Conveyancing issue

[Kwackersaki]

Hi,

We've recently moved house and one of the reasons for choosing it was that it was in a small cul-de-sac with a shared driveway owned by four properties. At the very end was another house on a one acre plot which originally owned the drive and still retains access.

The owners of this house have applied for planning permission to develop the land and this has been ongoing for a while, before we moved in.

My question is, should this fact have been picked up by the conveyances when they did all the searches? There is nor mention of it in any of our paperwork.

[TooMany2cvs]

Kwackersaki said:

My question is, should this fact have been picked up by the conveyances when they did all the searches? There is nor mention of it in any of our paperwork.

The normal searches don't typically include planning permission applications for surrounding properties, no. But you could have very easily checked them yourself.

[Kwackersaki]

My mistake then, I'd always assumed that's what you paid them for.

[bobtail4x4]

they only look for surrounding property planning if you pay extra,

[55palfers]

Kwackersaki said:

My mistake then, I'd always assumed that's what you paid them for.

Me too.

What do they actually look for then?

[TooMany2cvs]

55palfers said:

Kwackersaki said:

My mistake then, I'd always assumed that's what you paid them for.

Me too.

What do they actually look for then?

http://hoa.org.uk/advice/guides-for-homeowners/i-a...

[Muncher]

They will search if explicitly asked to do so but the issue is most people will not be prepared to pay the costs of doing the search, which is about £40.

[GipsyHillClimber]

As others have said, it's unfortunately not always thrown in as standard as the searches you pay for and Local Searches don't covers planning permission nearby to the same degree.

I think in most scenarios a planning search is a good idea but i guess everybody would be disgruntled paying for it without the option to opt out.

Did you not get a "menu" of searches that would or could be conducted? I.e. those that included in your fee already and those you could opt in and pay extra for? If you didn't get that visibility, i would say that's pretty poor conveyancing practice.

Just as a side note the amount of hits that came back on this search for me was astonishing (probably normal for London), so i went through the report to figure out what exactly was being planned and whether it actually bothered me but as i say it's to be expected for London.

[essayer]

Shouldn't your vendors have mentioned it on the property information form? TA6 3.2 "Is the seller aware of any proposals to develop property or land nearby"

If they received the planning notice in the post or objected to it (check on the planning website) but didn't give that information, then that's a bit naughty - not sure what recourse you'd have if any..

Hopefully your conveyancer did check all legalities re access, maintenance on the shared road.

[Kwackersaki]

There was a menu option and I'll have to check.

Overall they were pretty dire though and I wish I'd checked the google reviews before going ahead.

[Kwackersaki]

essayer said:

Shouldn't your vendors have mentioned it on the property information form? TA6 3.2 "Is the seller aware of any proposals to develop property or land nearby"

If they received the planning notice in the post or objected to it (check on the planning website) but didn't give that information, then that's a bit naughty - not sure what recourse you'd have if any..

Hopefully your conveyancer did check all legalities re access, maintenance on the shared road.

I believe they did declare it but a quick scan through the paperwork doesn't seem to refer to it. I'll have a more detailed look tonight.

There isn't much I can do other than add it to the list of general "how crap was our service" on the feedback form.