Pylons near house

savvysquirrel

Hi,

We have had our offer accepted on our first house and we've just had the homebuyers survey report back and one of the things it mentioned is that there are high power electricity pylons near to the property, we were aware of this before putting in our offer but you can't see them from the property as they're approximately 175 meters way so hadn't been too concerned about them previously.

However the survey states:
"There is high voltage electrical supply equipment close to this property. The possible effects of electromagnetic fields have been the subject media coverage. Public Health England has advised that there may be a risk, in specified circumstances, to the health of certain categories of people. Public perception may, therefore, affect marketability and future value of the property."

You can't see the pylons or the cables from the property though only from the street. What does everyone think? I was going to post a picture but as a new user I can't post links yet sorry.

Red-Squirrel_2

I think the survey is exactly right, there's not much more anyone can add to it. It depends how comfortable you are with A. the risk to health and B. the possibility that you will only be able to sell for a lower price than if the pylons weren't there when you want to move on.

jbainbridge

savvysquirrel wrote: »

but you can't see them from the property as they're approximately 175 meters way so hadn't been too concerned about them previously.

You can't see them from the property ... I really wouldn't worry!!

JohnRiley

If it was me then I wouldn't worry and would proceed with the property. I actually lived near-ish to powerlines for a few years without any problems. I actually tried to purchase the property we rented at but it ended up going for over the asking price and I couldn't afford it anymore.

You will get a few people that will only tell you horror stories, but as someone that's actually lived near powerlines, I can reassure you that there is little to worry about. Buyers will only be put off from taking your property if the lines are massively visible (i.e, over the house), or if the pylon is literally in the garden.

I shared some of your concerns but we had three different EMF readings done by the pylons and all showed that the readings dropped very very quickly as soon as you get between 35-50m away from the cable. And don't forget you need to take into account the height of the pylon. Our rented house was 150m from the cables, and the EMF readings all showed them to be totally fine. We originally had one done by the National Grid but decided getting a second one done just in case we couldn't trust them. The second one showed the same results (but the guy kept on saying he was a ghost hunter so I wanted to get a third opinion from someone not employed by the National Grid or a pretend Ghostbuster). The third and final again showed it to be entirely safe. After you get over 50m away the radius of EMF is just the standard base line you get everywhere. In fact we were shown how the underground cables can get higher readings but nobody is worried about them because you can't see them.

Sorry for the rambling. But don't worry. if you can't see them and don't have a pylon in your garden you will be fine. I hope you are happy in your new home/.

SimonEngineer

I would agree with the above commenters and wouldn!!!8217;t worry yourself too much. Don!!!8217;t let this spoil the excitement of buying a house.

As long as the power line isn!!!8217;t right in your garden or visible massively then it won!!!8217;t be an issue. If you have got to the point of almost completing without really noticing them then I would not worry one bit.

My daughter used to have a property closed to lines than your new home. She didn!!!8217;t have any problems selling after (sold over asking) and hasn!!!8217;t had any health issues. She lived in that house for 10 years, had three kids, and still has lots of friends living near her first home. Nobody has had any health issues.

My advice would be to proceed with the house and stay off Mumsnet. They!!!8217;ll only scare you and they don!!!8217;t know what they!!!8217;re talking about.

davidmcn

savvysquirrel wrote: »

Public Health England has advised that there may be a risk, in specified circumstances, to the health of certain categories of people.

I'll eat my hat if they've made any such claims about lines 175m away.

I live and work substantially closer than that to a high-voltage line. But it's underground, so nobody knows it's there.

I think the only possible relevance is to value or marketability if you're in the ugly bit of town where all the pylons are.

savvysquirrel

Thanks everyone!! I think it's because we're FTB's that it's freaked us out a little as obviously we don't want to have any issues with selling the property in the future. The properties in the area seem to sell quite well though and the house next door has recently gone on the market and sold within 2 weeks which is reassuring.

JohnRiley wrote: »

After you get over 50m away the radius of EMF is just the standard base line you get everywhere. In fact we were shown how the underground cables can get higher readings but nobody is worried about them because you can't see them.

Thanks John, it's good to get some feedback from someone that use to live near pylons and has been in a similar situation. The national grid also sent us some information which said a similar thing about how the EMF drops quite quickly as you move away from the cables and as we're approximately 175 meters from the cables they didn't think we'd have any higher EMF readings then a property not near high voltage cables. However, I have bought an EMF reader online to do my own readings, not sure how accurate it will be as it only cost £20 from Amazon (and a lot of the reviews were also from ghost hunters :rotfl:) but it works on my home appliances so I'm going to try it out when we go to visit the property again next weekend.

Nasqueron

A lot of people with no knowledge of science but an armful of nonsense they read on the internet have appointed themselves as experts over electricity pylons and the supposed links to cancer. Unfortunately due to these people, some members of the public wrongly believe living near a pylon will cause cancer so may affect resale. There is very little evidence of links between cancer and these pylons

https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/causes-of-cancer/cancer-controversies/mobile-phones-wifi-and-power-lines

ACG

I take the opposite view...
There COULD be a risk. As we only get one go at life, do I want to risk increasing my chances of cancer for something that can be easily avoided? Not really.

More so the fact that I have a little girl, do I want to risk causing her problems down the line? Definitely not.

It might cause health issues, it might not.
Obviously everything causes health issues, food, water, the air we breath, deodorant and so on. So you could take the view that its just another potential issue, or you could take the view that I dont want to add to everything else, I take the latter where I can.

CherylMummy

Oh my goodness this is so similar to what me and my DH went through. We found a beautiful home and then power lines got flagged in the survey. I totally freaked about and bought EMF readers and had people come out to do professional readings. Everything came back absolutely fine though, and we lived in the house for seven years. We had our DD and DS born there (no problems at all) and sold property with no issue.

Don!!!8217;t lose sleep over this. You will be fine. If you love the house then go for it. Good luck!

savvysquirrel

CherylMummy wrote: »

Oh my goodness this is so similar to what me and my DH went through. We found a beautiful home and then power lines got flagged in the survey. I totally freaked about and bought EMF readers and had people come out to do professional readings. Everything came back absolutely fine though, and we lived in the house for seven years. We had our DD and DS born there (no problems at all) and sold property with no issue.

Don!!!8217;t lose sleep over this. You will be fine. If you love the house then go for it. Good luck!

That's really reassuring to hear thank you so much for replying CherylMummy! We really love the house and I hadn't even noticed the power lines until our 3rd viewing and even then they hadn't really bothered me until it came up in the survey. Out of interest who did you get to come and do the professional readings? I asked the national grid about it but they seemed to think that we were far enough away that there was no need to do them.