Hi All,

We are first-time buyers and planning to buy a house in Basel however we found out that the apartment we are considering is built on a landfill site which was active between '85-'87. The land got an approval in Feb 2015 from the government that constructions of properties are possible and there is no further action necessary for this location - in german "Es besteht jedoch keine Überwachungs- oder Sanierungsbedürftigkeit".

Additionally, Seller never told us that proactively - we received this document from the notary with the geomap of the site. Our bank then told us they considered it in the valuation and did know about it and shared the government order excerpt.

Can someone tell us if there are any issues we should anticipate in considering to buy this property? Also would like to hear opinions if you would consider buying a property constructed on a dump site?

Thanks in advance!

Personally I would not unless it's very cheap. Location Location Location

I wouldn’t, too many potential problems further down the track.

I used to work in some very very nice, very expensive offices on stockley park near heathrow, that was built on a land fill site, and the water pipes obviously ran underground, we where not allowed to drink the water from the taps as, apparently, it got contaminated in the pipes getting to the building.

so no, I wouldn't live on an old landfill site

Simply, NO

Remembering a housing area in my home country that had to be demolished later on as that was built on a landfill, I wouldn´t.

Do you know what type of landfill it was? Around here we have multiple dumps of inert building debris. In a country that requires basements on just about every new building there is a lot of rubble about that has to go somewhere.

Why not visit one of the neighbours and ask them what was dumped. That will make the world of difference.

I’m not sure when Switzerland moved to incineration for household waste but it was before that.

Historically, everything went into those landfill sites- ordinary domestic refuse, but also industrial refuse, including all sorts of poisons and chemicals, domestic or industrial, including asbestos- medical waste too. With the watch industry here, radium and all sorts.

Old ammunition.... then you have to move out for ten years

I would and we did. But first we checked what sort of landfill it was. We worked on other projects with the company that carried out the tests of samples some years ago and asked them. We also asked what it would cost if we would have do decontaminate the landfill. The costs in our case where low as the landfill was not made of anything sinister or dangerous. When we talked to the banks some took the landfill into account, others didn't.

Basel? They put some crazy shit into the ground and sometime they do not know what it was.

Do you want to tell us which site it is?
https://map.geo.bs.ch/s/ZIZL

If its landfill then, in addition to potentially noxious gases and chemicals, there is consideration to the stability of the ground, the weight of the building and possible subsidence. If it has been built on piles driven through the infill and down to bedrock then this might not be an issue.

I would not be worried about the bedrock... more about the fact that it is in Basel, a city well known for its chemical plants. The companies have a history of putting the wrong trash in the wrong place... (see the Kölliken landfill as reference), so I personally would not. Especially not if that landfill was active in the 80s...

Everyone's instinctive reaction tells us something, the "no" means when you come to sell it one day the number of potential buyers might be reduced because others have the same concerns.

No. Absolutely not. And don't expect to sell it easily if you go ahead with it.

Personally I wouldn't buy anything built on landfill - not even inert landfill. Suppose something is discovered there that shouldn't be there? It will ruin your chance to sell, which in any case may be reduced by others not wishing to buy on landfill.


Looking at the map from the link helpfully given byaSwissInTheUS, it seems basel is pretty much one big landfill site! personally I think I'd rather live a little out of the city.

OK,

So there are 16 replies here, and I think 15 of them say "no", one says "you'll be ok".

And I need to add my vote to the "No" camp. It might look great now, but I was a teenager in the 1980's and I can assure you that the only concerns about dumps at that point in time where nuclear ones.

Maybe it's before your time but watch this movie/read the wiki to find out what happens when you dump things into the ground that you shouldn't.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erin_Brockovich

But keep in mind that this is Switzerland and not America. You won't be able to sue anyone easily here.

No, I would not consider this, because
a) and that may be too recently for any problems to be properly known, yet too long ago to be sure that there was strict enough monitoring of any environmental and safety rules which may then have been in place.
b) and some of the replies on this thread are from people who are very experienced property owners.
c)

Hi TangUp


One more vote for 'NO'
Friends had an apartment in an estate that was built on a landfill site, they were relatively lucky. When the estate was hit with subsidence, many of the apartments either collapsed or slipped enough to be declared unfit for habitation, all investment lost. Our friends apartment just plummeted in value.


Keep looking for your new home.

Hi All, Thanks a lot for your replies!

We contacted the Basel land kanton and got the following answer from them

"Die Deponie «Ziegelei» in Allschwil war eine kontrollierte Inertstoff-Deponie (heute: Deponie-Typ B nach VVEA), die von 1978 bis 1986 betrieben wurde.

Es wurde weitgehend inertes Material (Bauschutt, Abbruchmaterial, Aushub, Steine, Ziegel, Holz, Strassenaufbruch) abgelagert. Aufgrund der Nähe zu Allschwil sind illegale, unkontrollierte Ablagerungen eher unwahrscheinlich.

Kehrricht (Hausmüll) und Industriemüll wurden dort nicht abgelagert.
Der Ablagerungsstandort ist bewertet als «belastet, weder überwachungs- noch sanierungsbedürftig»."

It looks like it was a landfill of building rubble, stones, wood etc.

Would this change your opinions knowing this info?