Contaminated land and conveyancing
This page contains information on contaminated land and the buying and selling property.
As a seller you are advised to research your land so that you know what may be revealed by the purchasers enquiries. This will help with planning your move especially if you are to make financial and time commitments with another party.
As a purchaser your solicitor will probably make enquiries as to the condition of the ground by purchasing a report available from a commercial organisation. This has been the norm since July 2001 when the Law Society issued a warning card to all solicitors setting out the action they should take in all conveyancing transactions to highlight contaminated land issues to clients.
Should you have complaint about a solicitor then you should contact the firm directly that dealt with you. The council cannot become involved in this.
Prior to lending the mortgage company will probably also require assurance that the land is not contaminated.
The searches
The searches that are carried out during conveyancing will normally include a local land charges search and a commercially available environmental search. The local land charges search asks specific questions about the content of the IIA public register. This is a register of our regulatory actions and not of the quality of land within the borough.
Visit the Sources of Information about land page.
Last updated : 22/11/2010
