Planning permission nightmare - Advice please !

[Planningpermissionnightmare]

Hello,

My family and I live on a new build estate in the South of England.

We had a large strip of land attached to our property that wasn't in use so inquired about purchasing the land. At this stage the land was still owned by the developers ( For ex: Bovis, Taylor Wimpey etc) and after a few months of negotiations we came to an agreement.

I instructed our near by solicitors (explaining that we wanted to purchase a piece of land as additional garden space for our family) and purchased the land for £10,000 ( +£2K for solicitor fees on both sides).

A few weeks later we decided to fence our new land at a price of £4,000.

The day the works finished, someone from the council came to our house to let us know that we needed planning permission to change the use of the land. ( We had been reported anonymously by our neighbours!)

I contacted my solicitors immediately who told me to sit tight whilst they double checked it all. ( this was over a month ago!)

Today the council contacted me again to confirm that the land is considered to be informal open space and was considered part of an ecological and wildlife buffer zone and PP to change it to residential use will never be approved and that we must tear down our fence.
We will also never be able to use our new land as a garden.

So we have spent £16,000 for nothing.
I am furious at our useless solicitors (and the developer) never alerted us to any of this.

Will they reimburse me for all this money spent unnecessarily?

Any advice greatly appreciated please !

I doubt it. Was it a ransom strip? Most developments have areas designated to wildlife and ecology as part of the planning permission and to prevent sprawl into the Greenbelt. Unless you specifically asked the solicitor regarding planning requirements then ownership is an entirely separate issue.

Hi LIZS,
Thank you for your message.

Firstly I specifically asked our solicitor if we needed to apply for planning permissions of any sort and he said no.

Secondly, He knew we were purchasing this land for garden use only.

Surely he should have made use aware that we were buying land that could not be used as garden land. Or at least double check it.

Also should the developer have made us aware of it? Do they have any duty of information when they sold us the land??

In new developments you may need to apply for pp for the least change, even a shed or new fence. Your deeds should show any restrictive covenants and limits on permitted development rights. Likewise the deeds for this land should have shown similar and any issues highlighted. Do you have the paperwork now? If the solicitor knew your specific plans you could complain to the managing partner.

We were looking at buying a house (not a new build) which had similar restrictions as regards land acquired from the neighbouring farmer but due to greenbelt could never be cultivated or have a garage or even play equipment erected upon it.

Well someone has messed up and it’s certainly not you !
any solicitors out there ?
Surely that’s what you pay solicitors for in property transactions ?

You have two issues, the planning permission which you will probably now never get approved and how you came to end up purchasing land you could not use.

What instructions did you give your solicitor, did you have all the usual searches done?

I asked our solicitor to do everything that needed to be done to buy this garden extension.

He said he did all the searches at the time.

When all this came to light and I phone the firm to speak to him they informed me he didnt work there anymore... Obviously that doesnt matter to me.

Everyone knew (developer and solicitor) this was a garden extension our contract has paragraphs dedicated to how high our new fence can go and where the wooden slide and swings can be put, so there was no doubt about that.

My husband and I spent so long planting bushes at the front of the new land too (£300 worth of them!) and they will probably have to be ripped out.

Im so angry!

I think you need to put in a written complaint that the firm (not the individual solicitor) has fucked up, or words to that effect.

You need to be careful before you steam in. Check your terms of business with them. Is there by any chance a clause that says they do not provide planning advice? Did you have a record of you asking them if you needed planning?

I have interests in small pieces of agricultural land adjacent to a village following the death of both parents and inevitable break up of family farm. I feel for you and adding insult to injury, I hope you have that land insured with your property because as a landowner you are responsible for sorting out any flytipped waste and dealing with any travellers who may arrive and their detritus. Been there, done that. You definitely need independent legal advice, do you have legal insurance included in your property insurance

It is very unlikely the Seller would have any liability
You need to contact the Managing partner of the firm and ask for a meeting
At the meeting explain the problem and ask them for an explanation and what they suggest can be done
Whatever they say get them to put it in writing
If you are not satisfied (which I doubt you could be ) take independent legal advice and lodge a negligence claim against the Solicitor
Your claim will be for the difference between the value of the land as garden ground and what you have now
You will have to prove they knew it was for garden ground

The fact the sol doesn't work there anymore is interesting. You need independent legal advice from a solicitor as to the firm's liability for negligent advice. That is why they have insurance.

Solicitors are reviewing everything. Will know more on Monday.

Ugh!

Did the contract specify any sellers warranties?

@lifebegins50 I just re read the contract and it does not. Is that good?

Did the developers that you talked to know that it was for adding into your garden?

THey should definitely have known that it wasn't going to be allowed to go ahead as you wanted.

I'm assuming that you wouldn't want the land if you can't include it in your garden?

Might be worth talking to the developers and solicitors and saying that if they are prepared to take the land back and refund the fees. fence and plant costs, and a couple of thousand for the time, effort and stress that this has needlessly caused you then you are prepared to drop your complaints against them. The couple of thousand for you is there to use as a bargaining chip - so that you can be bargained down to being back to teh financial position you were in before all this started and they will be happy that they have managed to bargain you down a bit (better than starting with what you want and coming up against someone who never accepts the first offer so you're able to bargain down a bit!).

I would also say that if this goes ahead and you get your money back then should things change, you/occupants of your house if you've moved on, want first refusal on being able to buy it to incorporate it into your garden at a reasonable price - so £10K increased by inflation rather than house prices locally or a random number that money grabbing land owner wants!

Do you have legal insurance on your home insurance? Might be worth talking to them too...

Unfortunately not x

rosablue The developers had no duty to check OP was buying land fit for purpose. It’s for OP to satisfy herself of that, which she does by taking professional advice. If she asked her solicitor and was given duff advice she has a remedy. I suspect that her solicitor’s term of business say they are paid to provide conveyancing services only, and specifically exclude planning matters. OP therefore needs to prove she asked the question and that she was given advice that is wrong.

Hi @rosablue
Yes we specifically said it was to add to our garden. In fact our contract is filled with clauses such as ' the new fence' ' the sheds must be X' 'future patio extension' 'swings for the children must be lower than' etc

Developers and solicitors knew very well this was a garden extension.
The only thing I can think of, is that the land was not for sale initially. We enquired and were told, yes. But I suspect the department who sold it to us, was not as competent as selling land as they were at selling houses..

@rosablue apologies this sent by mistake.

Thank you for your suggestion we were going to ask for those things. Glad to see you would ask for the same. I had not thought of first refusal for the potential future re sale of the land- good idea!

Hi @Collaborate
I did specifically ask our solicitor about ANY potential PP relating to the land but this was over the phone and he has now left the firm.

Having said that we essentially designed a contract for a garden extension which was impossible from the start so surely that would be enough!?

Will update you when I hear from the solicitors tomorrow...

Thank you for all your advice so far.

A lot of conveyancing solicitors aren't very bright unfortunately.

I've inquired about quite a few patches of land like this in new build estates. They come up often in the auctions that I buy land from to develop. In each individual case I've had to look into what has been possible in terms of changing use myself before proceeding (I've pretty much avoided new build estates due to paranoia that a situation like yours would arise).

It seems like the builders may have taken advantage a little here, a lot of these pieces of land that are under the ecological/open space rules of the estates are effectively dead land to the developers, your offer to buy was free money for them.

It all depends on what you have in writing from the solicitors, anything said verbally won't be considered.

Hope that you get some resolution although it seems likely they will say that you should have looked into the change of use, searches would bring up proposed development that would affect the plot but maybe not what you planned to do with it.

The council aren't supposed to hold your mistaken erection of the fence against you if you apply for change of use, so I would get the application in ASAP to see what they say.

Sorry but you wll have to do what the council says, the land was designated as they say.

You may have recourse against the solicitor / company they used to work for as this should of been highlighted when you employed their services when buying. Firstly go through the companies (solicitors you employed) complaints procedure work through that if you have not reached a postive outcome you desire escalated to the legal ombudsman as they can also help but you must go through the company procedures first or they will not even look at the case.

Hi @bluesandtwo this is the first email I have from my solicitor following our phone chat:

It was a pleasure talking to you this morning and I look forward to acting for you upon your prospective purchase of garden land adjoining your property.

He says garden land and was therefore made aware from the start what type of land we were intending to buy.

I also have emails to the developer which say we would like to buy the land to extend our garden

You wrote it is likely they say we should have looked into the change of use but isn't that their job? How were we to know to do such a thing?
It sounds incredibly unfair and illogical- Im not saying you are wrong, just trying to understand.

Thank you for your help!

Hmm , I think the use of "garden land" may be ambiguous. It does not in itself mean you intend to enclose and extend your existing use of garden space, although you may well have elaborated on that separately. If the brief was to acquire possession of the strip then they have achieved that.