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Original poster

Contaminated land - any experience?

21 replies

greekingout · 21/03/2023 12:26

We are going through a house purchase at the moment. Sellers had previously got right up to exchange stage with previous buyers who then pulled out due to losing their own buyers. We assumed it would therefore be quite straightforward as anything major would have come up with the previous buyers.

Anyway, just received the searches back and it's mostly fine but the groundsure report has come back with "Contaminated land - further action required". It says "A historical landfill has been identified on site, with an initial input date 1954. However, no further details are held regarding the final input date or the waste type accepted."

I looked on the map and looks like loads of houses are built over this site, and I can't see that any of them have had any issues being sold.

Any else have experience with this? What did you do?

OP posts:
Original poster
greekingout · 21/03/2023 12:28

Should say, my solicitor isn't that fussed about it - just says the seller's solicitors have to contact the local environment officer to check the detail, and if none is held then the sellers pay for indemnity insurance at £150. So nothing groundbreaking.

OP posts:
RulaLenskasHair · 22/03/2023 08:43

I have a house on contaminated land and the main problem has been that I want to extend it.

This has meant I have to clear the contaminated bit (even though all around it will still be contaminated 🙄) before building.

Worth bearing in mind.

Original poster
greekingout · 22/03/2023 08:48

It has already been extended- we definitely wouldn't be doing any additional extension work.

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WarningToTheCurious · 22/03/2023 11:15

How old is the house?

If it’s relatively modern, can you search the local planning portal to see if there are any contaminated land or site investigation reports?

You could also try searching the EA databases to see if any more data comes up:

https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/17edf94f-6de3-4034-b66b-004ebd0dd010/historic-landfill-sites

Your main potential issues will be subsidence, gas and leachate.

Historic Landfill Sites - data.gov.uk

https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/17edf94f-6de3-4034-b66b-004ebd0dd010/historic-landfill-sites

Original poster
greekingout · 22/03/2023 11:39

It was built in 1968. Many houses built in the same place which seem to have gone through no bother.

OP posts:
WarningToTheCurious · 22/03/2023 11:46

So the landfill could only have been active for less than 14 years and the house is over 50 years old.

I would follow your solicitor’s advice - there will have been other houses bought and sold since contaminated land became more well known so they will be aware if it’s caused any issues.

JohnnyM · 22/03/2023 12:49

Be careful what you 'assume' based on what I am guessing you have been told - but don't actually know - as the reason the previous buyers pulled out.

In my experience if a previous buyer pulled out because of a survey (or search) issue an EA will never tell you that!!

One thing that is clear is that its enough of an issue for you seek reassurance about it, so it may well be for any future buyer when you come to sell, which could reduce the 'pool of buyers' for a house with this issue.

And if it was me, I would thoroughly research the issue before proceeding even if it was a 'forever' buy.

Original poster
greekingout · 22/03/2023 12:52

JohnnyM · 22/03/2023 12:49

Be careful what you 'assume' based on what I am guessing you have been told - but don't actually know - as the reason the previous buyers pulled out.

In my experience if a previous buyer pulled out because of a survey (or search) issue an EA will never tell you that!!

One thing that is clear is that its enough of an issue for you seek reassurance about it, so it may well be for any future buyer when you come to sell, which could reduce the 'pool of buyers' for a house with this issue.

And if it was me, I would thoroughly research the issue before proceeding even if it was a 'forever' buy.

I actually know the previous buyers so I know they pulled out because they lost their own buyers.

OP posts:
Original poster
greekingout · 22/03/2023 12:52

From research it doesn't seem to be a massive issue to be honest, and we don't intend on moving again so I think we will probably go for it.

OP posts:
Viviennemary · 22/03/2023 12:54

I don't think I would buy a house with a problem like this. When you come to sell it will still be a problem.

Original poster
greekingout · 22/03/2023 13:01

DH has just informed me our previous place was on contaminated land which I had clearly completely forgotten! We had no issue selling that, I think we just got indemnity insurance for about £150.

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Inapicklee · 22/03/2023 13:48

I’ve just purchased a house with this.
They were going to just put in indemnity insurance but I was a bit worried as we would be grazing horses on it.

We did soil testing which cost £750 roughly and came back absolutely fine. Pricey but I needed to know for piece of mind.

OhWifey · 22/03/2023 15:32

@Inapicklee would you mind saying what Company you used (or PM me) as we are about to go down the soil testing route.

Advancedpie · 22/03/2023 15:51

It's wise to be cautious. As I child I watched our local landfill site get built on (it was right next to a kids playing field). They just bulldozed it/compacted it. Decades on some of those houses have subsidence due to settlement.

Inapicklee · 22/03/2023 17:04

@OhWifey we used Adeptus and they took 3 samples.

We just did top soil (I think 10cm deep or so) as that’s the bit we were concerned about.

We found most companies wanted about £400 to do a desktop survey before even considering coming out but these guys were willing to skip that as we knew the land was a historic landfill site so wanted to be sure the grazing would be safe regardless of the history!

They were very good, we were on a tight deadline and they managed to get the samples the day after we contacted them and we had the results 10 days later.

OhWifey · 22/03/2023 20:28

@Inapicklee absolutely ideal. Thank you

wiffin · 22/03/2023 22:01

I wouldn't.

Has anyone said what the contamination was? 10cm sample depth is nothing. My cat digs that having a poo.

Original poster
greekingout · 22/03/2023 22:03

It was an old coal mining quarry, and not under the house itself but a few roads over.

OP posts:
AHelpfulHand · 22/03/2023 22:09

We had this when we bought our house. There used to be a paint factory on it.

when the NBC (I think it’s called this, it’s the people who do the 10 year guarantee on new build), issue their certificate then it’s fine.

however what you then need to go is send over this certificate to the environmental search people and they will then pass the land off.

without them actually having a copy of this certificate then it will always come up on the searches.

wiffin · 22/03/2023 22:17

Ok. So high likelihood of coal or coal dust contamination. Possible mining issues.

I wouldn't buy it because we grow veg. Keep chickens. I wouldn't want to do that in land likely to have heavy metal contamination or similar.

But not everyone is bothered by things like that.

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