Fraud Act 2006 and Vendors who pull out

bgwuser · 2 November 2007 at 10:33PM

Does anyone have any experience of making a criminal complaint against a vendor and/or estate agent. We put in an asking price offer after the vendor agreed to get retrospective planning permission. We instructed and paid for a survey only for the vendor to pull out. The vendor only put the application in after we told the agent we were taking legal action. We think its an offence under section 2. Any advice?

hearts · 2 November 2007 at 10:37PM

move on.....sorry but this is the best advice you'll get ;-)

.....oh and I think it would be Civil rather than criminal.

Generali · 2 November 2007 at 10:42PM

2nd best advice is pay a decent solicitor. hearts has given the best advice though.

PasturesNew · 2 November 2007 at 10:46PM

Buyers/sellers pull out all the time.
That's the nature of the game.

There is no contract until you have exchanged.

dolce_vita · 2 November 2007 at 10:49PM

3rd best advice is learn about the law regarding house sales. hearts has given the best advice though

bgwuser · 2 November 2007 at 10:58PM

Generali wrote: »

2nd best advice is pay a decent solicitor. hearts has given the best advice though.

Thanks for that but fortunately we did not instruct a solicitor or we would have had his costs to pay too! (searches etc) One was on standby but he could not have protected us.
I have spoken to the Economic Crime desk at a Police Force and they say "give it a run" as it fits the criminal definition. I was just wondering if anyone else had done it or are we still being told (by agents) that its a civil matter.

real1314 · 2 November 2007 at 11:14PM

have you got a link to the relevant fraud act?

might help if we can see what you are looking at to end up thinking about trying this....?

jonesMUFCforever · 2 November 2007 at 11:23PM

bgwuser wrote: »

Does anyone have any experience of making a criminal complaint against a vendor and/or estate agent. We put in an asking price offer after the vendor agreed to get retrospective planning permission. We instructed and paid for a survey only for the vendor to pull out. The vendor only put the application in after we told the agent we were taking legal action. We think its an offence under section 2. Any advice?

You have already lost out on the survey cost. If you want a guaranteed way of losing a lot more money start legal proceedings - the only people who will win is the solicitors!

real1314 · 2 November 2007 at 11:31PM

Did they actually confirm WHEN they would put in for retrospective planning permission?

As someone else has said, if you're going to go for this, you'd be best speaking to a solicitor first. and think about what you might gain vs what it might cost. You might win a case but not be awarded fees. Where would that leave you?

Generali · 3 November 2007 at 12:06AM

real1314 wrote: »

Did they actually confirm WHEN they would put in for retrospective planning permission?

...and can you prove it.

A_Nice_Englishman · 3 November 2007 at 12:08AM

Here's a link to the Fraud Act 2006 .

Section 2 states:

2 Fraud by false representation
(1) A person is in breach of this section if he—
(a) dishonestly makes a false representation, and
(b) intends, by making the representation—

(i) to make a gain for himself or another, or
(ii) to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk of loss.
(2) A representation is false if—
(a) it is untrue or misleading, and
(b) the person making it knows that it is, or might be, untrue or misleading.
(3) “Representation” means any representation as to fact or law, including a
representation as to the state of mind of—
(a) the person making the representation, or
(b) any other person.
(4) A representation may be express or implied.
(5) For the purposes of this section a representation may be regarded as made if it
(or anything implying it) is submitted in any form to any system or device
designed to receive, convey or respond to communications (with or without
human intervention).

Presumably the loss or risk of loss is the surveyor's fee.

What was the false representation? Was it that he would "get retrospective planning permission"? i suppose that could be said to be misleading as although he applied for it he couldn't possibly know whether it would be granted. But surely any reasonable person would realise that?

Any reasonable person would also realise that planning applications take weeks to be processed and wouldn't commission a survey if he wasn't prepared to lose the fee if the planning permission wasn't granted and he decided not to purchase the property as a result.

Fraud Act 2006 and Vendors who pull out

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