To buy a house built on a historic petrol station?

[XXX5]

The petrol station was there 20+ years ago. House built around 2004. The tanks are in the ground and the solicitor believes all the paperwork is correct and present from the Council.

We're still a bit worried. It's put us off a bit and the house isn't a dream house but a make-do for now but we do need a property relatively urgently. Is there any reason I shouldn't just plough ahead? The surveyor basically said all houses have faults.

If everything is present, correct and safe (decontamination) then I dont see a problem.

But your questioning it, meaning potential buyers in the future could potentially question it too, so for that reason, I'd be put off.

I wouldn't buy it.

It would have to be priced significantly lower compared to similar properties for me to want to buy it. You have to weigh it up I suppose.

I thought it was incredibly difficult to decontaminate old petrol stations, which is why there are so many around? If you do the local searches, does your plot come up as contaminated land?

What is putting you off? Genuine question, it really wouldn't bother me.

My FIL works in land remediation so perhaps that's why, but provided that has been done properly (paperwork checked by sols) it'll be fine.

Just seen you don’t need it long term. In that case, no, I’d avoid.

You could always get some one out from a land remediation company to assess the land. Lots are small companies and do get involved in small jobs like this.

Old neighbour use to run several petrol stations and when they changed into car garages, I think the tanks got filled with concrete No idea what the rules! are now though. I'd be worried about contiminated land also, and whether anything would leach through the ground, into the garden and into vegetables I might grow there?

If it was your forever home, I’d buy it no problem. But as you are wanting to sell it sooner rather than later, I wouldn’t buy it as if you are having second thoughts, so might other potential buyers and you could be left with a problem.

My issue is contaminated land. If the works aren't done correctly and it leaks and no one is held responsible then my understanding is we have to foot the bill for clear up. This would then probably result in an un-saleable house. But I don't know if I'm being a bit ridiculous in this as I believe the council signed off. I suppose we could get out our own contractor but the owners (Probate house) aren't keen to offer us entry again. Which is another issue of course.

There was a thread a few weeks ago on the property board and the person couldn’t get a mortgage on a property as it was near a petrol station. The mortgage company had valued it at zero! If your mortgage company didn’t care it could still be really hard to sell on as it’s a problem for a lot of the mortgage companies.

I was going to say the same as PP: it may be unmortgageable and for this reason I wouldn’t, as you may struggle to sell.

For a forever home it probably wouldn’t put me off but for something I want to be able to easily sell on it wouldn’t be worth it to me as too much risk of future buyers being put off

Are you absolutely sure the tanks are still in the ground? They are normally removed, if nothing else because they are worth money.

The top layers of earth will have been removed etc so it iwll be perfectly safe. Half of the UK is built on some form of contaminated land.

But your bigger concern will be tbd perception of others when you want to sell. You may hit the same concerns you have in a buyer.

What's historic about it? Is it where Oliver Cromwell used to fill up his Jag or something? :)

I bought a house built on land which was previously a petrol site. Contamination reports were already carried out when the developer bought the site and then we had one carried out. It showed that there were traces of mercury in the land below 1.5m ish from the ground level and risk was so so low, that we went ahead. I wouldn’t have grown fruit and vegetables there but our plants thrived!

Did it originally have an NHBC Cerificate? If so, this wouldn’t have been passed by them unless all remediation works were carried out properly. It’s a common thing and shouldn’t be cause for concern.

I wouldn't, no.

Thanks all. Lots to think about @Barton10 I'm not sure will ask the solicitor today.

@malmi that's right, you obviously know where I'm buying. It has a brown road location sign and everything

Things I would think

This type of pollution is notoriously long lasting

Govt/ builders do not have great form on being super careful when house building is at stake

What are they basing the 'it's fine' on? Doubt it is a basis that covers everything including issues that may not have been discovered yet!

If you are going to buy it, you should read the papers and understand them rather than taking such vague general statements from solicitors or surveyors. The planning documents must have specified what had to be done to clean the land before being allowed to be built on and there must be something to indicate whether that was carried out and what exactly was carried out. Then once you've got a good clear grasp of it, talk it over with partner, parents, family etc.
All that said, there's been a recent large building development around here on former petrol station and there doesn't seem to be any problem selling the flats. There's another one with planning permission, waiting for the land to be cleared.

In your case, I would not buy the house as a make-do. You can find another house instead if it must be a short-term purchase. Not all faults in houses are the same sort of thing or have the same potential effect when you want to sell on. Better to avoid making problems for yourself further on.

I wouldn't - you need to pick somewhere easy to sell if you are planning to move on. No matter whether everything is in order, it will continue to put off prospective purchasers.