Seller didn't disclose neighbour's approved planning permission - do we have any recourse?

MultiFuelBurner

Grizebeck said:

Sarahspangles said:

Grizebeck said: Even if they objected covered under gdpr so no name or address revealed 

This is another common misunderstanding about the Planning process. You can’t apply or support/object to an application anonymously. (Okay, there are ways for developers to hide behind shell companies but this is rare)

Local Planning Authorities will redact signatures and limit what is shared online but it’s all on the public record. It’s really common for people to ask to object anonymously - often when they’ve told the neighbour to their face that they will support. You see some absolute humdingers in objections, completely irrelevant of course so these never get into the report other than ‘objection made but not on material grounds’. And the neighbours get to read these!

Not a misconception on my part no
Names and addresses are supplied yes but they are redacted by our local council and others ive lived in so only the comment appears. 

Not true for every council ours lists addresses so definitely worth the OP checking

In this instance you are wrong for all councils but may well speak for your own local authority planning rules and regulations.

ProDave

Find the planning permission on your councils website, all the documents should be there. Then go through all the objections and see if the vendor of your house had made an objection.  If he had then you have proof he knew about the planning application.

Sarahspangles

Grizebeck said:

Sarahspangles said:

Grizebeck said: Even if they objected covered under gdpr so no name or address revealed 

This is another common misunderstanding about the Planning process. You can’t apply or support/object to an application anonymously. (Okay, there are ways for developers to hide behind shell companies but this is rare)

Local Planning Authorities will redact signatures and limit what is shared online but it’s all on the public record. It’s really common for people to ask to object anonymously - often when they’ve told the neighbour to their face that they will support. You see some absolute humdingers in objections, completely irrelevant of course so these never get into the report other than ‘objection made but not on material grounds’. And the neighbours get to read these!

Not a misconception on my part no
Names and addresses are supplied yes but they are redacted by our local council and others ive lived in so only the comment appears. 

The OP needs to look at the planning file at the Council offices.

(Although I don’t think they have any comeback on the seller to start with as they ought to have made their own enquiries - caveat emptor)

sheramber

How would the conveyancer know that the house hadn't been built? They don't visit the site.

TBagpuss

TheJP said:

jonnydeppiwish! said:

TheJP said:

blackbaccararose said:

custardly said:

Caveat emptor. 

You would have to prove that the buyer knew about it and deliberately misled. Unless they have admitted this to you in writing you don't have a chance.

Thank you, I did wonder about this - just wasn't sure how much weight ticking "no" on the T6 (and the council telling me that he would have received a notice) would hold. Definitely a caveat emptor lesson for us in future!

You would need to prove that the council have receipt of the previous seller receiving notice. Usually the council gives notice to neighbouring properties by sticking the notice on a lamppost which they deem adequate notice. 

They also tend to send letters to the neighbours and then the neighbours comment on the application. Isn’t the question about proposals rather than approved planning permission?

Again you need to provide evidence the seller received the letter, just because the council may have sent the letter to the address doesn't mean it got there, my local Facebook community page has daily posts about mail delivered to the wrong house. Unless the council sent this as signed delivery then its a no. Unless the council has records of the seller objecting to the plans. 

Yes - OP , you could look up the original planning details, obviously if your sellers responded or made objections then that would show they were aware an therefore were not truthful on the forms, otherwise, they can say (and may be telling the truth) that they were not aware. 

Divorcing_Dad

We had a similar issue on our last house, only it wasn't directly next door.

Turned out, some land next to our neighbours had planning permission for 12 houses and we would lose all of our parking.

We still bought the house as we had our own drive (but would have made it tight).

Wasn't mentioned on the form - it had expired twice and the planning had been put in again.

As it turned out, it was nonsense. The Parish council owned the land for the houses, but the land in front that they would have had to rip out entirely to create the access road was owned by the church diocese. The diocese had absolutely no wish to sell or develop the land, so whilst they didn't object to the planning permission, it could never go ahead.

It just shows.... you can put in planning permission for anything, even if you don't own the land.

Anyway, back to the point, sadly, it's up to you to check the planning. Whilst the TA6 is legally binding, if the seller said "No, not that I remember" (and considering this was over 5 years ago if the planning had expired), it probably wouldn't stand up in court. I mean politicians get away with things they forgot last week! The other thing is, they may well not realise that the planning hadn't expired - I mean, it's not really up to them to check whether the minimum works had started.

TheJP

Divorcing_Dad said:

We had a similar issue on our last house, only it wasn't directly next door.

Turned out, some land next to our neighbours had planning permission for 12 houses and we would lose all of our parking.

We still bought the house as we had our own drive (but would have made it tight).

Wasn't mentioned on the form - it had expired twice and the planning had been put in again.

As it turned out, it was nonsense. The Parish council owned the land for the houses, but the land in front that they would have had to rip out entirely to create the access road was owned by the church diocese. The diocese had absolutely no wish to sell or develop the land, so whilst they didn't object to the planning permission, it could never go ahead.

It just shows.... you can put in planning permission for anything, even if you don't own the land.

Anyway, back to the point, sadly, it's up to you to check the planning. Whilst the TA6 is legally binding, if the seller said "No, not that I remember" (and considering this was over 5 years ago if the planning had expired), it probably wouldn't stand up in court. I mean politicians get away with things they forgot last week! The other thing is, they may well not realise that the planning hadn't expired - I mean, it's not really up to them to check whether the minimum works had started.

Where you parking on someone else's land or selling your parking?

Divorcing_Dad

TheJP said:

Divorcing_Dad said:

We had a similar issue on our last house, only it wasn't directly next door.

Turned out, some land next to our neighbours had planning permission for 12 houses and we would lose all of our parking.

We still bought the house as we had our own drive (but would have made it tight).

Wasn't mentioned on the form - it had expired twice and the planning had been put in again.

As it turned out, it was nonsense. The Parish council owned the land for the houses, but the land in front that they would have had to rip out entirely to create the access road was owned by the church diocese. The diocese had absolutely no wish to sell or develop the land, so whilst they didn't object to the planning permission, it could never go ahead.

It just shows.... you can put in planning permission for anything, even if you don't own the land.

Anyway, back to the point, sadly, it's up to you to check the planning. Whilst the TA6 is legally binding, if the seller said "No, not that I remember" (and considering this was over 5 years ago if the planning had expired), it probably wouldn't stand up in court. I mean politicians get away with things they forgot last week! The other thing is, they may well not realise that the planning hadn't expired - I mean, it's not really up to them to check whether the minimum works had started.

Where you parking on someone else's land or selling your parking?

It was the end of a cul-de-sac. It was parking, but not marked...

The piece of church land is the bit the trees are on.

silvercar

We have planning permission, obtained by the previous owners 18 years ago. The extension that was actually built was done 16 years ago. The council were notified that the actual build was smaller than what was approved and gave consent. On querying something else with the council they confirmed in writing that the original PP gives us the right to extend to the original PP with no time constraint. I doubt any neighbours are aware of this.

Sometimes these things aren't at all obvious. In OPs case the solicitor would have no way of knowing whether the build had been completed before the house was sold or not.

Sarahspangles

Divorcing_Dad said:

It was the end of a cul-de-sac. It was parking, but not marked...

The piece of church land is the bit the trees are on.

The classic ‘ransom strip’, except the church weren’t interested in claiming ransom.