1km from landfill

[Hairydogmummy]

Would you buy a house 1km from a landfill site? It's closing in 12 months time after having already had an extension and being in use for 24 yrs. Its otherwise lovely. Newly converted barn, rural setting surrounded by open fields while still being with a few miles of transport and loads of amenities, close to family and friends, work etc. We've really struggled to find something other than a new build or a house with issues like rights of way, flying freehold, falling to bits so I don't know if I'm being objective. It's a good price but that'll be cos of the landfill.

Not a chance.

This proved quite hard to get rid of.
www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-england-london-42026887

Nope! The stink from the site will be rank.

I’m not sure how far the stink travels (further in summer). However, if it’s about to close in 12 months, it won’t be an issue any more, will it?

Dont do it. Ask people from desirable Isleworth and Twickenham what it's like to live near - or even not so near - to the sewage treatment works. Unbearable in summer and/or if the wind changes.

What way does the prevailing wind blow? How certain are you that it will close?

When it closes, they will restore it to grassland.....and it will be a very long time (if ever) before anything is built on it....so your views/isolation will be secure - not something you can say about any greenfield site on this overcrowded island.

It's already been extended @Mooselaurels in 2004 then it was meant to be 2016 and now the date is 2022 so there's no way they can extend it again from the what I can tell so far. Obviously need to look in to it more. It's been there since 1998 and they can't keep filling it forever. There's actually a sewage treatment works about 3 miles away too! There a holiday let over the road so I've scoured the reviews to see if anyone mentions smell and they don't. I will knock doors if I need to! I did that with the last one we went in for! I've checked nearby house prices and they're very healthy and rising.

I think I would buy it actually. Is it somewhere you'd look to be live for a long time?

Is it really any worse than living in a new build site which is still being developed? Probably not. With a new build estate, and this too, you know it will be over at some point, and be a much nicer place to live.

If it's already been extended twice before how do you know it won't be extended again?

@NachoNachoMan yes I think so. There's further potential to improve/extend and it's hard to get something like that that not far out. This feels totally peaceful yet is about 10 mins from fantastic shopping and 15 from a lovely historic city as well as being close to work, school, friends and family

@caringcarer I guess I don't for sure but surely if they were going to seek permission to extend again, it would have gone in by now? I can and definitely will find out anyway.

I grew up less than a kilometre from a busy landfill site. Occasionally the lorries drove past a bit too fast or left the road dirty, but I don't remember the smell ever being a problem. On a wet day you could smell it if you went directly past the entrance but I don't remember the smell ever reaching the house. It's been closed for many years and is now being landscaped into a large park area. So no, it wouldn't put me off.

What's the pricing like?
Everyone has their red lines, I grew up under a Heathrow flight path next to a major train line, neither bothered me but we had guests who found it awful.

Thanks @WhiskySour83 I've just been checking out the reviews for the holiday let over the road. It goes for 650 a night even in lower season and is huge and mega luxury. Read 80 reviews and all 5 star no mention of smell. There is no way to get to the site down the road it's on. Lorries approach from e other side which is miles away.

@knackersknockersknickers it's pretty good compared to other rural locations in the area. I'd say you'd stick another 100k on for the same thing the other side of town.

I’d say that a landfill is very different to a flight path (pretty much constant noise pollution) or sewage works (can reek quite a distance).
If guests from the holiday let haven’t complained, then it’d likely to be fine especially with lorries approaching from a different direction.

@JoJoSM2 I've been really cheeky and messaged the owner of the holiday let. Think she also lives in the village! Also messaged the Facebook group that basically exists to moan about the site. If anyone's going to tell me it's awful, they will! There's reviews from people sitting in the hot tub of the holiday let in the height of summer. Surely would say if it stank. I've been round there driving past loads and never smelt anything

I would. We're a couple of miles from the local tip, there's a more expensive village just up the road (i.e. closer to the tip, we're literally on the edge of town). If the tip stank that badly, their house prices wouldn't be half as high. I've been past the tip numerous times in a car, you can really only smell it from a few hundred metres away, maybe a bit more in summer or if the wind is steadily blowing in the wrong direction.
Plus, if/when it does close, house prices & general desirability will rise.

I pulled out of a house purchase for this reason, and that was for a landfill that was already closed and capped off. I actually commissioned an environmental survey, and decided not to proceed based on the findings.

The gist of it was that they could always re open it, and this does apparently happen as the waste settles and creates more room. But the main consideration was that you could get gas emissions from the landfill percolating into the soil, the ground water and potentially into house basements.

It was more of a headache than it was worth in the end.

I don’t think I would no, because even if closed I’d assume there was a risk of it stinking. Honestly you can smell them from a long way away. Particularly on hot days,

It is highly unusual for a land fill not to stink, this one would be very unique if that was the case.

I would. My partner has done work on landfills.

1 km is a fair way away. The old sections would have been capped off and will have gas monitoring and wouldn't be built on for a very long time if at all - though some have been.

There is a nature walk near where we live which is on an old landfill site.

If this house enables you to get on the property ladder, or move to a better house, I would go for it.

Thanks all. @CatherinedeBourgh how far away from the landfill was the house you were going in for. That's interesting @Zebrahooves reassuring that someone who knows about them would move there. There are so few houses on the market at the moment and all seem to have some issues. The lady who owns the posh holiday let for back to me saying she's lived in the village for years in the Manor House that's over the way and is currently developing it and it's barns in to luxury homes. She wanted to know if I was interested till she found out our budget! Lol. She was super kind and helpful tho.

I don’t know exactly, as it was capped off and you couldn’t see it iyswim. I only found out it existed because of something that came up on the searches. The surveyor said houses up to 2 km could be affected, but there was a stream running down the end of the property which might have been part of the problem.

He did say this landfill was known to be badly run, which might also have made the problems worse.

I used to cycle past one and it smelt bad. We were meant to view a house last week and then we found out there's a recycling plant a few hundreds yards away and a train line nearby too. We cancelled