sold house in sept07, oct07 pllaning permission is given and my buyers arent happy

stolt

Trying to make this as short as possible, I posted about this some time ago and I thought it had all been sorted.
We had viewers round our house in june and they decided they liked the house put a offer in and everything completed on 19th september 07.
A week after moving the buyers raised concerns via the solicitor that they had found out about a planning application to a nearby house (hard to describe but the cul de sac sort of fan tailed around the back garden of the said developments back garden, the actual house had access both in the cul de sac and mainly on the main road that our cul de sac came off).

I had signed the sellers form as no to nearby planning applications that i knew of.. know heres my problem there was application in feb/march of 07 but it was rejected and as far as i knew that was the end of it i had no more letters from the council etc, the rest of residents set up a committee type thing (that employed there own solicitor) but as we were thinking of moving we didnt contribute to the costs of the solicitor or go the meetings.

Its been about a month and my solicitors secretary phoned to say that there are a couple of letters that they need to send me, i couldn't get to my solicitor because he was in court and i'm worried sick now.

I know from last time that people will say you tried to pull the wool over the buyers eyes but we didn't, the application was refused and therefore i thought the matter was settled, surely the land searches would have pulled up that the application had been made in the same year and rather than trying to take me to court they should be looking at the people that did the searches, isn't that what they are for, and what you pay your money for.

I suppose the worst case scenario is that they take me to court and ask for money back!! how are things like this calculated.

i've since been online and seen that the appeal was processed and approved on the 12th October,
I've copied the url of the application below (hopefully its ok to do this), maybe someone can look over and let me know if i've missed anything.

http://www.rochford.gov.uk/PublicAccess/tdc/DcApplication/application_detailview.aspx?keyval=JDEPADNCT3000&searchtype=PROPERTY&module=

silvercar

the application was refused and therefore i thought the matter was settled,

You just state this and the info will get passed back through the solicitors. The onus is on the buyers to make investigations and look at the search results etc.

The most likely result is that the buyers persuaded their solicitor to write to yours, to gauge a reaction. Once they get the reply their solicitor will tell them there is little they can do and they will disappear.

Dozey_Mare_2

I think it would be helpful to see exactly what question you were asked - surely, you weren't asked if there had ever been any planning applications ever .... granted, refused, appealed or whatever? I'm pretty sure the question is about "current" applications i.e. those that are in with the Council but not yet decided.

Anyway .... I don't see that there is a need to disclose past applications that were refused.

The general public doesn't get to know about appeals. The only people who know about appeals are the Council, the applicant and ..... possibly, those who objected or commented on the original application. I say possibly, as the Council are supposed to inform those who commented, but the system is somewhat hit & miss. So .. you can't disclose something you didn't know and therefore could not have mentioned the appeal. It will be for them to prove that you did know about the appeal.

In any event ... if it were that important that they know of nearby developments, they should have got their solicitor on to the case, pre-exchange.

It sounds to me like they've since found out about the development and approached their solicitor, who has told them that they didn't ask him/her to check this out. As a last ditch attempt "to blame someone", they've turned to you.

Just restate what you did at the time ... but it would be helpful if you saw the original question so you can be sure that you answer that question (again) and that question only. Don't muddy the waters by answering a different question or by giving away new information that you've gleaned since you answered it the first time.

takoo

Hi Stolt
re "the worst case scenario"
In reading this post please do not think that I believe that they have a case - I am merely addressing your question on the "worst case scenario".

This - a private estate development - is not in my experience, but if they have suffered any loss it is possibly the diminution in the value of their house and garden caused by such things as:
1 noise from traffic
2 artificial lighting
3 loss of view etc, etc.

Cases of compensation under the Land Compensation Act 1973 for schemes like motorways tend to be limited to compensation of upto 10 % where upto seven physical factors (but not loss of view) are considered.

You did not say what development was or is to be carried out but my guess is that it has nothing like the effect of a motorway. Have they lost a spendid view?
Best wishes

Takoo
Cases for the removal of restrictive covenants under the Law of Property Act 1925 are another area of compensation with similarities. But I have not looked at those.

stolt

thanks for the replies (made me feel a little more secure). I'll wait to see what is on the letters I left a message on my solicitors mobile but no reply as yet.

dozey mare I haven't got a copy of the original form but i will ask my solicitor tomorrow (or whenever he will contact me), but it was something like as you stated abotu current developments on nearby properties. The actual development is about 100ft from the front of the properties boundry and it wont effect the view as such but the entry to the new flats will be in the cul de sac.

stolt

takoo wrote: »

Hi Stolt
re "the worst case scenario"
In reading this post please do not think that I believe that they have a case - I am merely addressing your question on the "worst case scenario".

This - a private estate development - is not in my experience, but if they have suffered any loss it is possibly the diminution in the value of their house and garden caused by such things as:
1 noise from traffic
2 artificial lighting
3 loss of view etc, etc.

Cases of compensation under the Land Compensation Act 1973 for schemes like motorways tend to be limited to compensation of upto 10 % where upto seven physical factors (but not loss of view) are considered.

You did not say what development was or is to be carried out but my guess is that it has nothing like the effect of a motorway. Have they lost a spendid view?
Best wishes

Takoo
Cases for the removal of restrictive covenants under the Law of Property Act 1925 are another area of compensation with similarities. But I have not looked at those.

Hi there, the current situation is a house will be knocked down and a modern development of 7 flats will be built and a 4 bed detached house in the corner of the grounds, the parking for the flats will be accessed the cul de sac. the views wont be stopped and the only downside i could see would be the traffic, but even in the appeal notes on the council website suggested this would be minimal and that in his opinion they would be not detrimental effect on the houses surrounding the devlopments.

MissMoneypenny

stolt wrote: »

I had signed the sellers form as no to nearby planning applications that i knew of.. know heres my problem there was application in feb/march of 07 but it was rejected and as far as i knew that was the end of it i had no more letters from the council etc, the rest of residents set up a committee type thing (that employed there own solicitor) but as we were thinking of moving we didnt contribute to the costs of the solicitor or go the meetings.

SNIP

I've copied the url of the application below (hopefully its ok to do this), maybe someone can look over and let me know if i've missed anything.

http://www.rochford.gov.uk/PublicAccess/tdc/DcApplication/application_detailview.aspx?keyval=JDEPADNCT3000&searchtype=PROPERTY&module=

It looks like the property in question was already sold (to developers?) before you sold your property and in fact may have already been sold before your buyers viewed your property. I assume you wrote to the council to complain about the original application? Also, you knew that the residents had then set up a committee and employed a solicitor. I'm not really sure where you stand on this one.

MissMoneypenny

stolt wrote: »

Hi there, the current situation is a house will be knocked down and a modern development of 7 flats will be built and a 4 bed detached house in the corner of the grounds, the parking for the flats will be accessed the cul de sac. the views wont be stopped and the only downside i could see would be the traffic, but even in the appeal notes on the council website suggested this would be minimal and that in his opinion they would be not detrimental effect on the houses surrounding the devlopments.

The planning application showed that the house will also have access through the cul de sac and that the flats will have a car park of 10 spaces.

stolt

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

The planning application showed that the house will also have access through the cul de sac and that the flats will have a car park of 10 spaces.

yes thats true but the house will be at the front (entrance to the cul e sac) but the flats entrance will at the turning circle of the road which is about 50ft from the boundry of the house.

stolt

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

It looks like the property in question was already sold (to developers?) before you sold your property and in fact may have already been sold before your buyers viewed your property. I assume you wrote to the council to complain about the original application? Also, you knew that the residents had then set up a committee and employed a solicitor. I'm not really sure where you stand on this one.

When we moved it was being rented out with tenants in there, I drove past the other day and the tenants were still living there aswell. The committe was set up to fight any further plans or appeals if that happened, they all thought that the original applicant would get tired of the objections (it was a small husband and wife team) but that it could possibly open the gates to bigger developments, and because there was a large pond on the grounds they thought they would do some environmental/nature searches to see if newts or other protected species live on or new the water.

We objected back in march when the original application was issued.

stolt

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

It looks like the property in question was already sold (to developers?) before you sold your property and in fact may have already been sold before your buyers viewed your property. I assume you wrote to the council to complain about the original application? Also, you knew that the residents had then set up a committee and employed a solicitor. I'm not really sure where you stand on this one.

When we moved it was being rented out with tenants in there, I drove past the other day and the tenants were still living there aswell. The committe was set up to fight any further plans or appeals if that happened, they all thought that the original applicant would get tired of the objections (it was a small husband and wife team) but that it could possibly open the gates to bigger developments, and because there was a large pond on the grounds they thought they would do some environmental/nature searches to see if newts or other protected species live on or new the water.

We objected back in march when the original application was issued.I actually wrote to the council to be asked to kept informed of any new or appeals etc but heard nothing