House Buying & Vendors failed to mention...

[StressedtoFuckery]

That the house next door has planning in principal agreed for a double storey extension right up to within 20 centimetres of the exterior wall
I am so fucked off.
It's a detached house so building right up to it makes a huge difference. Not to mention the noise & disruption as we both WFH.
The vendors bloody knew, must have, they've been legally notified. We have been chasing them for the (?) form sorry forgotten it's name in my but they haven't returned it.
Now I know why.
Planning says decision to be made by beginning of March but apart from a couple of tweaks, it's granted.
I had a survey done yesterday. £625
LA searches too.
Just wish I'd checked the bloody portal sooner or that they'd been decent fucking people.
Where to go from here?
Walk?
Reduce offer?
Small claims for 'being unreasonable in their failure to declare' god I am so cross. We have to be out on 12th March as our buyers have been patient enough waiting while we found somewhere or they'll lose their own sale.

I’d walk. With a detached house I would want to feel detached.

If it’s going to be an issue for you ( it would me) and the months of disruption during the build, £625 is a small price to pay to avoid it.

Surely this is something your solicitor should have established. Blame them rather than the vendors.

I understand you are upset OP but really it is on you and not the vendors. Why on earth didn’t you check the local planning portal as soon as you had your offer accepted? It’s not your vendors responsibility to highlight to you details with which you might or might not have an issue. Sorry

Yes, I agree that the blame for this lies with your solicitor.

@Daisydoesnt

I understand you are upset OP but really it is on you and not the vendors. Why on earth didn’t you check the local planning portal as soon as you had your offer accepted? It’s not your vendors responsibility to highlight to you details with which you might or might not have an issue. Sorry

Absolutely this. It is entirely your responsibility to do your due diligence. Unless the proposed extension affects your property (party wall, etc.) the vendors have no obligation to inform you. I always check the planning portal for construction nearby and prior refusals on the property I am interested in.

It’s yours and your solicitors responsibility

Well we know now that's the main thing.
I did look on the portal and I couldn't see anything listed for the road at all, it came back no results
We got the searches back today and it just said 'there are 6 planning applications within an X mile radius' no specific details were given, so I went on again and found it this time.
So would the solicitor have picked it up necessarily or is the '6 applications within X radius' as far as they need to go?

Don’t bother with small claims it won’t get anywhere.
Just walk away and take the hit.

The blame does not lie with the sellers here. They can’t second guess everything you may or may not like.

“Oh there is a tree in the garden that flowers every year you might be allergic to”

Wouldn’t bother me having a house up near my wall as long as it didn’t block my windows etc. But if it really is a deal breaker for you then you certainly should have checked.

Vendors are asked if they are aware of planning applications in the property information form. No wonder they didn't want to return it to you.

Will it affect your light? If so you may have grounds for an injunction through Right to Light. Whether they have planning is irrelevant to light claims.

Give them a day to get the PIF back to you and see what it says but nope, I'd be off. Particularly with working from home.

The build might take ages. To get the roof done will need scaffolding and the gutters may well extend over your airspace. I had neighbours do a conservatory to the boundary and the gutters are indeed over our garden.

I’d walk and be grateful if only wasted £600 rather than hundreds of thousands on a house you regret buying.

The prospect of the building work and an extension that close to my detached house would be a dealbreaker so I’d walk away

Would there be a wall running parallel 20cm from yours, or are they at an angle with the closest point only 20cm away? There's a massive difference in how those would feel.

It's good you found out now. Would've been better if it had been before the survey, but realistically on a tight timescale you would always have had to do them in parallel and run that risk.

It's a wall the full length of the side of the house. There is a single garage there at the moment which is only 20cm away but this would be full height and a gable end.

I don't think it will affect right to light @NoToast

Hard to visualise it at the back ( especially when you don't live there!)

Agree that it's not something they need to flag up - how are they to know that replacing a building that's already very close to the house you're buying, but higher, would bother you so much when you accept it wouldn't affect light etc?

It's also worth noting that planning usually lasts 3 years - there's nothing to say they're going to start imminently (during lockdown). We had to wait nearly a year for our builder to be available.

Our council property portal is rubbish. I've just searched again exact same search criteria and it's showing 'no results'
Back track using bookmarks and it comes up. So hit and miss.
Anyway thanks for your responses.
They've been helpful. Even snarky responses which have made me laugh once I calmed down, this non house move has been so stressful!
Lots to think about.

Run like the wind.

Oh ok so they are converting an existing garage and adding a storey over the top?

I think you have to assume it'll go ahead though it may not - sometimes people get the permission just to sell or they run out of money and don't do as much as they planned, or as others say it might take years even to get started. Noisewise it won't be like living in a semi. I might worry about maintenance on the wall side but realistically would that stop me buying the house? The building work could be a complete PITA. But wouldn't it be ironic if you bought somewhere else instead and the neighbours there then had a big extension built? It's one of those annoying things that is out of your control.

Basically yes you need to decide whether to walk away or drop your offer. The fact there's already a garage there does make it less of a deal-breaker I guess. Knocking on the neighbours' door is probably a wise precaution, maybe just quickly and ask if you can phone them to find out more in a more covid safe fashion.

You do need to pull out. This will make the house unsellable. Wait for them to return the form to you and then pursue them for falsifying it if they don’t disclose the planning application.

@BookShop

I’d walk. With a detached house I would want to feel detached.

I agree with you

If you'd viewed the house and the planned extension was up and established would you of put an offer in?

That's all you need to ask yourself.

Build works can be fast and painless, they maybe using SIPs construction etc which can be up in a matter of days. Equally there will be some noise.

Also you e no idea if the planning will be triggered and acted on straight away? They Could be planning on moving and just adding value etc.

Greendoonan Can you pursue for falsifying information on the property information form? It's just I have this non-sale going ahead and the vendors lied on the form.

I’d walk unless totally in love with the place. You’ll be annoyed and upset all the way through the build and you don’t know how it will affect your house. It will probably be fine, but will definitely have a different feel to just being a single garage next to your house.