Did your conveyancing solicitor fail to advise you about a planning permission issue affecting a property you bought?

If so, you may be entitled to compensation, although perhaps not as much as the £1.5million recovered by the claimant in the the recent High Court case of  Orientfield Holdings Ltd v Bird & Bird LLP [2015] EWHC 1963 (Ch) (26 June 2015) who agreed to buy for over £25million the house pictured below, which it turned out was affected by a significant planning permission issue.

In that case, after contacts were exchanged and the claimant had paid a deposit of over £2.5million, she found out from a friend that planning permission applications had been granted for significant development (creating two schools with a capacity of 1250 pupils) near to the property.

Her solicitors had known before contracts were exchanged that planning permission had been granted, but failed to inform her of the fact.

The claimant was concerned that the development would have a huge impact on the value of her investment, and about noise and security.

She withdrew from the purchase, refusing to complete. The vendor refused to return the deposit and the ensuing dispute was settled on terms that the claimant forfeit (give up) half of the deposit and pay the vendors’ legal fees. As a result, the failed transaction left the claimant over £1.5million out of pocket, which she recovered from her negligent solicitors after a lengthy and difficult fight.

If you are unhappy with any legal advice about planning permission affecting a property you have bought and would like to speak to someone in confidence about your options, call us now on 0330 050 5254 or , when the office is closed, email us at enquiries@cap-law.co.uk

We offer a full range of funding options, including conditional fee agreements (also known as ‘no win, no fee’ and ’no win, low fee’), fixed fees, legal expenses insurance, damages based agreements, as well as the standard hourly rate retainer.