Sorry to pry and if you don't wish to answer that is fine but how were you forced to by an environmental search when you bought your home.

Your solicitor will probably have suggested it so that they cover themselves from liability inline with the advice from the law society.  
But as an informed professional I would have thought you would have refused the search and just phoned the council and asked if they had any reason to believe there was a problem or gone on the homesearch website and paid landmark £35 for essentially the same search without the maps (i.e. it just gives you the this industry /activity is x meters from that property etc.)
When I bought my house 8 months ago the solicitor actually said to me that she had to ask if I wanted it as it was company policy, I refused and just phoned my counterpart in the relevant LA and asked what he new about the house and the surroundings

Thanks
 
Gareth Rees Mgeol (HONS) FGS 
Contaminated Land Officer 
 
Harborough District Council
Council Offices
Adam and Eve Street
Market Harborough
Leicestershire
LE16 7AG
 
Telephone:   01858 82 1174
 
Email: [log in to unmask]

-----Original Message-----
From: Contaminated Land Management Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Clive Williams
Sent: 03 February 2011 09:27
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Determination under Part 2a

First thing for the home owner to do is to obtain a copy of the determination. Is it possible that the buyers solicitor has purchased one of those utterly useless environmental searches from a consultant that provides little in the way of balanced reasoned argument and plenty of caveats as to why the consultant will not accept any liabilty for the accuracy of the information that has cost £300 to purchase. Check the environmental report to see exactly what it says - it may be the case that the determined property is within the search radius and the bone idle consultant has just glanced at the data, made a glib statement without explaining the context and left the decision up to uninformed home buyers who have seen the word CONTAMINATED and run a mile. (You might get the feeling that I am a little bit cynical about these documents, having been forced to buy one for my current house which was worse than useless and riddled with unnecessarily scary words and factual inaccuracies).

If it transpires that the property has indeed been determined which is hard to believe is the case without the home owners knowledge then speak to the local authority

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Harborough District Council
Council Offices
Adam and Eve Street
Market Harborough
Leicestershire
LE16 7AG


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