Property developer and a gentlemans agreement

What would you do?

Spouse's family sold land to a developer. The land floods and needs significant drainage. The developer wants to install large diameter underground pipes to carry the water to a nearby river.

The route to the river means the developer needs to put the large underground pipes through a site I own plus the site my home sits on plus lands still retained by my spouses family!

Nothing in the contract of sale says we must allow the developer to do this BUT there was a gentlemans agreement to give access. This agreement was well before my time, before my home was built and I was not party to any of it.However other family members will give access no problem.

I have concerns about significant disruption if it goes ahead, possible devaluation of my home, inability to build on the second site, inability to get planning permission for the second site, capacity of the pipe to carry the water, pipe blockage or failure leading to flooding me etc.

Final point the developer has other routes to the river through 3rd party owned land and I assume would be told either a) no way or b) would have to pay a fortune for the access!

Don't want to fall out with the family, but don't want to let the thing go ahead either, not really looking to extort money myself....... any advice?

If you genuinely believe that even one of the things you mention above could happen i.e.inability to build etc., then I would not allow this to go ahead. Explain your reasons to the family. I'd imagine large underground pipes would cause more than a little disruption, muck and dirt and you'd have to accept someone's word that they'll finish the job! Also what effect might they have on your land is a very good question.

I am afraid I disagree. When you refer to a site that you own, is it a site that you bought on the open market or is it a site given (or cheaply sold) off spouses family land?

If the site was given by the family, my opinion is that (morally certainly, legally possibly) you would have to honour whatever agreement they had with the developer.

If it was sold cheap to you\your spouse, I would still say that you should honour the agreement.

If it was sold to ye at full value, but either of ye knew of the agreement with the developer before going ahead, I would still say that you should honour the agreement.

If ye paid full value for the site, and didn't know about this agreement when doing so, then morally and legally, you do not in my opinion have any obligation to honour the agreement. (though personally, I would still be inclined to do so, rather than alienate family)

I would not be overly worried about inability to get planning in the future, unless your site is extremely narrow. A surface water wayleave can be restricted to as little as 5 metres width and would still be quite adequate.

If the pipe involves deep excavation, the developer can do two things:

1. He can dig a fairly straight-walled trench and use trench supports (slightly dearer for him) OR

2. He can excavate a trench with sloping sides - if it is at 45 degrees, this means that a five metre deep trench will involve destroying 10 metre strip of lawn above and a lot more excavation in general (possibly making future building more expensive, if it is close to future building).

There would certainly be nothing wrong in you insisting on the use of option 1, and this does mean being physically on site and getting things straight with the diggerman day 1.

You could at the very least insist on the developer providing you with detailed drawings and specifications for any proposed civil work, prepared by a chartered engineer. You could then have these drawings independently scrutinised by an engineer retained by you. If you agree to the developer proceeding with the work you can seek to have your outlay in terms of professional fees reimbursed. You could have some minor work done as a "goodwill gesture" also, e.g replace an old boundary or some additional planting. An experienced developer will expect some sort of "horse trading" in this situation I imagine.

MOB is right - when you say a site you own (and the houses site), did you (and spouse) get these/buy them from the spouses family? If so your spouse knew of this gentlemans agreement.