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???

I don't know anything about the legal side, but I used to do air quality analysis for a variety of gaseous compounds. I'd advise you contact an environmental consultant who could arrange testing of your air as methane is not the only compound of concern here, not by a long way.

@AlbaAlba, @Buteo Yes to both...known locally as the 'bomb dump' huge housing estate built there now and they've demolished and rebuilt the primary school in the same area.

My in-laws live in nearby Chilton and they have never drunk the water direct from the tap...always boiled it first. My late FIL worked on the nuclear reactors at Harwell and some of the things he mentioned would make your hair stand on end.

Sorry to derail the thread OP. I hope you get some resolution - if it's anything like round here houses will be built no matter what. Here they are very keen to build on known flood plains with the obvious results.

I'm a conveyancer and I just don't understand how this can happen. You need your planning permission, building regs and any guarantee under the warranty scheme. Then an approach to your old solicitor. Surely there is something they can give you to show this was investigated at the time.

If the developer has gone into administration then I guess the solicitor would be the next port of call. I am not sure how the NHBC guarantee would help as this covers the building itself and it is the planning/searches which have let you down.

I was told by a Lawyer friend I went to Uni with that you had to pay good money for a solicitor when you buy a house as for most people a house is the biggest purchase most people make . Therefore I would imagine there is some legal redress here and possibly against the solicitor you used for conveyancing or the Developer. I really feel for you but kick up a stink with everyone else who lives there and use your MP to highlight your plight if need be . Good Luck too 💐

I’m a conveyancer too and this can’t possibly be right. You must have misunderstood something. Who told you this?

This doesn't make any sense. No buildings developer in their right mind would build 13 houses on land they didn't have planning permission for. And surely at least one of the solicitors involved in the purchase of all 13 houses would have picked up the lack of planning permission? When I bought my house in April (not a new build) one of the checks was on all planning permissions relevant to the property, and local environmental searches on gases etc in the area, which is, as I understand it, all standard when buying a property.

Have you tried contacting the council planning department for clarification?

This is such a weird situation!

I agree with PPs that it is seriously unlikely to be the solicitors fault if 8ish separate solicitors were involved in the conveyance on 13 houses and none of them picked up on it. The chance of that many solicitors acting negligently is incredibly slim. I assume the checks came back saying permissions were in place.

If they weren’t, the builder would have either knowingly built an entire estate unlawfully, risking losing millions of pounds (unlikely) or simply didn’t file the relevant paperwork (more likely and the easiest one to resolve as they should just be able to file the papers, surely?).

I would have thought the sensible first step would be to contact the builder and/or the council to make your own enquiries. If it was me, I’d also go back to the original solicitor that did the conceyancing, explain the situation and ask them to review the file and searches and advise you on next steps. They’ll probably do that very quickly as they’ll be worried someone may have made a mistake! If they were negligent, and they’re a big firm, they should automatically refer it to their insurer and possibly also the SRA as it could be misconduct - solicitors don’t try and cover their arses, at least in bigger firms. It’s only the small dodgy firms that will try and cover wrongdoing - the bigger ones will always refer misconduct on to the appropriate body. And if there isn’t any misconduct, they will advise you what to do next.

Of course, it could be that one solicitor/lender has behaved badly - maybe the one that said your neighbours house was worthless and couldn’t be sold, when that wasn’t true. One person being negligent seems more likely than 8!

It’s seems so unlikely that the situation is as bad as you fear.

In any event, your lender and solicitor will both have extensive indemnity insurance to cover this situation if proved that they have been negligent. It’s resolvable.

Get a solicitor now for all the residents.Builder/developer could go bust immediately. Contaminated land may cost millions to fix. Houses will have to be removed to sort out soils and gases-(several years work).
Mortgage lenders could demand full repayment of loans immediately due to fraud. Have to find other accommodation at your cost whilst it gets sorted by the powers to be. Possessions in storage and houses worth £0.00 for many years until the stain and reputation goes, if ever.

Forgive my ignorance but if the town council said no, who are the developers appealing to that grants permission, the courts? And why aren't The permission granters held responsible?

Get onto your solicitors. I would contact the Daily Mail as well. Nothing quite like a bit of bad publicity. Where I grew up there were houses built on flood land and after a bad winter the land had to dry out which the developers had to wait months for. I feel sorry for whose living in those houses now. It was local knowledge it was bad land. I'm surprised this didn't come up on the searches. That's what they're there for.
Threaten legal action if you can. That's the only thing that's going to make developers sit up and listen.

if the town council said no, who are the developers appealing to that grants permission
If the council refuses permission the developer can appeal to the Government Planning Inspectorate, which has the power to overrule the council’s decision.

As a professional negligence solicitor I would say it sounds like you need to take some legal advice.

Did you have your own completely independent solicitor? Or did you use the developer's recommended solicitor?

The searches don't always show the important things. I bought a new-build and found plans were well in hand for the biggest incinerator in the country to be built within 50m of the house. My solicitor just nodded when I went back to him.

"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! "

That I find deeply unsettling.... isn't the advice usually given if you have an appliance gas leak in a house NOT to operate electrical switches etc in case of a spark???

caveat given being one that this is based on the developers having done
when the survey came back with this caveat did you forward this to your solicitors saying that you wanted the evidence.

We're in the process of buying and we've had to send actions for further research to our solicitors off the back of the survey. They won't do it if you don;t instruct them.
What an awful situation for you to be in now I hope you get some legal help soon.

I know someone who actually had something similar happpen to her. She shed the solicitors who missed it and the people who come check the house. Forget what they are called. Before you buy etc. She won a huge amount.

My god that's awful

Very similar situation happened to us and 5 years later we are still going through litigation.
You will need an independant solicitor.
Find out if you have legal cover with your house insurance policy.
Don't do anything until you have spoken to a solicitor.
If you are not the only one effected,you may be able to put in a joint claim.
Legal matters can take long but a good solicitor should get you through.
Things should work out eventually.

I'll buy the houses for one pound. Serious. I got my own team to sort this mess out I might stretch to one pound each house maybe pay tax on that too. But no more. You need a chartered surveyor for these things and you obviously didnt use them. I'll know some people who will sort all these out for me. If you want to sort this out yourself seek chartered suveyors then get see if you can claim on house insurance since they cover lega aid. But you might as well sell to me though.

Just to reassure you a little bit - I lived in a house that had previously been bought back under the NHBC guarantee. Everything was fixed and then I purchased it.

What are you rambling on about, acegod?

OP, reading stories like this really puts me off ever buying a new build house. I really hope you sort it all out ASAP

Write to your MP - all of you.