Failed environmental search

[Moomin2020]

We are in the process of buying a house, it’s an old Victoria terrace. We’ve had a home buyers survey done which didn’t bring up anything unexpected.

today we’ve had the search results done and the environmental search has failed. It says:

’in the Professional Opinion of the Environmental Risk Team the property is on or within 25 metres of one or more former industrial
land uses depicted on historic Ordnance Survey maps (shown in the table below), which could result in a risk of the property being
determined Contaminated Land under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990’

and goes on to say…

‘We recommend undertaking further enquiries to obtain evidence which could mitigate the identified risk, and if
supplied to us for a Free Review may allow us to revise the Professional Opinion to a 'Pass' result.
You may already have mitigating evidence at hand for an immediate review. Examples of such information includes NHBC Building
Warranties, or planning records. Please see Section 1.02 for more detailed guidance on what information to look for and what to
send to us for a Free Review.
If such information is not readily available, then we recommend enquiries are made with the relevant regulatory authorities, which
could include the Local Authority Environmental Health and Planning Departments, and in some cases the Environment
Agency/Natural Resources Wales and the local Petroleum Enforcement Authority. Regulators often take between 10-20 working days
to respond to enquiries, and you or your professional advisors can complete these yourself.
However, given the nature of the work you may prefer to instruct an experienced environmental professional to act on your behalf,
analyse the responses and provide a written risk summary. If required, our in-house environmental experts can undertake these
enquiries, conduct a more detailed risk analysis of the property and provide you with a written ‘Enviro Appraisal' report which is
available from £245 + VAT. This fee includes any third-party costs we incur as a result of charges levied by the regulators for making
the enquiries. This report will consider relevant planning records, any available site investigations or surveys, and the regulator's contaminated land strategy in relation to the property’

Our solicitors had advised getting indemnity insurance.

I don’t really understand any of it! We haven’t had a lenders survey done yet but is this likely to make them devalue the house? Or will the indemnity insurance satisfy them? Any advice or experience welcome!!

I think given the age of the house it’s unlikely to on contaminated land itself. Do you what was nearby in the past? It must be pretty close. Was there a garage nearby with old fuel tanks? I’d do a bit of research and then decide what to do. The information should be easy to find. Local history Facebook groups often post old photos

I am an environmental consultant. It appears that the property is situated near a historic industrial premises which could have resulted in contaminated soil or groundwater...which potentially could be a risk to human health.

I would recommend instructing the environmental professionals to undertake their appraisal. This is essentially a source - pathway - receptor model using open source data. If either the source, pathway or receptor can be ruled out, then they will pass the environmental search. This seems like a reasonable price...we usually charge circa £1,500 for this type of assessment.

If it fails again, the next stage may be a ground investigation, inclusive of soil samples, groundwater sampling and analysis at a laboratory to see if the levels of contamination are hazardous to human health. This element is considerably more expensive and is really driven by what the historic land use was.

Depending on when the current residents bought the property, this type of assessment may already have been done and ruled out the source, pathway, receptor linkage and it would just be a case of tracking down this report /analysis.

Hope this is helpful.

It’s next to an old gas works tank. I’m not too concerned about the land itself, more concerned about the lender not lending based on that info

Yes, the lender won't provide a mortgage on a property that could potentially have a risk to human health. Gasworks are particularly contaminated and have a legacy of contamination - soil, groundwater and ground gas. Best to instruct the appraisal...they may be able to determine the direction groundwater travels in... hopefully down gradient of your property i.e away from your property.

Thanks for the info, that’s helpful! I’m just wondering how the previous owners successfully got a mortgage on the property (and every other house in the street?) the previous owners purchased the property in 2017

2019*

i would go back to the estate agent and tell them about the search and the gas tank. The vendor may have more information, the searches from when they purchased the property.
Was it one of those huge gasometers? Has the land been redeveloped? If it has it’s probably been decontaminated and you should be able to find records of this, you could just ring the relevant council office, most are helpful. The gas works could be a good distance away if it was a gasometer.
You may need the survey but I’d explore other avenues first.

My friend had this come up. It meant he had a headache when trying to extend and ultimately wasn't able to unless he spent a fortune. If you're not planning to build on the land I'd assume it's fine (bear in mind, I'm a novice with no knowledge).

It’s a giant gas holder, no longer in use and it was due to be demolished but that was in 2016 and nothing happened since. Pic for reference! I’ll try calling the council, thanks

We aren’t planning too, and couldn’t anyway as there’s no space! But interestingly it has historically been extended to add a kitchen and indoor bathroom

This is so helpful, I really love that experts occupy mumsnet.

That is good news. It means there should be atleast one environmental appraisal for the property somewhere... perhaps sitting with the council, or with the previous owners solicitors. Not 100% sure where all these reports get stored as part of the process of buying a house ?! Anyway, as long as this appraisal is adequate and didn't raise any concerns, it should be fine. If you instruct the environmental appraisal the consultants should be able to find previous assessment and nail this on the head. Just unfortunate that it is an extra bit of money you weren't expecting 👌

Can you please tell me how it end up this? I am in the same situation with exactly the same report. Your search it was done by “Dye & Durham?

Hi! My memory in this is so hazy, I got in touch with our local council and requested records of anything relevant. They were helpful and sent us all the info and after seeking advice from several professionals - including the surveyors they said the indemnity insurance wasn’t needed. Sorry that’s as much as I can remember! It didn’t cause us any issues though x