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 !

@LIZS our contract discusses how high our fence can be and where our new sheds can go so its quite clear what we were intending to do.
Just realised We also have bought 2 sheds for £1000- another expense I hope we recover !!

It's really going to turn on you being able to prove that you were relying on them to look after the planning side
And your claim will be the difference between the price you paid and what it is worth without the PP ,if anything
Builder might have been able to get a lot more if PP was available
In my opinion (as a not too bright conveyancing solicitor)

Thank you @user1487194234
The thing is we dont want the land now. We only bought it on the premiss it could be fenced and used privately. I dont want it now.
Thank you for your advice on this.

My question is- did the fact the land was a wildlife ecological buffer zone discoverable by searches?

If so section 7.6 would support us no?

The Property is transferred to the Transferee subject to the following matters:
7.1 Any matters (other than financial charges) referred to or contained in the property and charges register of title number WSX342492 at 6 December 2017 at 10:33:33;
7.2 All existing rights, quasi easements and easements affecting the Property whether or not apparent on inspection;
7.3 Any matters that are unregistered interests which override registered dispositions under Schedule 3 to the Land Registration Act 2002;
7.4 All local land charges (whether registered or not) and all matters capable of registration as local Land Charges and whether or not registered at the date of this Transfer;
7.5 All actual or proposed charges, notices, orders, restrictions, agreements, conditions or other matters arising under any statute affecting the Property;
7.6 All other matters affecting the Property which are capable of discovery by searches, enquiries or inspection including for the avoidance of doubt any planning permissions granted in respect of the Property and/or the Retained Land

Was that clause accepted in full by the seller?
I think that would be unusual
Did the seller amend that clause to something like ‘the purchaser will satisfy himself as to the position regarding PP etc’
I don’t want to stray into giving you legal advice as I think that is wrong from a professional point of view
The only way you can even possibly reject the land and get your money back is if seller was in breach of contract
If not your claim is against your solicitor and will be for your losses due to their proven negligence
See what they say tomorrow and prepare to take independent advice

Have you checked the original pp documents for the development - should still be available online.

Did you tell the solicitor it was “garden land”? When you bought, did the covenants about that land not come up in your buying process?

I agree with you it seems the solicitor is at fault, but technically you should already have been aware perhaps? Wonder if that use of “garden land” implied that they believed you had done due diligence already and were just asking them to execute.

Isn’t the issue with “planning permission” that they will have gone searches to determine that there were no outstanding planning permissions granted, but not searched to establish if change if use was likely to be approved- the key will be in whether they reasonably believed they were acting on your explicit instructions.

I really feel for you!

Not a specialist but I’d assume there was an agreement in place for the council to adopt roads and buffer zones etc. If so then you may find the developer shouldn’t have sold it to you as it’s already been promised to the council as part of the original planning permission for the estate. Might be worth approaching the planning department to see what was agreed?

Spoke briefly to OH about this who has a planning background. Before I even read the first post he was saying the first step would be change of land use from council. He reckons your solicitor is at fault here, not you nor developer, nor council, and that you could probably sue to get your money back. Good luck xx

Do have a good dig about on the developer's planning application for the whole site (should be available online on your council's site), and see if there IS any designation for that bit of land in the planning documents.

@Planningpermissionnightmare

I think the clause you mention is in reference to other planning permission that has been applied for neighbouring the plot you wanted to buy, and does not relate to anything you wanted to do in future.

I've never had a situation where my intention for the land that I've bought has been discussed with the conveyancing solicitors. They are conducting a transaction for the land.

I've always had to apply for or enquire about permission before proceeding (and have missed out on good deals because of this). They tend to not be very interested in doing things that aren't simple and straightforward (IMO).

However, it seems like there must have been a covenant in place about this land, which they should have known about and told you about, this would have prompted you to look further into the permission issue and would have stopped the sale. Hope you are able to get a favourable resolution.

The developer would have known full well that tha land had a designation, as they had submitted the plans which said the land was a special area and not for a garden use. It was their plans and the land was designated as it is for a good reason. I suspect that the developer is at fault.

Hi, I think that I would start by asking the local council for their evidence for the designation of the land, don't just accept an assurance, you need to see exactly on what basis they are asserting this, it will help you to determine who should have spotted it.

I would also then have a close look at the Local Land Charges search, was it done by the council or by a personal search agent?

I used to work in LLC and I would like to think that this is the sort of thing we'd have flagged up

The designation may appear within the local plan, or a document that supports it, so do ask the council to specify where this is.

I doubt the solicitor will take the hit on the planning / change of use issue, as this and buying the land are two distinct legal processes. If the planning development team can't assist, ask to speak to someone in planning policy or planning strategy.

I hope that you are able to get some money back.

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?

I suggested upthread you check the terms of business they sent you. That will specifically set out what you\re paying them to do. If they're sensible they will spell out that you are paying them to transfer property in to your name, and not to check that the land is suitable for your use, or that you will have planning consent to do what you want to do with it. There might be different wording. What does it say?

Thank you everyone!

Should hear more today, will keep you posted.

It is a little worrying that the solicitor doesn't work at that company anymore. I wonder if he was all round dodgy.

No news today, so I called at 3pm and the partner told me ' he was still waiting on some research regarding the matter' and as he finishes work at 5pm(!) He would probably be in touch tomorrow.

I said I was busy tomorrow and that I had made myself available all day today for his call ( and the firm has had a month to deal with this!!) and he basically said there was nothing he could do, his day finished at 5pm. Such terrible service arrrgh!

Ill find out more tomorrow then !

Any update OP

the children must be lower than

I misread this line and thought it an odd clause to include!

We purchased a barn conversion many years ago, and asked if we could have an adjacent piece of land.

They agreed and did not make a charge, but we had loads of dealing with planning about what we could and couldn't plant in the area. It was very definitely not designated garden.

Sounds like your developer was keen to get their hands on your money, without looking in to it properly. Having said that, your solicitor should have done their job properly too.

Good luck - hope you are able to sort it.

Update: our solicitor thinks we can make a claim against the developer. I spoke to my contact who works w the developer and he said he was made aware by the council 1 month ago about the issue and was surprised no one from his office had contacted me since- useless!

I have also asked my solicitor why the use of the land did not appear in the searches and he said 'it potentially should have' but he is still trying to get in touch w our original solicitor who has now left the firm...

I suspect they are both at fault and our solicitor is trying to pass on all the blame on the Developer.

@jellomello hahaha indeed!

I think you're right - they're both at fault. You aren't so hopefully the situation can be resolved at no loss to yourself.

You definitely have a negligence claim against your solicitor based on what you have said.

Ask the partner you have been dealing with recently if they have notified their insurer of the potential claim.

It is possible that they will settle oit of court by refunding all costs and what you piad for the land and fences etc.