This is a bit of a strange one but I would be grateful for any advice or suggestions:

We are currently selling our house and it was all going well until the Solicitor called us with the result of the local search.  Our house is nearby copper contaminated land.  We bought the house new from Persimmon and nothing showed up previously.  Other houses are also selling in the area.  The estate agent says that this copper thing has only showed up within the last 4 months on properties in the area.  Our Solicitor has contacted Persimmon who is sending a letter (by the end of this week) to say the land has been given clearance and is safe.

I am extremely anxious now that the sale will fall through and leave us with a house that may not sell very well.  Does anyone have any experience of copper contamination in selling/buying houses?  What does it mean?  How bad is it?

I am kind of hoping that it just means that the soil is rubbish and you can't grow plants very well - I am not a gardener anyway!

Any messages would be much appreciated.

If you go to the website www.homesearch.co.uk, and type in your post code, it will give you a brief environmental study - ie risk of flooding/subsidence/historical use of land/landfill/mining etc etc.   It may wel be that house develoment was built on a landfill site, or (I think you live in Barking) on one of the old industrial sites (brown sites) which has been redeveloped.    You should get a letter of clearance from Persimmon or - if the ground is still contaminated - some proposal for recompense.

Hope all goes well.

Margot