Councils are categorising new road schemes as planning permissions for ‘Private Bodies’ meaning they are invisible to the standard questions answered within the local search for homebuyers, claims one conveyancer.

This growing trend is leaving homebuyers vulnerable to unseen road schemes that are planned but not yet under construction within 200 metres of their doorstep, and conveyancers wide open to complaints, according to Kate Bould, the managing director of Index West Midlands Property Information.

Bould has launched a new campaign that aims to make conveyancers and residential property solicitors aware of the problem, to ensure they always select a simple option on an existing form.

She explained: “The plight of one homebuyer was brought to my attention. Three weeks after moving into his new luxury, semi-rural property, the buyers discovered their home was to be perched on the edge of a new major road scheme, built to give access to a huge mixed use development less than a mile away that would include 2,670 houses, a 120-bed hotel, a railway station, sports facilities, offices, a supermarket, secondary and primary schools, two children’s nurseries, a library, doctor’s surgery and offices.”

Bould added: “Many councils are putting approved road schemes under outline planning permissions with the developer, which means they are not revealed on the local authority’s register and thus not revealed by ‘standard’ search enquiries.”