House purchase near contaminated land

Alex13

Hi everyone.
I am in the process of purchasing a house as first time buyer. We love the house but the searches has said that it's near contaminated land. The report states that a landfill site has been identified as being 24meters away to the west. The landfill site is identified as having accepted inert and industrial waste between 1978 and 1980.

The house was built around 1935.
Next to the waste site there has been two bungalows built so would this indicate that the land is not contaminated?

The current house owner bought the property in 2007 and his searches all passed so I am guessing the tests got more stringent.

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated

spadoosh

Industrial waste between 1978 and 1980....... So a load of asbestos?

Its not only your health you have to consider but the FTB who wants to buy your house from you. Theyll find the same information and ask the same questions. FTB's are quite jittery at the best of times the last thing you want to do to them is chuck in something like 'contaminated land'.

Alex13

Hi thanks for the reply. This is the thing it does not specify what it could be. It says
"These are records of former areas of landfill. The seas may have been redeveloped for other uses since it closed. Depending on the nature of what was accepted it may still pose a risk of contamination"
I looked on the local government site and found the site and that says the type of fill was foundry sand, slag,refractory brick, demolition waste and paper.
It goes on to say in the additional notes. That the environment agency reports identify the presence of sulphide and chloride ion compounds.

That file was done in 2008. Which I am guessing is why his passed in 07 and ours has failed.

spadoosh

Foundry sand, slag, refractory brick, and demo waste are going to include some particularly toxic compounds. Is/was there steel works/clay works nearby?

Either way this kind of industrial scale dumping is going to contaminate the ground.

For me, id have walked away as soon as i was aware it was a landfill site, never mind an industrial land fill site. Im guessing the house was a stand out for you hence trying to buy it, its no uncommon for those types of houses that stand out among your search criteria to have issues that need uncovering.

Alex13

I am not sure what was around, It is a house we really like but as I said it's 24meters away over the road. I was trying to find out if there was any ground checks done for the building of three or four bungalows that lie on the site it self but I'm coming up short on that front.

babyblade41

I would run away and by a country mile too.. you may love the house for your specific reasons, but if you decide to sell that info won't disappear .

lincroft1710

24 metres is very close, what is on the site now?

davidmcn

Alex13 wrote: »

The current house owner bought the property in 2007 and his searches all passed so I am guessing the tests got more stringent.

He didn't necessarily even get the same types of searches as you - unless you've checked that.

OldMusicGuy

We are buying a new build and found that it is within 250 metres of an old landfill, but nowhere near as close as yours. I spoke with a friend who is a surveyor for a council and he said generally it wasn't a problem unless you build right on top of, or right next to, an old landfill site. It sounds like yours is quite close, so it may be a concern.

First thing to do is to find out more about the landfill site. Go to this link: https://data.gov.uk/dataset/aa35a23f-f837-4d94-a91d-35b7cc14de38/historic-landfill-sites-quarterly-summary , download the spreadsheet and find your site. You can then email the environment agency (enquiries at environment-agency.gov.uk) to get more information about the site.

The developer of our site has to get independent expert advice on the potential for landfill gas migration and then put together a plan for mitigating any potential impact. If you can't find anything in the planning applications for the bungalows about any environmental analysis and mitigation work, then it is a potential issue.

You are right to say that this kind of thing wasn't so important in the past but, like radon gas risk and flooding risk, it now comes up in searches. So regardless of what you think, any future potential buyer could be put off by this.

mjm3346

For that type of thing the site is very nearby and with the growth of environmental concerns and tightening of regulations it is possibly going to be a bigger issue in the future when you try to sell.

Alex13

Lincroft1710. There is nothing on the site as such. On the edge there has been three or four bungalows built.

Davidmcn. I have obtained the searches that he had completed when he bought from my solicitor after she raised the findings with sellers solicitors.

Oldmusicguy. Thanks for that site, I have looked on there and got the same information as I got from my local council site but the one you said doesn't say anything about what was tipped there it just says inert and industrial.

Mjm3346. That is what we are thinking. Me and the wife have one child but are undecided on another child so we are not convinced it would be our forever home so to speak.