Takeley parish council claims that the scheme drawn up by the airport's operator, BAA, will provide financial recompense for only 500 of the 12,000 houses which could be blighted by noise from a proposed second runway.
The council will lodge a formal high court application for a judicial review, and is likely to be joined by neighbouring communities.
BAA has guaranteed to refund the lost value of houses within a couple of miles of the new runway, an undertaking which could cost tens of millions of pounds.
But the campaigners say the noise contour drawn by BAA only covers houses which will experience noise of more than 66 decibels, roughly equivalent to a washing machine at full spin or a car passing nearby at 38mph, while the World Health Organisation designates 50 decibels as a level which causes stress.
A second runway would lift Stansted's capacity from 21 million passengers a year to 82 million. A BAA spokesman said yesterday that the company had acted voluntarily in publishing a compensation scheme as early as possible, based on similar blight surrounding the channel tunnel.
This was "right at the top end of anything ever offered in any UK planning development".
The legal challenge would only cause further uncertainty for those hoping to sell their houses.
