Clearing Guano
Help
I am currently working in partnership with a development company to bring a large LTE listed building (currently in the ownership of a company with no available funds) back to use.
Plymouth City Council has served both Planning and Building Control notices on the company and following non-compliance it has carried out WID. Negotiations with the current owner has resulted in an agreement in principle to negotiate a voluntary sale. In order to establish whether it is economical for the development company to take on the building he has instructed a surveyor and architects to enter to draw up plans of the existing layout. I established the owner's permission for this to go ahead and the surveyor and architects have been inside to see what state it is in. It is now established that to spend any length of time in the building would be prejudicial to health.
Prior to the architects spending any length of time in the building I need to arrange to have it cleared of pigeons both dead and alive, board up the entry points and then have the guano cleared and the area sprayed; the owner is not currently in a position to fund the required work. To give you an idea of the extent of the work required it is in the region of two working for two to three weeks and an estimated requirement of 100-150 ten ton skips - there are approximately 70 dead and 200 live pigeons.
Given the amount of debt already owed in relation to WID if a voluntary sale fails Enforced Sale action will be taken and I need to ensure all costs relating to the cleaning will be recovered.
Question:
Has anyone had experience of this before and if so what enforcement action did you take to ensure the cost of the work was recovered when the property was sold? - An initial discussion with an officer from Plymouth's Public Protection Team has not filled me with much hope that they will do anything and I want to be armed with the full facts when I meet with them on Monday!!
- Forums
Clearing Gunao
Sorry - missed your Monday meeting, you've probably got this resolved now. You need to look at EPA 1990 s79 or Public Health Act 1936 s83 which will allow for WID and priority charges on premises to ensure money comes back.
Regards
Rebecca
Not a Cheap Job
Hi
Building on Rebecca comments, I would agree with the approach under the legislation suggested.
The only thing I would say is that it is going to be expensive if you are talking about that number of skips.
I use to do alot of work under Section 82 EPA 1990 and it was always a battle to argue the issue of prejudicial to health in relation to guano.
There was only limited medical evidence to link Guano to ill health and primarily related to those people in long term exposure to guano i.e. pigeon breeders etc, not isolated incidents.
Using Section 82 procedure required a higher burden of proof "beyond reasonable doubt", if you use your Section 79/80 EPA 1990 and get an appeal then it will be based on probability. Bottom line is as long as they don't appeal then your fine.
Just note under Section 80 Notice is not a local land charge and it is not until you have served a demand under Section 81A and the appeal period expires that it can be registered against the title.
Therefore, you are risk between undertaking the works and being able to register the charge.
While it is not an ideal working environment for the Surveyor and to be honest we have all been involved in these types of properties.
Could he not just wear some protective clothing and proper resporator (PPE), to undertake the survey.
Perhaps a small uplift in fees would be appropriate?
Regards
Andrew Lavender