TA6 - seller's non-disclosure of neighbour's planning
Discussion
Long story cut short:
1. We had an offer on a house we viewed, accepted in July this year. At no point from the seller or selling agent was there any mention of significant development work being planned/done to the neighbouring property.
2. TA6 arrived clearly stating:
3. Nothing heard from solicitor re any issues/planning on neighbours (or surrounding) properties. Took it is read that we were buying something as advertised and as we had visited several times to view.
4. Exchange and complete Mid October.
Week 1 - 3 days after moving in the neighbours start taking down their high hedge border that separates the two properties
Week 2 - builders and machinery arrive and start to dig foundations to build what looks to be a big bit of extension work.
A look at the planning applications website brings up the plans (approved March 2020) which is a big double story extension towards our house (by 3meters) and to the front of their house by 3 meters,
Week 3/4- As the extension has progressed, it's clearly beginning to block out light that goes directly into our living room/landings (which faces the extension). The plans/documents show that the sellers were clearly consulted in writing and knew about the extension.
TBH, I'm not really sure what to do (if anything), we love the house we've bought, but the light issue is concerning, as is how it will potentially overlook our property. Not that this should make any difference, but this wasn't a cheap purchase, it's our 'forever home' to house us and our 4 kids, so there was a lot of specific criteria that went into it.
Are we at fault for not checking ourselves? My first instinct is they should have disclosed this, especially as they were consulted? Should our solicitors have raised/seen this in their checks?
TIA
1. We had an offer on a house we viewed, accepted in July this year. At no point from the seller or selling agent was there any mention of significant development work being planned/done to the neighbouring property.
2. TA6 arrived clearly stating:
3. Nothing heard from solicitor re any issues/planning on neighbours (or surrounding) properties. Took it is read that we were buying something as advertised and as we had visited several times to view.
4. Exchange and complete Mid October.
Week 1 - 3 days after moving in the neighbours start taking down their high hedge border that separates the two properties
Week 2 - builders and machinery arrive and start to dig foundations to build what looks to be a big bit of extension work.
A look at the planning applications website brings up the plans (approved March 2020) which is a big double story extension towards our house (by 3meters) and to the front of their house by 3 meters,
Week 3/4- As the extension has progressed, it's clearly beginning to block out light that goes directly into our living room/landings (which faces the extension). The plans/documents show that the sellers were clearly consulted in writing and knew about the extension.
TBH, I'm not really sure what to do (if anything), we love the house we've bought, but the light issue is concerning, as is how it will potentially overlook our property. Not that this should make any difference, but this wasn't a cheap purchase, it's our 'forever home' to house us and our 4 kids, so there was a lot of specific criteria that went into it.
Are we at fault for not checking ourselves? My first instinct is they should have disclosed this, especially as they were consulted? Should our solicitors have raised/seen this in their checks?
TIA
I can't help on the legal side I'm afraid but in your shoes I'd be spitting mad and would be straight onto my solicitor to get them to explain exactly how they missed this.
It may be hard to show financial loss but again in my uneducated eyes this would appear to be an open-and-shut case against the seller if you can genuinely prove that they lied on the disclosure forms.
It may be hard to show financial loss but again in my uneducated eyes this would appear to be an open-and-shut case against the seller if you can genuinely prove that they lied on the disclosure forms.
I read a court case on a related matter (via Bailli) about a guy who bought a house only to move in to find a flight path operated above it. He'd asked the conveyancing team if there was anything, prior to purchase, that would affect amenity etc? Outcome was he won and conveyancy company has to compensate. I'd say both the solicitor and sellers are exposed to a claim but I'd wager that such a claim would have to demonstrate a financial loss.
We are moving at the moment too - I have personally searched the planning portals as I wanted to check out the details on a nearby extension, but my solicitor provided all of these to me in the same report that had the water pipe searches etc.
Check that document to see whether it was picked up by the search company. Someone has messed up though,
Check that document to see whether it was picked up by the search company. Someone has messed up though,
To be fair to the seller, it is possible they knew nothing about the planned extension if they don’t converse much with their neighbours and many don’t. When I built ours 17 odd years ago we showed both sides the plans and they were quite happy and said they would have no objections as and when the council send the planning application through. One side received it, the others never heard a dicky bird. Obviously none of this exonerates the OP’s solicitor who seems to have royally f
ked up
ked upsurveyor said:
I would have thought that searches should have picked this up? I'd be asking why not?
That was my firs thought, so a formal email has been fired off to them to find out why we weren't notified. My gut feeling says they were lazy and took the false information on the TA6 as gospel, without doing a full/proper check.55palfers said:
Would you have still bought the house if this extension had been finished when you viewed?
Difficult to tell until it's finished, but if we'd have known about the extent of the works it would have certainly made us consider the option of buying, especially after seeing the plans.Boosted LS1 said:
Is there any sort of a 'positive' to be had from the extension?
One could argue the extension and renovation works will increase the value of their property and in turn increase the value of ours, however if the light/privacy is impacted as much as we fear then that's not a great trade off.Reading the planing notice summary it states: "The south west corner of the proposed two storey extension is approximately 1.6m away from the boundary with the neighbouring property known as xxxxx. Whilst this neighbouring property sits slightly higher than the site there are no windows proposed to the southern elevation and it is not considered that this element of the extension would have an overbearing effect on this neighbour."
As it stands there's nothing positive an extension of this ilk can/will bring to us. We have already lost significant levels of privacy, and will lose more light.
Thinking about it, it's going to be very difficult to put a figure on this.
Zetec-S said:
Incentive for the OP to extend their own property out in line with the neighbour's extension?
(paid for by suing whoever fked up on the checks)
I wish it was that simple, the houses on the road are all built individually (at different times in the past 100 years) so are totally non-uniform and valued differently. Our house was built on a plot of land sold in the 60's by the owner of the house 2 along, which was part of the charm because it was/is totally surrounded by its own borders and non-intrusive. Our house has in the past 2 years has had significant expansion/extension/reniovations, so it was in respect our perfect house for our family to move into without issue. The irony is the developer who extended/renovated our house is the same developer doing the extension next door!(paid for by suing whoever f
ked up on the checks)s55shh said:
how much less would you have bought the house for if you knew?
Putting a value on this is going to be very hard. In my head it would have a been a case of buying or not buying, not seeing a knock down price. So we're going to have to give all this some serious thought.Edited by kmpowell on Thursday 12th November 18:12
kmpowell said:
surveyor said:
I would have thought that searches should have picked this up? I'd be asking why not?
That was my firs thought, so a formal email has been fired off to them to find out why we weren't notified. My gut feeling says they were lazy and took the false information on the TA6 as gospel, without doing a full/proper check.55palfers said:
Would you have still bought the house if this extension had been finished when you viewed?
Difficult to tell until it's finished, but if we'd have known about the extent of the works it would have certainly made us consider the option of buying, especially after seeing the plans.Boosted LS1 said:
Is there any sort of a 'positive' to be had from the extension?
One could argue the extension and renovation works will increase the value of their property and in turn increase the value of ours, however if the light/privacy is impacted as much as we fear then that's not a great trade off.Reading the planing notice summary it states: "The south west corner of the proposed two storey extension is approximately 1.6m away from the boundary with the neighbouring property known as xxxxx. Whilst this neighbouring property sits slightly higher than the site there are no windows proposed to the southern elevation and it is not considered that this element of the extension would have an overbearing effect on this neighbour."
As it stands there's nothing positive an extension of this ilk can/will bring to us. We have already lost significant levels of privacy, and will lose more light.
Thinking about it, it's going to be very difficult to put a figure on this.
Zetec-S said:
Incentive for the OP to extend their own property out in line with the neighbour's extension?
(paid for by suing whoever fked up on the checks)
I wish it was that simple, the houses on the road are all built individually (at different times in the past 100 years) so are totally non-uniform and valued differently. Our house was built on a plot of land sold in the 60's by the owner of the house 2 along, which was part of the charm because it was/is totally surrounded by its own borders and non-intrusive. Our house has in the past 2 years has had significant expansion/extension/reniovations, so it was in respect our perfect house for our family to move into without issue. The irony is the developer who extended/renovated our house is the same developer doing the extension next door!(paid for by suing whoever f
ked up on the checks)s55shh said:
how much less would you have bought the house for if you knew?
Putting a value on this is going to be very hard. In my head it would have a been a case of buying or not buying, not seeing a knock down price. So we're going to have to give all this some serious thought.Edited by kmpowell on Thursday 12th November 18:12
kmpowell said:
Putting a value on this is going to be very hard. In my head it would have a been a case of buying or not buying, not seeing a knock down price. So we're going to have to give all this some serious thought.
Stamp Duty? - could it be argued you incurred that through decision to buy & you’d incur it again buying something of same value.Edited by kmpowell on Thursday 12th November 18:12
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