Phase two of private housing development sold off to social housing

[kingdom1979]

We live on a development which was built in two phases. (I am not naming the builders for now)

 

Most people have been living here for 2 - 3 years at which stage there were apparently no plans for social housing on the site. Many of us were actually told prior to purchase that the development was 100% private and that there would be no social housing.

 

We found out two weeks ago that they have now sold 100% of phase two to social housing. This means we now have approx 22 social houses and apartments on the development.

 

At a meeting we discussed with the builders that we were told at the time of purchase that the entire development would be private and that we feel we have been mislead. The builders are claiming the fact that at the time this information was correct and that they only decided to sell to the council at the start of 2010 - so in their eyes we were never lied to.

 

Now I want to stress that this is only an issue regarding house values - we paid private estate amounts to live on a private / social estate. This is NOT a class issue - just financial. I've seen reports to say anywhere between 15-30k has been wiped off house prices due to this kind of behaviour

 

I have seen online similar cases like these where residents of estates have complained about the same issue and that they planned to take their respective builders to court, but there has never been any follow articles - so perhaps one of the following happened:

 

1) it never made it to court because there was no justification to do so

 

2) it never made it court because the builders paid an out of court settlement

 

I did notice a similar case of David Wilson Home who were taken to county court for the same thing - one person got paid an out of court settlement of £7k - the other took it right through to the end....but I cannot find the outcome of this.

 

Could anyone please advise? We are considering legal advice but I would be interest to hear from anyone who has dealt with these issues before.

[cerberusalert]

Have you checked the planning applications?

[kingdom1979]

It was not in the original plans - the builders have admitted this. They got planning permission from the council but no one in the development saw the notices (and he have some right nosey parkers on here) Millers nor the council ,at this time, can pinpoint where the notices were posted on site.

None of the residents were informed of the proposals.

[cerberusalert]

AFAIK when planning permissions are applied for, even retrospective permissions a letter is sent from the Planning Department to those who may be directly affected,... which is normally adjoining properties, also a notice is supposed to be placed on the public highway on a lamp-post nearest to the proposed development along with a public notice in the local paper.

 

Have you googled the address & seen what's thrown up?

 

You have the right to appeal to the Secretary of State within 6 months of the decision (or 3 months in the case of a Householder application).

[cerberusalert]

Have a read through Planning Portal - Guidance on the appeal process & see if there's anything there that may help.

[Andymcq]

My sympathies this is about to happen to us, on a massive scale- area that was phase 2 of our estate is now going to become an extension of the other housing around us and insteda of 50+ private homess it could be 300+ social dwellings and the through route is next to our house, thankfully no formal plans have been submitted yet!

[kingdom1979]

Well it seems our fight has moved on to the local council - they admitted they wanted social housing in the area and thats why planning permission was changed.

They only informed a small section of the residents and no one saw any planning permission notices up - we have questioned this and they have not been very forthcoming with the required information.

 

People have already started to move in now so there is not much we can do now really...good luck with yours

[caro]

It's quite unusual for a development to get planning permission which doesn't include social housing, and I'd be surprised if a development of 300 properties was ever intended to be exclusively private. I don't know the exact criteria, but it's to do with Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act.

 

http://www.walsall.gov.uk/index/environment/planning/section_106_agreements/s106_faq.htm

[MARTIN3030]

Will move your thread from here.