Contaminated land - seeking further info

Jander00

So quite late into the house buying process, the environmental report has come back and flagged up "Contaminated Land Liability" due the presence of a garage on the site essentially 50 years ago now (ie before the current property was built). Local search show there's no known contamination. We're FTBs, so it's quite hard to get our heads around what to do next .

The lawyer is more focussed on liability whereas we are more interested in impact on health and ultimately ability to on-sell. Of course it could also scupper the mortgage, which would make it academic (though we saved a substantial deposit and hence have a good LTV which might mean they care less).

The key question for me is how best do I gather more information to resolve one way or the other? I am assuming I basically need to contact the council (an Environmental Query costs £95 per hour with no clear indication of how many hours a query takes ...) to get any additional information. Is there any other actions that are worthwhile taking?

user1977

"Garage" as in a petrol station?

Was the current property built about 50 years ago? Modern planning applications would come with checks for contamination, but if that sort of information isn't readily available then the only way you can really be sure is by instructing your own intrusive surveys i.e. drilling out soil samples and having them tested.

Or you can just get insurance against the possibility of something nasty happening, and forget about it.

Diver2

user1977 said:

"Garage" as in a petrol station?

Was the current property built about 50 years ago? Modern planning applications would come with checks for contamination, but if that sort of information isn't readily available then the only way you can really be sure is by instructing your own intrusive surveys i.e. drilling out soil samples and having them tested.

Or you can just get insurance against the possibility of something nasty happening, and forget about it.

The age of the current property is key. If within the last 15 years or so, there should have been a plannng condition that required that any contamination present be cleaned (if there was any - just because a petrol station was there doesn't necessary mean there was, just that there was the potential for some). 

either way, has it caused any problems for anyone in the last 50 years? Probably not and unless you plan to knock down and redevelop...

Diver2

if you want to try and see what was there, the respective county council should have historical ordnance survey mapping you can look at (you want 1:1,250 if possible but 1:2,500 is OK). 

bouicca21

A petrol station or some sort of workshop?  Your local archives/local history library should be able to direct you to available sources to work out just what was there 50 years ago.  Old directories, maps, photos, planning documents etc.  Whether you actually want to put in that kind of work is really for you to decide - it could take a day or weeks of research depending on what actually is available and how well it is catalogued.

Jander00

Thanks for all the responses! Unfortunately "garage" is as much info as they provide. The location did not appear to be road accessible at the time, so I'm wondering if it was some sort of depot/workshop with access to the area through other buildings. The note simply says there is a risk of contamination through "fuel, oil or solvents" being spilled. I've looking at online resources and although I can see the different roading layouts, it is not clear what building was what. It appears the garage was basically knocked down at the time housing was built (it is an ex-council house).

It sounds like a combination of asking the council for information and spending time myself are the best options (apart from walk away of course ...).