Contaminated Land Liability (Action Required) - Environmental Search Results (Groundsure)

sj15

Howdy all, in the latest twist in the house buying saga for my mum, the environmental report came back with the following:

• Contaminated Land Liability (Action Required), REASON:  Chemical works adjacent to the site circa 1947. (this is land behind the garden/small service road)
• Ground Stability (Non-Natural Ground Stability) due to suspected Infilled Land (same location as above)
• Flood Risk - High (for ground and surface - not river flooding)
• Telephone mast within 250m

Here is a pic of the industrial estate behind the house: https://imgur.com/a/qhhZPGW

So, I'm a bit stuck as to what I should do. I haven't run a mile yet as I want to understand what the issue is. The pic above shows the house/garden and the industrial land behind it. From researching it has a lot of factories but the closest ones do plastic injection moulding and um, sort bananas..

I believe the house, the garden and the small gap between the garden and the concrete fence that separates the residential area and industrial area should be free of contamination. My reasoning for this is the house was built in 1930s (rough guess), and the chemical works were around in circa 1947. So I'd imagine the residential area and industrial area always had a separation.

I am not certain and due to the close proximity, what are the chances of any contamination leaking in to the houses and it's soil? Just to be clear I don't know if the Chemical factory mentioned above was directly behind the house or further away in the park. Even if it was next door, the land affected would be different right?

The flood risk and telephone mast I am not bothered about but contaminated and infilled land is a worry. I have contacted the council and they'll call me back but I can't get anything out of the Vendors. Either it didn't show up on their searches or they didn't have them. Who knows.

Please help. What would you do?

davidmcn

Desktop environmental reports tend to give you more to worry about than is worthwhile. Yes, in theory things can migrate underground, but I'd be more concerned about previous uses actually under the house. It's probably fine. I wouldn't expect the council to be able to tell you more than it isn't on their register of contaminated land (which almost nothing is anyway, even if it's clearly contaminated!), and the vendors aren't going to know any more than you.

If you want to know for certain whether the ground is contaminated, then you get somebody out to drill samples and get them tested in a lab. Complete overkill for buying a house though.

sj15

davidmcn said:

Desktop environmental reports tend to give you more to worry about than is worthwhile. Yes, in theory things can migrate underground, but I'd be more concerned about previous uses actually under the house. It's probably fine. I wouldn't expect the council to be able to tell you more than it isn't on their register of contaminated land (which almost nothing is anyway, even if it's clearly contaminated!), and the vendors aren't going to know any more than you.

If you want to know for certain whether the ground is contaminated, then you get somebody out to drill samples and get them tested in a lab. Complete overkill for buying a house though.

This was my thoughts too. They certainly do give plenty to worry about. 
I know there are factories behind it when putting the offer in, but theres no smoke coming out of them or anything chemical related there anymore. They even have offices that were converted in to flats last year around 200 meters from behind the house. I can't imagine that would be done if there were risks.
I also checked the council registers, there's literally one road listed as contaminated on it in my whole town of 100k people. So yeah it's not maintained. 
Any ideal how much drilling samples and getting them analysed costs? I know you say it's overkill but a few hundred quid for peace of mind...