generally follow progress of Planning applications online via the local Council websites. Though some are better than others in including all the accompanying documents.

Fuzzyness

has the planning application been approved?

what do the approved plans show?

some times there will be a condition that stipulates that details of boundary treatments need to be submitted by the developer to be approved. is there such a condition on the planning permission?

michael1234

Hi

Thanks for the replies. I guess I'm not yet lucky enough to have a legal person notice this but all replies are most welcome and useful.

The planning application has been approved but (two months later) it is showing on the council's website as have a status of "Planning Permission VOID" and all the 100+ documents are not visible anymore. I don't know if this is a mistake or not. I've asked the council vial email but no response as of yet.

There is no timeline in their email/letter but I think it is pretty clear the wall is to be built as part of the development so the timeline would be the same as the development itself. Here is a redacted version of one of the emails:

Dear Mr XYZ,

Following our recent correspondence and further liaison internally with _developer_'s development team, I can clarify that should planning permission be forthcoming from XXX Council, the 1.8 Metre feature wall proposed will be extended into your boundary, the extent of which will be agreed post approval.

I would ask that you kindly mark on a map the extent of the additional wall required for our records.

I hope the above is clear.

Kind regards


They are not (yet) point blank refusing to build it its just the tone has moved from cast iron assurances to indecicsion. There is a new manager from the developer involved and he has said he "...needs to come to a decision...". At the time I was liasing with their PR representatives who were acting as their agents to the public. That agent specifically asked managers within the developer and after a week or so a positive decision came back. I even have further emails directly from the developer reassuring me that the plan for the wall is in their construction plan (despite it not being shown on the official planning application).

So I guess the answer about that is it is not shown on the planning app. The information I got at the time was that they would definitely build it but to ask their architects to resubmit the landscape plan would delay things with the planning department and in any case a 1.8M wall not publicly visible would normally be permitted development.

I'm just wondering, when does an agreement in writing from a large company to an individual become a contract I can enforce if necessary?

I do feel bloody stupid singing their praises when in fact the development will be bad for us - I took the view having seen other planning applications that the council tend to ignore neighbour objections so I may as well cooperative and try to get something out of it. At the developer's suggestion, I even put in my public comments that these developers were so responsive to the needs of the community that "...I'm pleased to say they have agreed to build a brick wall....". Now the bas%£$%rds might be going back on their word !

martindow

michael1234 wrote: »

the 1.8 Metre feature wall proposed will be extended into your boundary, the extent of which will be agreed post approval.

This is a bit vague. What is to be agreed - the position of the wall, the size of it or whether to build it at all?

TrickyDicky101

I don't think you have a contract. I think it would need to have been written as a deed as 'generally positive' is too ephemeral to constitute consideration (required by contract). You don't have a deed either.

AdrianC

michael1234 wrote: »

The planning application has been approved but (two months later) it is showing on the council's website as have a status of "Planning Permission VOID" and all the 100+ documents are not visible anymore. I don't know if this is a mistake or not. I've asked the council vial email but no response as of yet.

There is no timeline in their email/letter but I think it is pretty clear the wall is to be built as part of the development so the timeline would be the same as the development itself.

Unless something changes about that void, then the development simply ain't happening. They do not, as it stands, have planning permission for it.

Why's it been voided? <shrug> But if it really has been - and the public-facing views are directly from the authoritative record - then there is no planning permission, so no development, so no agreement for a wall.