Planning permission not picked up during searches

[FTEngineerM]

Hiya,

Wondering if anyone with some know how could give any advice, please, I’m not sure what to think.

Me and DP bought house in 05/2018 all tickedy boo, then today we see pre-planning notice for land at back/rear right of our house for 14!!!!! houses. Checking out their documents this has been ongoing since late 2018 and even then there was planning permission in place for 4 larger dwellings.

Looking back at our searches they didn’t pick up anything of that nature, are they meant to? We paid a few hundred for local searches.

It will affect our view for one, it’s a valley, and then probably the value of the house since it’s going to be ‘in the way’.

Anything we can do?

Sorry I have I missed something?

You completed May 2018
PP went in late 2018

That’s why your searches (presumably done in circa March 2018) didn’t pick them up

Searches don’t report back on pp any more. We found that out the hard way when a similar thing happened to us a couple of years ago...

@Jroseforever BUT as in the OP there was already planning in place for 4 large detached dwellings late 2018. That is the planning permission that should have been picked up, no?

Oh no, when did it stop @Capezio or was it yeaaaaaars ago?

But late 2018 is still later than May when you bought the house.

There was already planning for 4 dwellings......

PP late 2018

You purchased may 2018
Your searches would have been weeks before then

So say you had your searches in March

And you’re complaining they had PP in late 2018

That is an 8 or so month gap

I’m struggling to see your issue

@Jroseforever you’re ignoring the part I said there was already permission for 4 dwellings before the 14

"Late 2018" presumably means September onwards?

And you bought your house in May. So the developer could have submitted the planning application any time in May/June/July and had it approved in September. It's usually about 3 months round here.

When was the planning application actually originally submitted?

From your OP- Checking out their documents this has been ongoing since late 2018 and even then there was planning permission in place for 4 larger dwellings.

But when was the planning permission put in for the 4 dwellings? Before you moved in in the May of that year?

Anyway I think I have the answer from @Capezio

Yes @MerlotChiantiMontepulicano

If I’ve read your post right op, you had searches Carried out on the property you bought. As I understand it searches only search on the property specified by your conveyancers by sending a plan with the boundary clearly marked.

So if the boundary marked was the house and garden for the property you bought, then search would have been on the house and garden not unrelated land behind it.

Unless you paid extra for the searches on additional land at the back of the property too - have you had a look at the plan your conveyancers submitted to check the area and land that was searched? Might be worth getting it out to double check what they asked the LA to search.

I feel for you op - years ago I remember within a week of moving into our first home we came home to double yellows painted outside. We’d felt so smug getting parking on the main road too....

I think OP means planning for 14 houses in late 2018, but before that (and before they bought the house) planning for 4 houses.

The planning permission results from your local search wouldn’t show neighbors planning or potential planning applications for the surrounding area. You will have been asked if you wanted a pro. Search (or similar) which may have picked up surrounding planning applications so I would say hard luck!

Op
You did not say in your OP that PP was in place for 4 dwellings when your searches were carried out.

What month was PP given for the 4?

OK, so you're saying that the planning permission for the 4 houses was in place when you bought....

Do you have the property information form from your vendor? Just been filling one out for my own house and there was a question about whether we're aware of any planning permission nearby. If you can get the planning department to confirm that notification of the plans would have been sent to your vendors and they didn't declare it on the form, you might have some recourse.

Sorry - planning applications, I mean.

Sorry I don’t know. We moved in 2016 and it wasn’t on it then. I have just done a quick search and nothing is coming up on the internet as a specific date change and a few results are coming up talking about it as part of the search, which is confusing!

You have to opt for an additional search don't you? When we last moved we paid extra and had to request for a specific report on planning within a certain vicinity. It wasn't standard.

We’ve recently had searches back & both the enviro search & local search details planning permission. We had a Groundsure Enviro Plus search done. We didn’t get a choice in that, that’s just the search our solicitor requested, we weren’t given an upgrade option or anything.

We are paying quite top end solicitors fees. We choose our solicitor as she’s got an exceptional local reputation for her attention to detail.

Can you look back at all your paperwork? You should be able to locate what searches you had done & if they mention planning permission. I think unfortunately if you had a none ‘plus’ version, you’ve just been unlucky maybe.. :-/

We bought a house earlier this year and definitely got details of local planning applications.

In my searches I got a detailed report of all local planning applications including all approved ones on the street going back years, & also including a highlighted overview map of the area of anything noteworthy, of maybe 200m radius from the house I was buying. Isn't this normal?

@Jroseforever
Yes she did! !
It was perfectly clear .