New buildings at the bottom of our garden causing problems and devaluing our property

[helmsman]

hi,
Well heres a bummer, new buildings houses and flats being built on empty land at the bottom of our garden, totally taken our privacy now are garden has flooded for the first time in 17 years of living here and now a local estate agent has said our property is now worth 20000+ less than 6 months ago. GREAT.

[PlanB]

Re: Reclaiming Mortgage Arrears Charges

hi,
Well heres a bummer, new buildings houses and flats being built on empty land at the bottom of our garden, totally taken our privacy now are garden has flooded for the first time in 17 years of living here and now a local estate agent has said our property is now worth 20000+ less than 6 months ago. GREAT.

This often happens and you may have a claim against your Local Authority who granted the planning consent in the first place if that has been the cause of any devaluation of your property

* Can you start a new thread on this or I can do that for you with a little help from my technical support team

[PlanB]

Re: New buildings at the bottom of our garden causing problems and devaluing our property

New thread created for this issue as totally separate from T999's mortgage woes.

Thanks to Flowerpower who is supervising my Mod internship

[PlanB]

Re: New buildings at the bottom of our garden causing problems and devaluing our property

hi,
Well heres a bummer, new buildings houses and flats being built on empty land at the bottom of our garden, totally taken our privacy now are garden has flooded for the first time in 17 years of living here and now a local estate agent has said our property is now worth 20000+ less than 6 months ago. GREAT.

You've got two different things to battle here. One you should win and one you may not

Firstly Planning Consent is mostly based on the actual development to be built with no real consideration for neighbours or their privacy unless it's within a few meters from a habital room such as your bedroom or bathroom. Even then the rules will only make the developer put frosted glass in the offending window which is a bit silly because what happens if the window is then opened

I'm afraid if you read this factsheet from the Communities and Local Government department (4 yrs old but still current policy) you'll see that "the effect on local property values is not a planning consideration"

http://tna.europarchive.org/20081107...ningfactsheet/

However all is not lost if you can find an error in the council's planning consultation (they make loads) which could render the consent invalid in the first place Did you take part in the consulation phase ?

But you'll have more luck with the flooding issue since that's the contractor's problem and not a local authority issue. Is the development a small private firm or one of the biggies such as Wimpey, Barratt or Taylor Woodrow? A little more info and I'll see if I can point you in the right direction to get this stopped, put right, and then you may be compensated for any damaged caused

[helmsman]

Re: New buildings at the bottom of our garden causing problems and devaluing our property

You've got two different things to battle here. One you should win and one you may not

Firstly Planning Consent is mostly based on the actual development to be built with no real consideration for neighbours or their privacy unless it's within a few meters from a habital room such as your bedroom or bathroom. Even then the rules will only make the developer put frosted glass in the offending window which is a bit silly because what happens if the window is then opened

I'm afraid if you read this factsheet from the Communities and Local Government department (4 yrs old but still current policy) you'll see that "the effect on local property values is not a planning consideration"

http://tna.europarchive.org/20081107...ningfactsheet/

However all is not lost if you can find an error in the council's planning consultation (they make loads) which could render the consent invalid in the first place Did you take part in the consulation phase ?

But you'll have more luck with the flooding issue since that's the contractor's problem and not a local authority issue. Is the development a small private firm or one of the biggies such as Wimpey, Barratt or Taylor Woodrow? A little more info and I'll see if I can point you in the right direction to get this stopped, put right, and then you may be compensated for any damaged caused

Hi Plan B,
Thanks for this, we were not consulted as such we were told we would not be overlooked ect, but they changed the plans midway I believe, have complained to the council about everything they are looking into it. The company is Chartway Group.
Willl try to find out more, how will I be able to check if the council followed procedure?.
Many Thanks
Helmsman

[PlanB]

Re: New buildings at the bottom of our garden causing problems and devaluing our property

we were not consulted as such we were told we would not be overlooked ect, but they changed the plans midway I believe, have complained to the council about everything they are looking into it. The company is Chartway Group.
Willl try to find out more, how will I be able to check if the council followed procedure?.

The council has a statutory obligation to consult all neighbours abutting and within a certain distance (depending on the location e.g. town vs country) of any new development. This must be done by door-to-door letters (questionnaire), site notices (on trees or lamposts), Highways Management (road and access issues), the Conservation Officer (if it's in a Conservation area), and publish it in the local paper. If they haven't done this properly then they could have a problem.

To check who they did or didn't consult go to your local authority website where this information should be published. Here's an example of what you should see which will tell you exactly who was consulted and usually the responses

http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/planning...cookiedlg=done

If the plans changed halfway through I understand a fresh consultation is necessary unless it was only a slight modification of the original.

How far has the development progressed? If it's only recently started then you may be able to get it halted while the investigation takes place. But if it's already half-built I fear the council will take the view it would not be "proportionate" to do a U-Turn and that would leave you with expensive litigation if you want to frustrate this development

But that won't stop you seeking compensation if your home has been blighted as a result of something the council didn't do properly. You can pursue this for free through the council's complaints procedure and then on to the Local Government Ombudsman, but their compensation payouts are woefully small

http://www.lgo.org.uk/making-a-complaint/

[PlanB]

Re: New buildings at the bottom of our garden causing problems and devaluing our property

The company is Chartway Group.

On a more positive note the Chartway Group boast a predicted turnover of £19 million pounds in the next eighteen months so I'm sure they can afford to sort out any problems they may have caused you They will have a Project Manager on the job so why not contact them direct about the flooding and see if they can remedy this for you using the details on their website because they genuinely may not be fully aware of the issue until you tell them

http://www.chartwaygroup.co.uk/

[helmsman]

Re: New buildings at the bottom of our garden causing problems and devaluing our property

On a more positive note the Chartway Group boast a predicted turnover of £19 million pounds in the next eighteen months so I'm sure they can afford to sort out any problems they may have caused you They will have a Project Manager on the job so why not contact them direct about the flooding and see if they can remedy this for you using the details on their website because they genuinely may not be fully aware of the issue until you tell them

http://www.chartwaygroup.co.uk/

Hi,
Thanks yes I have brought it to their attention and they said they have not done anything that would cause the flooding but will check and let us know if they find anything. will have a read of the other suggestions, many thanks Plan B for the time you have taken and the links.

[MrsD]

Re: New buildings at the bottom of our garden causing problems and devaluing our property

Helmie

as the mother of a lovely construction engineer
the chef du monde of said construction engineers many construction engineer colleagues

they will never never ever ever admit that they might have made a wee teeny mistake, even if you are manning the lifeboats and the titantic is lodged in your wall, they will not admit that they might have dug in the wrong place,

trust me!