By Alex Medford, Solicitor
As part of the Government’s High Speed Rail 2 (HS2) plans, no construction is permitted to take place on designated land without thorough prior consultation.
This ensures that the plans for HS2 are not hindered by unapproved developments and that resources are not squandered on non-sanctioned building projects.
This precautionary measure is known as ‘safeguarding,’ and the Government has specified particular areas that fall within this safeguarding zone.
As the HS2 plans progress and evolve, the safeguarding area is continuously updated, with the Government regularly publishing revisions to the safeguarding map, sometimes even excluding certain areas entirely.
If your property is located within the safeguarding zone, you may sell it to the Government in exchange for compensation – this is referred to as a statutory blight.
The process for the Government to acquire a property within the safeguarding area is triggered by the submission of a Blight Claim, by the property owner, to the Secretary of State.
Before a valid Blight Notice can be served the owner must ensure that they meet the relevant criteria:
Once accepted, HS2 will then instruct a valuer and building surveyor to inspect the property.
Following this a negotiation phase is entered into whereby the parties will attempt to agree a sale figure which is comprised of the unblighted market value and a disturbance cost.
When the unblighted market value and disturbance cost have been agreed by all parties, it will need to be formally approved by HS2.
When an overall blight claim is agreed, the seller will be provided with a firm offer and, finally, the only outstanding matter will be the conveyancing process.
Acceptance of a Blight Notice means that the Secretary of State is authorised to purchase the property and to have served a ‘Notice to Treat’ in respect of it.
The Notice to Treat becomes operative two months after it is received by the Secretary of State and is valid for three years, which means that there is a limitation period of three years and two months from the date the Blight Notice is received by the Secretary of State to agree compensation.
If compensation cannot be agreed within this time period, then the matter must be referred to the Upper Lands Tribunal within this time period to ensure that the Notice to Treat is not lost and the Blight Notice is still valid.
If there is no referral and compensation is not agreed within the three year and two-month limitation period, then the Blight Notice will lapse, and the seller will be required to start the process again or wait for HS2 to serve a notice to acquire the property if it is required for the project.
There is no guarantee that a second Blight Notice will be accepted so it is extremely important to ensure that Blight Notices do not lapse.
If you are approaching the end of the Blight Notice period or need assistance generally with regards to anything mentioned within this article, then please contact Alex Medford at Ansons Solicitors.
Please email: amedford@ansons.law or call 01543 431197