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???

This was a recent case in Scotland. www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-27905611 So please make sure you have a carbon monoxide alarm in your house.

As these are quite new properties there should definitely be cover from NHBC or an equivalent insurer (usually for 10 years). Your solicitor would have looked at this and as you have a mortgage the mortgagee would definitely have required this.

I agree with PP who said get a copy of your file from your solicitor (probably electronic) and ask questions and collect answers then show it to another solicitor and ask their advice.

Do NOT start any hares running with your mortgagee until you are absolutely sure what the problem is and the extent of it and any claims for redress you have. The mortgagee owes you no duty of care and their sole contribution is likely to be to panic and demand their money back. Ask the second solicitor to advise you on your duty of disclosure under the mortgage too.

All - thanks for all the replies and useful supportive messages.

The development is only 3 years old!

We have an Architects Certicate (Professional Consultants Certifiate (PCC)).

I think the first property was sold in November 2015, the certifcate shows a last inspection date of Jan 2015.

Nowhere on this does it state anything negative. It states everything is progressed to where it should be and confirms with building regulations.

I find it odd that all 13 house purchases and mortgages went through without anyone spotting all these problems

Have you spoken to your neighbours about working together to get independent advice on the situation?

If you have an Architects certificate it is likely there is no NHBC cover.Which is not great.

I would take independent legal advice asap.

This has the potential to be very messy .Your new solicitor will advise you,but your mortgage conditions probably will oblige you to disclose this to the mortgage company

Fairly standard for solicitor to check that all conditions have been met,but perhaps they did and the Builders lied

To Oleaneas It is likely that several/all of the purchasers used the Builders recommended solicitor.Which is not always a great idea

You may have redress against the architects that issued the PCC.

From the Council of Mortgage Lenders:

www.cml.org.uk/lenders-handbook/pcc/

The purpose of the PCC is to confirm to the lender (or its conveyancer) that a professional consultant:

has visited the property to check its progress of construction, its conformity with drawings approved under building regulations and its conformity with drawings/instructions issued under the building contract;

will remain liable to the first purchasers and their lender and subsequent purchasers and lenders for the period of 6 years from the date of the certificate;

has appropriate experience in the design and/or monitoring of the construction and conversion of residential buildings; and

will keep a certain level of professional indemnity insurance in force to cover his liabilities under the certificate.

I’d suggest legal advice in view of the above?

There is a housing estate near where I grew up which is built on landfill, apparently all the homeowners have to sign they won't burn candles/have open fires or BBQs. Also there are giant bunsen burners that burn off the excess methane every so often around the area!

Hope it all works out ok for you OP, no helpful advice but a handhold.

@ladyflumpalot can you tell me where that estate is? A degree module I'm doing is about contaminated land

It's in Woodley, Berkshire by the old airfield. The burners were out near Thatchem on the A4. Please bear in mind I haven't lived in the area for 20 odd years so can't guarantee it's still as it was!

The PCC is largely worthless to you at this point as it only gives an opportunity to pursue the architect through the courts (which will be expensive and you'll only get a portion of any likely rectification cost (at most 40%))

Ask your conveyancing solicitor for the building control final certificate and copies of any warranty policy (NHBC or the like)

If there is a warranty policy, then get a claim registered as soon as possible.

If building control was done by an independent inspector, then you will have the right to pursue them for wrongly signing off the build. If it's local authority BC, then you've got no rights to sue them

If there's no warranty policy, you need to go and find yourself a very good solicitor firm who has a strong property /professional negligence departments- probably work with your neighbors as a group action as the more of you there are, the more costs of taking action will be split - you'll be in for a long and difficult legal battle.

Thank you lady

First of all send a letter of complaint to your solicitors. Depending on what they say you can report them to the legal ombudsman. The solicitors have been negligent and will have insurance for exactly this situation. They are responsible for ensuring the property is suitable both for you and for your lender

donajimena You could take a look at the Royal Quays development on Tyneside as well - long history of surface industrial use plus subsurface mining, and used master planning for remediation and redevelopment for a mix of industrial, retail and residential.

I've had a similar situation before with one of my clients trying to sell his 3 year old new build.

The council did provide planning permission but the conditions of the said permission hadn't been discharged (they hadn't been provided evidence of compliance by the developer) and essentially the planning permission stated no one should move into the properties until the conditions had been discharged which left the residents years later in the same situation as you.

I spoke with the developer and it transpired that essentially they just hadn't sent off the required evidence to the council by mistake which they swiftly did, the council discharged the conditions and all was well again.

I'm not saying this is exactly the situation but sometimes these things are not as dramatic or complex as they initially look.

Speak to the developer and your original purchasing solicitor as they should have checked the conditions were satisfied when purchasing.

Thanks Buteo and apologies for the thread hijack OP. I hope you get swift resolution.

@LadyFlumpalot my friend bought a house on the airfield estate about 23 years ago - it was a former airfield NOT landfill but it backed on to a former landfill, and her aunt was a solicitor and knew of this, got the council out to test the methane levels - and they instigated a ban on BBQs etc on the whole estate, it was on TV. Her aunt was staggered that the whole side of this estate backing on to the landfill had been sold new a couple of years or so previously knowing it was landfill next door and NOBODY asked any questions at the time! There was uproar in the papers with people saying 'why didn't anybody tell us?' - when they SHOULD have taken a careful look on a map or looked around the area and SEEN the landfill signs - there was a big one pointing to the landfill from the main road you literally drove past it every day.
All change there now because the landfill has been dug out 'remediated' and a wacking great big housing estate has almost finished being built on there, about 500 houses I think. Friend has sold up and moved, as too many houses now.

Ah, thank you @Ariela - that's interesting! My doctors was on the airfield estate, Hurricane Way I think it was! In a little shopping precinct. I know that they had to close the railway line a few times because of ordinance being dug up from bombing raids on the airfield as well! I'm not sure what's worse TBH... methane or unexploded WW2 bombs in your back garden!

@donajimena you could also look at Harwell in Oxfordshire - old RAF base with unexploded bombs, nuclear waste, and chemical waste. A lovely old mess to clear up.

Seem to remember that Harwell had groundwater issues? And rumours of a radium dump (from glow in the dark aircraft dials).

I have an ex landfill site at the bottom of my garden.
It’s not a problem.
my house was built mid 40s and the landfill was used up until the 50s!

It showed up on the searches and I have lots of documentation about it.

I have no advise, no experience I just had to post my disbelief. I can't believe this has happened, I feel absolutely terrible for you. Good luck in the path to sorting this out.

Reminds me of this in the news a few days ago... I'd contact your local MP as they should help

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/homes-park-site-owned-gipsy-13723104

OP, sorry if I've missed this, but how do you know your house has no value? Who told you that?

OP I hope you can get some useful advice and find a way forward.

donajimena if it is appropriate to look at other countries too, you might want to see what you can find out about the Sydney Olympics site in Homebush Bay - that was also a very big remediation project as it was all ex-industrial.