Negotiations advice needed urgently - Price agreed but seller misled us!

EssexHebridean

If the housing being built makes you feel differently about the property, and you’d no longer want to live there, then this isn’t even a conversation. Pull out, apologise, cite that the searches have turned up something that means it’s not a goer for you, and move on. 

If you feel you over-offered and now the market has dropped you should be paying less that’s a difference question - and whether the seller will even be in a position to drop the price is a whole other question, if there is a chain involved remember also that this can disrupt things all the way up, and all the way down. 

elsien

I’d forget the suspected of being misled element concentrate on what you want to do next with regards to price.
The council swore blind they’d sent letters to residents about a plan to build a petrol station at the end of my road. I was allegedly on the list of houses that were sent one, but neither myself nor my neighbours received anything.

I do think it’s unlikely that you can live in a village and not be aware of something like that being built unless you never talk to any of your neighbours but I think that’s a side issue. 

Section62

JReacher1 said:

If you go on the local council planning portal it tells you who has been sent a letter about the development. Check if your seller received one. Based on what you have said I think it’s 50/50 whether they would have been included. 

The council's website won't tell you who has received a letter.

It will probably say which properties were to be included in the consultation, but this isn't proof the property owner/occupier was aware of the development - which is the thing the OP is asserting without proof.

The only way of proving the vendor was aware is if they have made an objection/comment about the application in their own name (and they don't subsequently dispute this).

But this whole avenue is largely moot.  The OP became aware of the development before exchange, they have the option of pulling out or renegotiating. They may have a claim for wasted costs, but the extent of that would depend on what costs were incurred as a result of relying on the information on the TA6.  If the searches etc were started prior to seeing the TA6 it would be difficult to argue that the wasted costs were incurred as a result of being misled by the TA6.

JReacher1

I don’t think that’s right. Maybe it’s council specific but my council puts online in the planning documents copies of every letter it sends and which address got it. No names obviously just addresses. 

Section62

JReacher1 said:

I don’t think that’s right. Maybe it’s council specific but my council puts online in the planning documents copies of every letter it sends and which address got it. No names obviously just addresses. 

The point is that what the council thinks it has sent isn't proof it has been received, let alone looked at.

user1977

And in case it hasn't already been mentioned, anybody who wants instant, free of charge, in depth details of every planning application can just go to the council's website - no need to wait for letters to turn up or solicitors to do searches. 

Emily_Joy

Large development to me is 800+ houses and HS2 within 1 mile radius; plus a major road and extra 1000 houses within 5 miles radius. 29 houses will hardly make any difference to daily life.

mi-key

Emily_Joy said:

Large development to me is 800+ houses and HS2 within 1 mile radius; plus a major road and extra 1000 houses within 5 miles radius. 29 houses will hardly make any difference to daily life.

Ah but they have AFFORDABLE HOUSING !!!    .... just think how that will lower the tone and make values drop like a stone! 

Emily_Joy

mi-key said:

Ah but they have AFFORDABLE HOUSING !!!    .... just think how that will lower the tone and make values drop like a stone! 

Well, there is a repossessed fix-it-upper for sale not far from that development I mentioned for 50K (fifty) by standard auction.

deano2099

Now you know what you know, how much less is it worth to you? Money can't fix the nearby development, nor can it fix the covenants  - so there's no value to those other than the value that you personally ascribe to it.

It sounds like you still want the house, and the question you are really asking is "how much can I reduce my offer by and still have it accepted?" and there's no easy answer to that as it depends entirely on the vendor. How desperate are they to sell, how much do they need the asking price, etc. You could ask for £500 off and they could tell you to get stuffed. You could ask for £10k off and they'd agree.

There's no mythical "right" or even "fair" answer. Have you had a survey done with your own valuation? 

The only thing you can really ascribe a figure to is the solar panels - as someone mentioned, the cost of buying out the lease could be a reasonable ask. But were the panels a factor in the sale to start with? Did you offer more than you would have for the same house without panels?