General Chat

We've been trying to sell our house for ages. We got an offer in March and accepted. Then we went and found the house of our dreams. Today our buyer pulled out. I'm devastated. It seems the land our house is built on was once owned by a sewage farm. This closed and was sold to the local council in the 1960's who built houses approximately 20 years later. Now the land searches have come up as our land possibly being contaminated. The council say they are not in a position to say whether it is or isn't. I'm so upset. I really don't want to be in this house any more. We will also now incur solicitors charges which we can't afford as we were going to pay the costs with the equity we earned from the house. I wrote to my local MP today to see if he can help.

Hi Naomi, poor you. Have a chat to the estate agent manager - ask him for information about completed sales on other properties in your street/estate. You cannot be the only house on this land!! I used to work for an estate agent, and would just say that without vendors, they have no business - you are their boss. They should be pulling out all the stops to sell your property and if they are not, then ditch them and go to someone else who will!! Look around the streets near you and see if any other agent is completing sales more than the others, then give them a call for advice/opinions too. Good luck and be FIRM!!! Maz. XX

hi naomi thats horrid, the stress involved in moving in dreadful, it really needs to be sorted perhaps by using the scottish method, how could your land be contaminated? surely when you purchased it all the searches and stuff were done?, if not then you would have a claim on your lawyer, hope things look better soon marcie x

Cheers Maz & Marcie, Our Estate Agent is the one that sells the most although haven't seen many in our paticular area being sold. The man from the estate agents actually lives on our estate too. When we bought the house, the searches came up that it was previoulsy owned by the sewage farm but there was no mention of possible contamination.

When you purchased your property did your solicitor complete a search of the property. If so he could be liable for any expenses that you may incur due to his negligence at not discovering the problem before you bought the property

Hi Ernest, I've thrown away all the original paperwork now.(I think) However, I'm sure we were told the land had been owned by a sewage farm but there was no mention of contaminated land. I'm going to have a dig around at home. Naomi

Hi Naomi, So sorry to hear about the problems with your sale. There must be someone who is able to tell you exactly how you stand re the environmental issues. Hope you find things wiil go the way you want. Sue