The Ampneys Super-Highway
Compensation Claims
If the value of your property is affected by the new road you may be able to obtain compensation. You have until 2004 to make the claim. The following advertisement appeared in our local papers:
Contents:
What is ’injurious affection’ ?
What are the circumstances under which I can claim injurious affection compensation?
What are the physical factors?
Who can claim injurious affection compensation?
My father died before he put in a claim and left the house to me. Can I claim?
And what are the things I cannot claim for?
Can my compensation be reduced for any reason?
What happens if I have to move before I can claim?
How is the amount of compensation decided, and what happens if there is a dispute about it?
Can I get any of the injurious affection compensation in advance, before it is settled?
Selling your home during the year after public development comes into use.
Can I claim for injurious affection if I sell my home or grant a lease?
How will my compensation be assessed ?
But the house may have been altered by the buyer by then – will this affect my compensation?
When should I approach the authority?
THE HIGHWAYS AGENCY LAND COMPENSATION ACT 1973 (AS AMENDED)
A419/A417 CIRENCESTER TO STRATTON BYPASS
1. The Secretary of State for Environment, Transport and the Regions hereby gives notice that the length of highway detailed in the Schedule below was first open to public traffic on 9 December 1997.
2. Under Part 1 of the Land
Compensation Act 1973 (as amended) there is a right to compensation in respect
of any depreciation of more than £50 in the value of certain interest in land
caused by the use of new or altered highways and resulting from specified
physical factors (noise, vibration, smell, fumes, smoke, artificial lighting
and the discharge on to the land of any solid or liquid substance).
Compensation is assessed by reference to prices current at a date twelve months
after the highway is first open to public traffic or, in the case of an altered
highway, first open to public traffic after completion of the alterations.
3. Interests qualifying for compensation are specified in section 2 of the above-mentioned Act and there are special provisions relating to claims by mortgagees and persons entitled under trusts or settlements. However, no compensation can be paid under Part 1 where part of the property has been acquired for the purpose of constructing the highway.
4. Persons with a qualifying interest who consider they have a claim under these provisions may obtain further information and claim forms from the Project Services, Lands Branch of the Highways Agency at the address shown below quoting reference 5056/12/15/A419/1.
5. Claims may be made twelve
months after the date when the new or altered highway was first open to public
traffic, that is on or after 9 December 1999 (the "first claim
day"). Claims should be made within six years from this date.
However, if an interest is disposed of or (insofar as the interest is in land
which is not a dwelling) a tenancy is granted, the claim must be made before
such disposal or grant of a tenancy.
D J HOUGHTON
Head at Branch, Project Services,
Lands
Highways Agency, Heron house, 48-53 Goldington Road, Bedford, MK40
3LL.
THE SCHEDULE
A length of new dual two-lane trunk road about 9.3 km long commencing at a new grade separated junction adjacent to Daglingworth Quarry on Dowers Lane, then running in a south-easterly direction, crossing the A435 Cheltenham Road via the new Churn Valley viaduct and passing beneath ’The Whiteway’ Over-bridge, the route travels to the south before passing the new grade separated junction on the A429 Burford Road. From Burford Road, the route crosses beneath the A417 London Road Over-bridge and the new Witpit Lane and Harnhill Road Over-bridges, terminating at the new Driffield Junction.
Compensation for injurious affection under Part 1 of the Land Compensation Act 1973
It is a phrase used to describe depreciation in the value of property caused by public development. You may be entitled to compensation for injurious affection under Part I of the Land Compensation Act 1973 where no part of your home is required for the development.
The depreciation has to be more than £50, and has to be caused by noise or other effects (called the ’physical factors’) arising from the use of certain public development, namely:
Roads: All new public roads, alterations to the location, width or level of any length of carriageway and the provision of additional carriageways, including double decking. (Resurfacing does not qualify.)
Changes of use of land comprising public development which gives rise to any of the physical factors.
Noise, vibration, smell, fumes, smoke and artificial lighting and the discharge on to your land of any solid or liquid substance.
These must arise from the use of the development (not its construction) and the source of the physical factors must be on or in the new or altered public development. For example, if a road is widened, the noise, etc, must arise from the traffic travelling along the widened stretch of road. You cannot get compensation for the effects of increased traffic further down the road where no improvement has taken place.
Basically you may claim if you are the owner of your house or flat (i.e. you are the freeholder or the leaseholder whose lease has three or more years to run) and you are living in it. If, as the owner, you are entitled to occupy the property (i.e. you haven’t let it to someone else), then you must be occupying it yourself when you make your claim. But if you have let the property, you may still be entitled to claim.
In any event, you must have become the owner before the public development came into use and you must be the owner on the date you make your claim. (See later if you have contracted to sell your home before claiming).
You may be able to claim if you inherited a house from someone who would have been in a position to claim if he had lived long enough, but you should ask a solicitor about this.
In certain circumstances you can. For example, if you gave notice of your wish to have the freehold before the development comes into use, you can make a claim even though your lease has less than three years to run when you make your claim or you have acquired the freehold or obtained an extended lease since the coming into use.
Depreciation of more than £50 in the market value of your interest in your home on the valuation date, which is 12 months after the development comes into use. If compensation becomes payable, reasonable valuation or legal fees incurred by you in the preparation and negotiation of your claim will also be paid. Simple interest will be payable by the authority from the date of your claim or the first claim day whichever is later, until the compensation is paid.
No. The basis of compensation is the difference in value resulting from any new ’physical factors’ (or any increase in existing ’physical factors’) arising from the use of the development. So the question is whether and by how much on the valuation date the market value of your interest in your home (taking into account the benefit of any insulation to which you would be entitled and of other remedial works carried out – see paragraph 39) is less than it would have been if the ’physical factors’, i.e. the noise, etc, coming from the new or altered development had not occurred.
You cannot claim for loss of a view, for personal inconvenience or for the effect of the intensified use of an unaltered public development. Also a house or flat must be valued as a house or flat ignoring any extra value it may have for a different purpose such as offices or for redevelopment.
If you have a right to insulation or if the responsible authority have undertaken to provide insulation or pay grant in respect of its provision, the benefit will be taken into account and it will be assumed for the purpose of valuation that it has been installed. Similarly where the authority have carried out other remedial works such as noise barriers or such works are in progress, the benefit will be taken into account. Also, if the value of your property is increased by the authority’s development, this will be taken into accountand set off against the claim.
Normally, on or after the first claim day, which is 12 months after the development comes into use (but see the next section for special cases). You should make your claim within six years of the first claim day because after this time the Limitation Acts take effect and you no longer have a right to recover compensation.
If you move during the year after the development comes into use, you can register a claim before selling (see the next section).
The amount is usually agreed by negotiation between the parties concerned. But if agreement cannot be reached, the case can be referred to the Lands Tribunal, an independent, expert body appointed to deal with such disputes. It is wise to take professional advice first. The Tribunal has the power to award costs to either party. (It may be possible – at the discretion of the Tribunal and if all the parties are willing – for the case to be determined on the basis of written representations rather than a hearing).
The authority has discretion to make payments on account of compensation and of any interest due to you, if you request them to do so.
Private sales
Only if you contract to sell or (if the property is not a dwelling) to grant a lease during the first 12 months after the development comes into use.
Normally claims cannot be made until 12 months after the development comes into use, but if you want to sell during that time you can serve a notice of claim on the authority. You must do this after exchanging contracts to sell and before completing the sale or granting the lease.
Unless you are in occupation of the house as your residence or it is let on the date you make your claim, you will not qualify and your claim will be ineffective.
In the same way as if you had not sold your home, i.e. by reference to values prevailing on the valuation date, which is 12 months after the development comes into use, but assuming that your home is not subject to a contract for sale.
No. The condition of your house will be assumed to be as it was on the date you served notice of claim, and the buyer has to allow the authority to survey and value the house in connection with your claim.
Sales to the authority
If you are an owner-occupier (i.e. you are the freeholder or a lease with three or more years to run and you are in occupation of the property) and if the authority agree that the use of the development is seriously affecting your enjoyment of your home, they may agree to buy it from you.
As soon as you think that your situation is going to be bad enough to justify the authority buying it. The contract for a purchase on the grounds of nuisance from new or altered public development must be signed within one year after the development comes into use.
If the authority are of the opinion that the enjoyment of your home will be seriously affected by the road or other development once it has come into use, they may, depending on individual circumstances, be willing to buy it from you.
From the same time at which you would have been able to serve a blight notice on them if your home had been needed to make way for the development itself. (Booklet 1 in this series, Your home and compulsory purchase, explains when blight notices can be served).
No. As the authority does not need your home and you are not obliged to move, you will not get a home loss payment.