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 read this thread assuming troll
and then read a bit more .....

Up the road from me is a big development on what was a huge glue factory
large parts should have been designated as contaminated and not built on

but a "membrane" was signed off under building regs and the houses went up
oh, except that the foundations have gut the "membrane" in dozens of places
and the houses are one by one becoming contaminated

tame surveyors
tame solicitors
captive agents

scarily common

Padstow my local planning portal definitely has all the details of the planning permission granted so not sure why you're saying the previous poster in incorrect

Padstowonthames the Planning Portal shows when planning permission has been granted. It was still showing as 'decision awaited' 11 months after the building work had started and there was still paperwork and amendments being submitted during this time. We had 2 further letters from the LA asking if we wanted to submit additional comments after our original objection! The planning application was submitted the day after the builders started clearing the ground and ripped a long established hedgerow out. The Council said that there was nothing they could do as anyone can 'risk' building anything without permission it is just that they may have to pull it down if permission is subsequently refused!

Hi... only read first page but see you asked for it to be deleted, but in case you read - if there is a problem with the solicitors you need to report it to the SRA, that’s the regulator. Hope you get it sorted. You definitely need proper legal advice so get onto that now.

@Padstowonthames and I are familiar with the same Planning Portal website.

Here www.planningportal.co.uk/

Local authorities may call their own online planning facility a “portal” also.

What a bloody mess.
Good luck op.

Does the local council planning website contain the planning permission documents including:

The detailed investigations required before development can commence

Details of any gas protection measures required

Details of who needs to sign off that all necessary works have been completed satisfactorily

The solicitors you used to buy it should have flagged this. You’ll have to claim off their liability insurers who will then prob claim off the original conveyancers if they can.

Hope you have advised your mortgage lender (you may not be insured). Was your solicitor independent or recommended by the builder or mortgage lender. All solicitors must fulfil their legal responsibilities, they have insurance and can be sued (costs paid by them). The surveyor has a duty to do certain checks, that is dependent on the type of survey, but, should pick up on contaminated land. Firstly I would check your councils website, they list all planning permissions granted. I cannot believe a builder managed 13 properties without the council being aware. You can contact your MP and Local councillor who should help in this instance. Also the councils building inspector as properties have to be signed off by him/her. You can request a meeting with them and ask to see any plans. I would certainly check the info you are receiving before you jump down any costly route. I wonder how all this came to light after properties have been sold.

The planning portal is a national site for making planning applications - this is completely different from a local authority website which holds all of the planning application info about each individual case. Plus, yes, of course a local authority can stop unauthorised development through enforcement and a stop notice. It happens all the time. The idea that houses could be completed and sold without anyone noticing that they didn't have planning permission does seem extremely unlikely given how much people loathe development....

Report the solicitor to the Law Society. He/she has failed to do their job. Hopefully they run some sort of indemnity scheme.

The Law Society doesn't deal with negligence issues. And it's not a case of "hopefully* they run an indemnity scheme, it's a condition of being in practice as a solicitor to have insurance. That's one of the advantages of dealing with solicitors.

My understanding of this is that planning permission was given subject to conditions requiring contamination remediation work to be done and the Council confirming this had happened. As these conditions weren’t seemingly met the development technically doesn’t have planning permission at the moment. The question must be was the required remediation work done? If it was then the confirmation of that can hopefully be sorted out retrospectively & the consent made lawful. If the works never happened, (unlikely), this is a problem unless it can likewise be done retrospectively. I think the Planning Authority will want to help, If they can, as they won’t want to see 13 homes demolished unless the situation really is a dangerous one.

When my niece formerly worked for the Environment Agency she had to survey and report on a piece of land designated for housing development. She stated in no uncertain terms that the land in question was almost certain to flood on a regular basis.

The local planning committee ignored her report and gave the OK to the developer. She was furious but eventually was vindicated just two years later - the very first winter after the properties were built the whole lot flooded.

Another case of profits before people.

@MummaGiles I'm not the OP but sadly look like I may be needing legal advice on a conveyancing/property issue, including possible professional negligence advice on a potential claim. Where should I be looking for a professional negligence solicitor/what should I be asking? Everything I read is about how difficult it is to pursue a solicitor.

Not a legal expert but I would imagine ultimately the builders are liable as they have built houses in breach of the councils decision. Others may be at fault but I think the builders should be sued for any losses/costs you incur.

....Builders as in the development company of course!

The first thing to do is check the advice your neighbour has been given.

When the licensed conveyancer I used last year to sell our seven year old newbuild experienced some difficulty obtaining some documents relating to the master development planning, he advised me to tell our buyers that their only option was to agree to proceed without them.

The buyers' solicitor understandably refused. My conveyancer told me we should threaten to pull out. I wasn't going to do that so had no option but to try to find the documents myself. Within 24 hours I had them all. He just wasn't prepared to spend time and effort ironing out even the smallest bump in the road.

Tl;dr your neighbour's solicitor/conveyancer might have found that there was an issue with final paperwork not being submitted to the planning dept and decided it was too complicated to bother with.

Good luck OP. I hope you get it resolved quickly.

tentative3 actually first port of call is the original solicitor who did the negligent work. 9 times out of 10 if they see there is a mistake they report themselves to their insurer or pay out for loss if within their excess which can be high eg. £50k.

If they di not accept there is an error then you need a litigation solicitor who deals with professional negligence cases. Which area do you live? I may be able to suggest someone.

I don't understand how the original solicitors would have missed this. Your initial environmental survey shouldn't have come back clear without a copy of the certificates confirming the remediation work had been carried out.
Since there are gas outlets around the field, it may be that the remediation work was carried out but the necessary paperwork has been mislaid or missed by the solicitor working on the new purchase.
You should invite someone from the local planning department to your owner's meeting. They'll be able to advise on building warrants, planning conditions attached to the build, etc.

You need a conveyancing litigator! That is utterly unbelievable.

ShalomJackie, thanks for the advice. I'm in the North West, can be more specific if you know of anyone in the area. We don't yet know if there's negligence but we don't know whether we need to take independent legal advice now, or wait until the negligence has been proven, if it is. We have been told we are being named as defendants in a case that centres on the purchase of our house and something they did in the process.

Sorry tentative no personal recommendations for that area but if you look at the Legal500 for NW they will list firms and individuals and their specialisations. Also check whether your house insurance has legal.cover as they may use specific solicitors. Get someone asap as it is important to start off on correct foot even before proceedibgs are issued.

Is it ambulance chasing if I tell you my firm has a very good professional negligence department? I’m sure they’d be happy to help.

We have raised a formal complaint with the conveyancer and informed them they have failed to ensure the council conditions were met.
All the residents are acting together. As our houses are illegally built.
Thank you for all your advice and support xx

We have been told we are being named as defendants

Defendants? So somebody's taking legal action against you? For what?

I think you need to take legal advice straight away. If someone's taking legal action against you then that has nothing whatsoever to do with any complaint you might be raising against your conveyancers.