Environment Search

Ames1983

Morning,
I’ve been offered an additional search by my solicitors for a home we are in the process of buying. It’s an ‘optional extra’ yet is recommended to have.
The house we are buying is 1930’s period. Just wondering if others purchasing a house of similar age would continue with this additional search or if it’s something you would be more inclined to use for a newer build property? I’m not sure when this search was introduced, and therefore any likelihood that it may have been carried out previously or not.
My mind says pay the extra for it for peace of mind, but just wondering what others may be inclined to do?
Info on search below:

ENVIROSEARCH
We strongly recommend that you carry out an environmental search against the property that you are purchasing. This will assess the risk of the property being regarded as “contaminated land” as defined by part IIa of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
An Environmental search will give information under four separate headings:-
1. Part 1 of this search will give information with regards to landfill sites, waste transfer, treatment or disposal sites etc.
2. This part of the search contains information on industrial sites and areas of potential landfills.
3. Part 3 contains details relating to radon gas.
4. Part 4 of the search will deal with the presence of overhead transmission lines or pylons, risk of flooding from major rivers or subsidence.

Many thanks
Amy

daveyjp

All 4 of those can be found by yourself from internet sites. Do some basic research yourself and then decide if you need to pay for more info.

1. Any sites with old maps so you can see what was on the land before the houses.
2. As above
3. UK radon gas maps online
4. Powerlines. Visit and look up! Environment agency website has very rough flooding maps.

AnotherJoe

Ames1983 wrote: »

Morning,
I’ve been offered an additional search by my solicitors for a home we are in the process of buying. It’s an ‘optional extra’ yet is recommended to have.
The house we are buying is 1930’s period. Just wondering if others purchasing a house of similar age would continue with this additional search or if it’s something you would be more inclined to use for a newer build property? I’m not sure when this search was introduced, and therefore any likelihood that it may have been carried out previously or not.
My mind says pay the extra for it for peace of mind, but just wondering what others may be inclined to do?
Info on search below:

ENVIROSEARCH
We strongly recommend that you carry out an environmental search against the property that you are purchasing. This will assess the risk of the property being regarded as “contaminated land” as defined by part IIa of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
An Environmental search will give information under four separate headings:-
1. Part 1 of this search will give information with regards to landfill sites, waste transfer, treatment or disposal sites etc.

You can do this yourself. Is there a landfill site next door or in the next street? Unlikely the house was built on one if its has been there for 90 years anyway.
2. This part of the search contains information on industrial sites and areas of potential landfills.
Same as above
3. Part 3 contains details relating to radon gas.
Radon gas is pretty much restricted to certain areas of the country. Is there a basement?is the house built on granite ? If not, it's not a concern anyway.
4. Part 4 of the search will deal with the presence of overhead transmission lines or pylons, risk of flooding from major rivers or subsidence.
Look up. Any overhead transmission lines ? Look around. Any pylons? Has there been flooding in the area? Has the house been flooded previously? That's already asked. Has the house had subsidence? That should be covered by the survey you get. Generalised "there has been subsidence in this area" type comments covering miles and miles around are worthless IMO.

Many thanks
Amy

Looks like something dreamed up to flog to the nervous.

Davesnave

It's straightforward research. It can be done in about half an hour, though it might take someone unfamiliar with the sources an evening or two, but all the info's out there and just needs collecting.


It's like a lot of jobs; you either grit your teeth and get on with it, or you pay someone else to do it.

Davesnave

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Radon gas is pretty much restricted to certain areas of the country. Is there a basement?is the house built on granite ? If not, it's not a concern anyway.

Not sure I agree with that. Very high readings would concern me, though they wouldn't be a deal-breaker.

My FiL's house is on silurian andesite and he's installed a sump because of the high readings. No granite anywhere within about 100 miles of him.

bouicca21

I got a radon warning on my flat in suburban London. It's in what used to be north west Kent, no granite! I think the problem is a swathe of land on chalk.

But the areas identified as at risk are not precise so there is an element of scaremongering. I took the risk, did the test and came up with a practically zero result.

AnotherJoe

Davesnave wrote: »

Not sure I agree with that. Very high readings would concern me, though they wouldn't be a deal-breaker.
My FiL's house is on silurian andesite and he's installed a sump because of the high readings. No granite anywhere within about 100 miles of him.

I stand corrected re the andesite I thought it was granite only. I didn't t mean I'd be unconcerned about high levels, I meant I'd Be unconcerned if my house was not on granite or now it seems andesite.
So the first place to start would be a radon map.its only ina few areas in the U.K. AFAIK ? Or am I wrong on that as well? . I see you can look it up online for £3.90. https://www.ukradon.org/information/measuringradon

Davesnave

There are many basic radon maps on-line showing hot spots in the Mendips, Cotswolds and Pennines, to mention just a few places away from the granite regions in Devon & Cornwall.

We were above the action level in Bath, which is on limestone, but not by very much, so I took measures to improve under-house ventilation. As I said, it's not a deal-breaker or hard to reduce the concentrations in most buildings.

Sometimes, the concentrations are very localised indeed. When I was firing pottery regularly at work, the heat in the kiln room had the effect of drawing radon in somehow, pushing levels to the point at which the local authority put up a radiation warning sign and fitted a permanently-on extractor system. Nowhere else in the building was considered to pose a risk.