Historical landfill sites?

[Potaytoe5]

In the process of buying our dream home and the searches came back yesterday.
Everything is marked as 'passed', but there is a note about historical landfill 200m away from the property. Should that concern us? It was a mix of industrial and household waste that closed about 35 years ago.
We had no idea as there are just lots of trees planted over the area now.
On the document it just states that it shouldn't affect the lending, but I am more worried about any potential health effect.

I wouldn't personally be worried about something from 35 years ago especially with the tree planting but I guess it's personal choice whether you feel comfortable with it or not.

Hi @Twiglets1 !
I guess I would be less worried if it was just household, but it seems that all kind of crap went in there.
I imagine they are unlikely to reopen it, if it's covered in trees?

It's a flat area or hilly? is there a river nearby?
A bit of a slope near me collapsed in heavy rain and old asbestos was exposed - it was a bit unsightly when they had to surround it with heras fencing and have specialists in for months to clean up.
So long as it's flattish land without a river or anything through it I'd think the risk would be low. Maybe see if you can find out what it was called and google it's closure and the work that made it into a woodland area - is it public land now?

I wouldn’t be too keen. Standards have changed a lot, thankfully. I’d be less concerned about a more modern site, but 35 years is a long time ago!

https://www.99acres.com/articles/how-dangerous-is-it-to-live-near-landfills.html#

@NoneedtoquotetheOP thank you for linking the article, but it seems to be referring to an active site? Surely it'd not the same as a closed one with forest on top.
There's a new housing development going up much nearer it soon.

@museumum there is a canal not far.
It looks like the area was an old brickwork factory, I think it's unlikely any toxic waste went in it? The searches came back as no toxicity, but I don't know how accurate they are.

its a double edge sword - it should be fine but still disconcerting having the unknown but on the plus side it will not be developed.

Upon further research it seems the area within 200m from the house was a small domestic landfill, that's been built on since!
The old industrial landfill, with a forest over it, is nearly 500m away.
Considering the prices of the houses in the area I am just going to assume we'll be all right to continue with our purchase.

Go for it @Potaytoe5

I was going to buy a house in a similar situation. We commissioned an environmental survey and eventually pulled out due to concerns about emissions and the fact that the surveyor said this was a badly managed site which might leak (there was a stream at the end of the garden).

The fact that he said there was always a possibility that any site could be reopened put us off too.

@CatherinedeBourgh do you remember how far away was the landfill and how long ago was it shut down?
Houses seem to be selling quickly there so not sure if that will actually be a problem... not cheap either. Might contact my solicitor.

Can't remember how far it was, a couple of fields away. It had been shut down for at least 20 years. There was an option to sell the house back to the landfill operator if there were emissions over a certain level, which is how we learnt about the existence of the landfill in the first place.

House wasn't at all cheap either, was otherwise a picture perfect farmhouse in a beautiful location.

Humans have spent the last 2000 years turning the planet into a landfill site. No reason to think a "modern" one is any more of a concern than anywhere else.

Thanks for the reply @CatherinedeBourgh .
I think it might be a bit different situation in our case.
The house we are buying is on an estate, there's probably about 50-100 more houses in between ours and the old landfill area. All houses about 40 years old.
None of them have problems selling.
A new housing development is being built within 100m of the old landfill area as well. Solicitors didn't flag it as a problem.

The house we are buying is also backing onto council allotments. I'd like to believe they wouldn't let people plant veg on toxic soil!
Either this, or we will be on the news soon...!

@TimeFlysWhenYoureHavingRum My current house is 50m away from a busy A road, 1 mile away from the motorway, half a mile away from a current recycling centre (it stinks near it) and a former landfill.
At least the one we are buying has a nature reserve on the doorstep and no busy roads. I can't really win can I!