New house value £0

[Bananacloud]

Aibu to think HOW ON EARTH THIS HAPPENED!!!
So it turns out the developers of the new build I’m currently living in, totally disregarded council opposing them to build on the land they actually built on.
So now, it turns out our houses (13 in total) have £0 value due to being on a former dumping ground (I think) also there’s been some mention of gases (really don’t know what that’s about)! Whatever it is, it’s bad!!
So now I’m wondering, where we stand with

1. The mortgage lenders
2. The original conveyancer (who ticked the building off as acceptable)
3. The developers and our lawyers who dealt with the house purchase?

Any idea what will happen???

A house without planning permission could potentially 'slip through the bet' if solicitor didn't check.

But 13 solicitors forgot to check??

If this really is what's happened your lender will want to take legal action against the solicitor.

If it is actually a contaminated land issue this would be building control nhbc or similar.

Not enough info here really

I would say the solicitors you used to buy the house in the first place would claim in their insurance.

I thought if the gases didn’t have an outlet then potentially the whole thing could explode.
Sure I saw something like this years ago when building on rubbish tips was seen as a safe option.

Not connected but I watched developers bulldoze a huge open landfill site near me and build a new housing estate on it. I couldn't believe my eyes. The mess just got compacted & new soil laid over the top. I could never understand how the foundations were held? Perhaps each house floated on a concrete slab? I studied environmental science & never forgot about those houses & I know about methane being released over time. Also worrying is the long-term settlement of the properties as the ground beneath them shifts. You are right to be worried on so many levels op.

Also my cousin bought an impressive brand new Wimpy home built on a flood plane. They had to have very expensive drainage fitted with pumps. The garden was unusable.

So sorry for you op. This sounds like it won't be fixed fast.

Is it too simplistic to think that, if the house is worth nothing, your mortgage should be cancelled (and what you've paid so far be repaid to you by the building company)? You surely can't be expected to pay towards something with a value of £0. Then, as it's a worthless house, you should still own it so should be able to live in it until the situation resolves and start again from scratch looking for somewhere else.

Wow! I can't believe 13 solicitors missed this. You must have a serious case. Or it's a case of serious fraud by the builders.

I think your first port of call would be the NHBC (if they are the ones who back your new home 10 year warranty) as the warranty protects you against structural defects. They will work with your builder to ensure that your house is sorted, up to and including buying the property

@naiceshoes We complain that solicitors are shit and slow and they come on here bleating about how important their jobs are and that if they get things wrong we'd be sueing them. Strange then that people are advocating going to independent solicitors now and forking out even more money.

Why is it strange that if someone provides you with a poor service you can sue them for damages? Your first sentence explains why the second sentence isn’t strange, or were you being sarcastic and I missed that?

Are you sure there is no planning permission or just now that there is a contamination issue?

If the house was signed off by NHBC or similar then they usually cover land contamination.

The fact you remortgaged might be a red herring as the big firm who do remortgages don't really do any checks they just get Indemnity insurance against everything.

You need to see an independent solicitor who can review your purchase file and then see where to go.

Wow, what a nightmare.

Did the solicitor who did the conveyancing for you also act for the mortgage lenders? It seems a bit unlikely that 2 solicitors should overlook the lack of planning permission and (potentially) building on contaminated land.

Even more unlikely that 13 lots of solicitors made the same errors.

I'd check with the council before you start to panic. Get them to confirm the planning question and ask if the build was signed off by the building inspector for compliance with building regs.

It's not unheard of for homes to be built on old rubbish tips etc and there are usually conditions attached to planning consent specifying what needs to be done to clean up the site and prevent any future problems.

Presumably, the buyers of the other 12 houses will be in the same boat, so I'd check with your neighbours and see if they know any more about it.

How did you find out about this? Was it from a reputable source? If it's just local chit-chat, it may be that the council turned down the planning application but the developers won it on appeal to the planning inspectorate. I'd have thought that if someone's built 13 houses without consent, the council might have noticed and might have started enforcement proceedings against the developers by now.

Also, it's not unusual for buildings to get consent retrospectively, which would at least regularise the planning issue.

I don't understand how this could have got past two sets of conveyancing solicitors and two mortgage lenders. I just don't.

I find it incredible that not just one but two solicitors have signed off on exchange/remortgage without reviewing the land searches and ensuring the building regs and certificate of completion were in place. To do so would open them up to a massive negligence claim - not just from you but also from the lender.

Something does not add up here

Check what you can first, in case there's just a big misunderstanding. There may have be remediation work that's been filed in the wrong place or something.

Check your house insurance and even any professional memberships and unions you're in, as they sometimes include legal advice. Get a different legal firm, as they may need to sue your conveyancing solicitor, surveyed etc. You can often get introductory free sessions with solicitors, go to a couple and see what they think and what they're like.

I used to work in remediation and trained in geology. I've seen houses built on known flood plains, which then flood, unsurprisingly (especially as more concrete makes the flooding worse). I've seen estates built on unstable cliffs, and I've seen a primary school built on top of a nuclear waste site.

Always get the full survey, it's worth it, and if after a full survey they miss something like this, you can claim against the surveyor. You also probably have a claim against the conveyancing solicitor as their checks should have found anything like this.

As for adding up, if these were the purchase of a small number of new builds it isn't beyond the realms of possibility that all purchasers used the same solicitor so that is worth checking. You will definitely get more traction if all 13 of you can put on pressure together.

Your mortgage lender will also be interested. The basic valuation is for the benefit of the lender to ensure that the property provides adequate security in the event that the borrower defaults on the loan and therefore it will be interested if it looks as if the valuer and the solicitors acting on its behalf have been negligent.

Take your complaint about your solicitor to the Legal Ombudsman.
First though you need to try to resolve it directly with your solicitor.

We found the financial Ombudsman excellent when we complained about a mortgage lender who offered us a mortgage on a flat we were buying then retracted the offer. The Ombudsman made them pay all our legal fees. It is a very simple and user friendly process.

Jamie they may well have all used the same firm for the initial purchase, but for this to sail through a second firm and mortgage lender for a remortgage? It sounds incredible that the land searches didn't bring up the lack of planning permission, the contaminated land issue and the lack of entry on the building regs register for the completion cert. I have never come across a mortgage lender that didn't want searches done!

NHBC is the first place to go: www.nhbc.co.uk/

Find some older OS maps of the area and see what the land was used for in the past.

Go to the Land Registry and ask them for historic plans.

Who insured the build? Go to them, they would have had to approve the area it was built on before building commenced.
There should be a paper trail of what was done to overcome the issues of the land. Our home is on contaminated land, which was approved to be built on as long as the gardens had I think it was 6 inches of not contaminated soil on top.

You should be able to find out who insured the build, and you should be able to find out what the regs they work to are, without them having ensured it was safe and fit to live in, they wouldn't have issued a CML, without a CML you wouldn't have had a mortgage applied to the house. Any issues you'll usually find that the developer wrongs their hands and says, not my problem. Go straight to the insurance provider, in our area it's usually the NHBC, they can and will help you. These sort of things are what they are there for.

Why are you deleting?

You will get some brilliant advice on here.

Lots of remortgages are done without searches especially is you use the mortgagee's conveyancer which is usually included.

The surveyor will have valued the house and made certain presumptions eg that planning permission building regs and new home wareanty were all signed off and it is the solicitors job to check this.

The solicitor may have coxked up the planning permission aspect by seeing a consent and assuming it was for the house but it wasn't but I can't believe that they would have completed without a new home warranty (eg NHBC) certificate.

I know a solicitor who did his own conveyancing on his home.

When he came to sell a few years later it took the buyers solicitor to point out to him the house was leasehold not freehold.

Having been given the details of that particular house when we were looking around to buy. (Years ago when you used to get details sent to you in the post). I had noticed it was on the details in Black and white and had dismissed it because of that.
It hadn’t been covered up or someone had tried to pass it on surreptitiously.

I had to have the last laugh as the guy was a complete twonk who used to think he was so much more intelligent than everyone else.

I think he should have put down the expensive wines he would buy to show off to people and sober up and read what is in front of him.

I think in this case the first solicitor missed the problem and the other 12 solicitors just ticked the box because they thought the question had been asked already so they charged for asking the question but didn’t actually ask anything. Just referred back to previous answers

If your home is built on land that was previously a rubbish dump, there will be gases that raise from the rotting matter below you. This will most likely be Methane, but there could be others as well depending on exactly what is in there.

Usually, there is a lot of testing on land that is to be reused in the way that the land your house is built on. I know there has been instances where this has happened, one of the buildings being a school, but at the very least your home should be fitted with gas detection equipment. If you are worried, there are places you can hire equipment from to check the levels in your house. The issue with Methane is that it is explosive (sorry to worry you further!) so you would need to check the LEL in your house. If the level is high, the unit will go into alarm. Places like GAP group and Brandon Hire would be able to hire you a unit to check the levels in your house. Also, what you'll be hiring will be a personal monitor so these are only designed to keep YOU safe, not your home but it might be worth checking so you have some ammunition when you find a solicitor to help.

I'm sorry this has happened to you OP. Very best of luck with getting sorted!

Have you got the copy of the land search with you?

Why would you delete the post?

I hope you’re practicing your daily mail sad face OP

Sorry you’re in this mess. What a fucker.