Seeking Advice on wasteland sold as a "development plot" in property Auction.

user1977

Or to put it another way, if it was easy to develop it just now, it wouldn't have been selling cheap in an auction. 

born_again

Potential Development opportunity
Just what does that mean?

To many that you can build & make money from it. But to others it may mean you could clear the land & grow food on it.

As someone else said due diligence before purchase was the key here. To find out exactly what could & could not be done with the land.

UltraBuilder

ProDave said:

Isn't there a process (there certainly used to be) that if planning permission is refused you can ask the council to buy the land from you.  Your grounds would be it was sold as having development potential but it now appears it has not.  Tell them you want back what you paid plus all costs.

Thanks ProDave. I tried going down this route but cash starved council refused buying it back and forwarded it to Secreatary of State. Which could lead to compulsory purchase buy they buy it back for peanuts. So I have withdrawn the notice. 

pinkshoes

silvercar said:

You have nothing to lose by putting in a complaint.

If the seller was the council who themselves decide that nothing can be built on it, then it is arguably deception to describe it as having potential to develop. A court may decide that it is unreasonable to expect you to ask the council if you can develop land that they have marked as having development potential.

I agree with this.

If it was sold by the council as having "potential development opportunity" then there should be some sort of potential, given they're the ones who can decide. They cannot sell something with a potential to develop which has absolutely no potential to develop.

UltraBuilder said:

I purchased a land from auction sold by a City Council. Land was marketed as "Potential Development opportunity". 
Following submission of the planning, city council informed that any development on this land will be contrary to established policies at all levels. Essentially this is a waste land with no chance of development. 
I was wondering if I had to swallow this or is there a case of misrepresentation in the sales. 

What exactly does the bit in bold mean?  And how have you established that this means no chance of development? As above, if they have sold it with potential, then it has to have some sort of potential. 

I would go back to the council and ask them what exactly will they accept as a development on the land. My FIL developed a piece of land and the council gave a NO to his first suggestion, but he was able to attend some sort of drop in clinic where they then gave him a good idea of what would be accepted and eventually (with a lot of pedantic changes from the council) something was agreed and he then sold the plot on with planning permission. 

mi-key

Potential development could mean a lot of things, not building a house or houses on it. It could be for farm use only ( we get this a lot around me, where buildings can be erected, but only for farm use, not residential, light industrial etc....

Generally if a plot has actual development potential it is sold with planning permission in place already, and while they do get sold at auction, they are never cheap !  I don't think the plots where people can make real development money ever end up at auction...

user1977

What is its current permitted use, and have the planners really said they will not agree to any change of use or development of any sort? Or do you just mean, not what you want to do with it? 

Norman_Castle

born_again said:

Potential Development opportunity
Just what does that mean?

It means the seller, a councils asset disposal team?, hasn't checked if there is a development opportunity but thinks there might be. As a buyer you should have checked what you were buying but I would hope a council would check lands potential before selling as it could make a large difference to the asking price.

ProDave

Remember "the council" is made of many parts.

I previously bought an ex council house, it had a "no building without permission of the council" covenant.  I got planning permission for an extension and built it, believing I had permission from "the council"  It was not until i sold the house that planning permission from "the council" did not satisfy the covenant as that was permission from a separate department in "the council".  Solved with an indemnity policy.

Section62

UltraBuilder said:

ProDave said:

Isn't there a process (there certainly used to be) that if planning permission is refused you can ask the council to buy the land from you.  Your grounds would be it was sold as having development potential but it now appears it has not.  Tell them you want back what you paid plus all costs.

Thanks ProDave. I tried going down this route but cash starved council refused buying it back and forwarded it to Secreatary of State. Which could lead to compulsory purchase buy they buy it back for peanuts. So I have withdrawn the notice. 

Which specific legislation was this "notice" issued under, and what specific legislation would allow a CPO in these circumstances?

Council budgets are under pressure, but the value of a piece of "wasteland" with potential for development is a trivial sum in terms of most upper and lower tier council budgets, and further more would be a capital rather than revenue transaction so the money needed to repay you (if this was a legal requirement) could be found either by capital borrowing, or against a capital receipt.

There's something not right about the story.

CPO powers cannot be used unless there is a clearly defined need - and if the land can't be developed and was disposed of as surplus, then the SoS or the local authority having the power to CPO the land back would be an exceptionally unusual case.