Infilled land identified

jascyl

Hi, I’m am buying a new build which is about to exchange contract.  However, search report identified infilled land at about 4m from the property and recommended to conduct structural survey.

My question is would infilled land near the property make it difficult to get mortgage or sell in future if the property has no structure problem.

Hope someone could give a advice asap.  Many thanks.

Postik

I'm assuming that getting a mortgage on the property currently isn't an issue, unless you're a cash buyer?

I'm also thinking that this infilled land was known about, and that it was accounted for as part of the planning consent?  It might well be worth talking to the local authority to find out more about what the land was, how it was remediated and what special measures the developer had to take.

When I sold recently I found out at the last moment that my house was built on an old railway cutting which had been infilled with demolition material some 50 years ago.  There is a concern with this type of land that methane gas can escape and cause an explosion, which happened in Derbyshire in the 80's.

I had a month of thinking my house was unsellable, but my buyer was as cool as a cucumber and got a contaminated land report from the council.  I've no idea what the report said, but the sale went ahead.

jascyl

Postik said:

I'm assuming that getting a mortgage on the property currently isn't an issue, unless you're a cash buyer?

I'm also thinking that this infilled land was known about, and that it was accounted for as part of the planning consent?  It might well be worth talking to the local authority to find out more about what the land was, how it was remediated and what special measures the developer had to take.

When I sold recently I found out at the last moment that my house was built on an old railway cutting which had been infilled with demolition material some 50 years ago.  There is a concern with this type of land that methane gas can escape and cause an explosion, which happened in Derbyshire in the 80's.

I had a month of thinking my house was unsellable, but my buyer was as cool as a cucumber and got a contaminated land report from the council.  I've no idea what the report said, but the sale went ahead.

I’m a cash buyer so don’t know how mortgage lender would think about it and worry about it would be a concern of future buyer or mortgage lender so make it difficult to be sold.

user1977

I'm not sure why we keep on seeing buyers of newbuild properties here who have obtained desktop search reports, and then aren't getting sensible advice about how to interpret them.

The developer will have obtained their own, much more detailed reports about ground stability, contamination, flooding etc, and will have taken all of that into account in their development. Their reports are almost certainly available online if you look for their planning application. And will have been based on actual boreholes etc, not just looking at old maps and making an educated guess about what might be there. So if this was actually infilled land and the ground was unstable, they'll have designed the foundations etc accordingly. I don't see a need for you to make further enquiries.

jascyl

user1977 said:

I'm not sure why we keep on seeing buyers of newbuild properties here who have obtained desktop search reports, and then aren't getting sensible advice about how to interpret them.

The developer will have obtained their own, much more detailed reports about ground stability, contamination, flooding etc, and will have taken all of that into account in their development. Their reports are almost certainly available online if you look for their planning application. And will have been based on actual boreholes etc, not just looking at old maps and making an educated guess about what might be there. So if this was actually infilled land and the ground was unstable, they'll have designed the foundations etc accordingly. I don't see a need for you to make further enquiries.

I hope you are correct.  My solicitor, who is on listed solicitor of the developer, advised us to do the searches otherwise we need to sign a waiver of not doing so.  However, they didn’t give any advice about how to interpret them even I repeat my question many time.  That’s why I need to search the answer by myself and seek advice online.  

babyblade41

During the planning application a contamination report would have been requested as part of the planning conditions.  Usually it is within 250 m of a landfill site .
A phase 1, Phase 2 and remediation report (phase 3) should have been conducted .  Look on the planning application and it should tell you 

If the builder hasn't complied then the building wouldn't have got signed off 

However , some councils aren't consistent in their regs as we have had to do a phase 1,2 & 3 and we are 272 metres from a railway cutting and yet 2 neighbours who have new builds a lot closer than us and have had no contamination reports needed. 

We aren't in a radon area and the landfill site was closed in 1972 and now a bat sanctuary 

MultiFuelBurner

jascyl said:

Postik said:

I'm assuming that getting a mortgage on the property currently isn't an issue, unless you're a cash buyer?

I'm also thinking that this infilled land was known about, and that it was accounted for as part of the planning consent?  It might well be worth talking to the local authority to find out more about what the land was, how it was remediated and what special measures the developer had to take.

When I sold recently I found out at the last moment that my house was built on an old railway cutting which had been infilled with demolition material some 50 years ago.  There is a concern with this type of land that methane gas can escape and cause an explosion, which happened in Derbyshire in the 80's.

I had a month of thinking my house was unsellable, but my buyer was as cool as a cucumber and got a contaminated land report from the council.  I've no idea what the report said, but the sale went ahead.

I’m a cash buyer so don’t know how mortgage lender would think about it and worry about it would be a concern of future buyer or mortgage lender so make it difficult to be sold.

Sounds like you are the perfect buyer for them. No mortgage company to put red flags up about the landfill.

Yes this could cause you issues in the future especially as your solicitors interests are aligned with the developers and not yours.

Postik

user1977 said:

The developer will have obtained their own, much more detailed reports about ground stability, contamination, flooding etc, and will have taken all of that into account in their development. Their reports are almost certainly available online if you look for their planning application.

This is what I would be looking at.  If for some reason I couldn't find them or was still unsure I'd perhaps take a trip to the local planning office and try to speak to someone there.