Environmental Search Issue

Three_Beans

Hi,

We are in the final stages of purchasing a house.
The last outstanding item that is preventing going to exchange is an issue on the environmental search that shows where the property is located is a risk of contaminated land. Its a suburb of Newcastle Upon Tyne so may areas are redeveloped industrial land.

The house was built in 2003 and the small estate it is on was further extended in 2013 so relatively recent development.

The vendor who has had the house from new is not aware of any issues raised when it was purchased but I guess this environmental data is continuously being edited.

My solicitor is asking the vendors to provide the original planning permission records for when the house was built as they would expect to find there info on conditions to be able to build on the land. The council website didnt have the documents for download unfortunately.

I have sent a bunch of questions back to the solicitor on what are the options and potential outcomes etc but was wondering if anyone here had gone through similar and what the outcome was?
Am concerned that this is going to drag but what in house buying doesn't!

Thanks for sharing any experiences so we can be prepared for what will need to happen

Cheers!
:beer:

davidmcn

Three_Beans wrote: »

My solicitor is asking the vendors to provide the original planning permission records for when the house was built as they would expect to find there info on conditions to be able to build on the land. The council website didnt have the documents for download unfortunately.

That all sounds normal. The council will be able to produce the papers. Wait to see what they say. I would expect a 2003-era development to have been cleaned up to something approaching today's standards.

Doozergirl

You can also speak to Land Charges at the local authority. There are literally thousands of potentially contaminated sites but the vast majority are not.

Fuzzyness

Three_Beans wrote: »

Hi,

We are in the final stages of purchasing a house.
The last outstanding item that is preventing going to exchange is an issue on the environmental search that shows where the property is located is a risk of contaminated land. Its a suburb of Newcastle Upon Tyne so may areas are redeveloped industrial land.

The house was built in 2003 and the small estate it is on was further extended in 2013 so relatively recent development.

The vendor who has had the house from new is not aware of any issues raised when it was purchased but I guess this environmental data is continuously being edited.

My solicitor is asking the vendors to provide the original planning permission records for when the house was built as they would expect to find there info on conditions to be able to build on the land. The council website didnt have the documents for download unfortunately.

I have sent a bunch of questions back to the solicitor on what are the options and potential outcomes etc but was wondering if anyone here had gone through similar and what the outcome was?
Am concerned that this is going to drag but what in house buying doesn't!

Thanks for sharing any experiences so we can be prepared for what will need to happen

Cheers!
:beer:

not sure what you mean about environmental data being continously edited. if the ground was contaminated in 2003 it will still be contaminated now unless the developer was required to remediate it before they built the houses, which is in all likelihood what would have happened. if the ground was known to be contaminated the council would or environment agency would not have allowed houses to be built on it without some form of treatment or remediation being undertaken first. see if you can get the original planning permission for the development and check the conditions. if there is a contamination condition check withe planning office that this was discharged.

dc197

Speak to the local authority. Even if the planning permission was not available to you, they should have a record. It will show what remedial measures may have been demanded.

The previous house I bought, I had the same situation as you. The LA wrote back to me saying that as part of the original planning permission, the developer had to replace the topsoil to a depth of 1m. They said that they oversaw this replacement and we satisfied.

Keep your correspondence on this matter as you will probably need it again when you come to sell.

Three_Beans

dc197 wrote: »

Speak to the local authority. Even if the planning permission was not available to you, they should have a record. It will show what remedial measures may have been demanded.

The previous house I bought, I had the same situation as you. The LA wrote back to me saying that as part of the original planning permission, the developer had to replace the topsoil to a depth of 1m. They said that they oversaw this replacement and we satisfied.

Keep your correspondence on this matter as you will probably need it again when you come to sell.

Hi, thanks for the reply!
Out of interest did it take long to get the feedback from the LA?

Cheers

bruich76

sounds like it was a newbuild development if it was then its more than likely that there were conditions imposed on the developer in the original planning permission to get it sorted. For example, my house, suffered from the same on purchase, however, in the planning it says that the developer needed to fill a certain area within the site with 1 foot of concrete before the development commenced. That area is now underneath a round about.


Hence, check the planning permission to see. Likelihood is that its been sorted and as you have suggested environmental searches can fail down the line even if there were clear at first its one of those things as the data gets updated.

bruich76

You should also note that environmental risk passes with the land as well so it doesn't necessarily matter if the contamination itself wasn't caused by the land owner at the time that it was identified. Fines can be tens of thousands of pounds. Punishments can include prison.


So although, solicitors may make it look hard work ultimately they are trying to put you in the best position to live in the house in the future. Indemnity insurance is also available, however, mortgage lenders are usually the issue when it comes to environmental problems as it affects their valuations.

AlexMac

It may vary by local authority, but when the environmental survey on our kids' last purchase threw up a "historic tank" nearby, the local authority said they weren't aware of that site yet but would investigate and certify that it had a clean bill of health for a reasonable fee (I think less than £100). We'd pass that to the firm who did the ES and they'd re-write it (possibly for another small fee). So no big deal, as I bet, like theirs, your site isn't contaminated....

But that would have taken a few weeks, so, rather than delay the sale they just bought a £50 indemnity.

As someone above says, the planning permission is probably more readily available (my local authority's are all online back to 1980) but that probably won't mention contamination... So unless your lender is holding back monet til this is cleared up (as our kid's lender would have done) you might decide just to ignore it and/or sort it after you buy,

Much of the Greenwich Millenium village and Woolwich Royal Arsenal developments of many hundreds of homes near us are built on former heavy metal dumps, gas works and munitions testing ranges dating back to Henry V111, but that doesn't stop buyers snapping 'em up.

AdrianC

Three_Beans wrote: »

I have sent a bunch of questions back to the solicitor on what are the options and potential outcomes etc...

The basic options and outcomes are fairly limited.

* The results come back, and are clean. You buy the house, and everything is just fine, like it has been for the people living there for the last decade and a half.
* The results come back, and show contamination. You walk away from the house.
* The results don't come back. You walk away from the house.
* The results don't come back. You take an indemnity policy, buy the house, and everything is just fine, like it has been for the people living there for the last decade and a half.
* The results don't come back. You take an indemnity policy, buy the house, and die a horrible mutated death.

Some of those results are a lot less likely than others.