New obligation to disclose defects & problems when selling

AlexMac

The 'Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008' are now seemingly being applied to house selling;

"House sellers must tell buyers about structural defects ... under legislation now being applied to property sales. Sellers will also have to tell buyers if a previous sale has fallen through because of a bad survey, and detail the problems identified, as well as disclose any known defects within the property..." (must be true; I read it in today's paper! - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/houseprices/10864514/Failed-property-survey-Now-sellers-must-disclose-all.html )

Do you think anyone will tell Estate Agents...?

I'm not holding my breath!

LisbonLaura

Expect this new clause if you sign anything with an EA?:-
'If a sale is not completed due to a defect the seller did not disclose to us, (whether known or not), we will seek the sales fee we would have otherwise enjoyed.'

bouicca21

I was amazed to hear the EA tell a viewer looking at my rented flat last week that two large sash windows needed 'renovation' (i.e. were seriously rotten) and actually then tell them how much the landlord had been quoted.

Annie1960

LisbonLaura wrote: »

Expect this new clause if you sign anything with an EA?:-
'If a sale is not completed due to a defect the seller did not disclose to us, (whether known or not), we will seek the sales fee we would have otherwise enjoyed.'

Please don't give EAs ideas!

Halle71

Does this new legislation apply immediately?
Ie. if you have already accepted an offer and are just waiting for exchange?
Not that I am going to hide my well documented issue but I'm just interested....

moneyistooshorttomention

...and the point I am interested in is:

What constitutes "structural issues"? Does this apply to the garden? Does it apply to neighbour disputes that haven't been mentioned?

When did this take effect? Does anyone know the exact date?

googler

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

...and the point I am interested in is:

What constitutes "structural issues"? Does this apply to the garden? Does it apply to neighbour disputes that haven't been mentioned?

When did this take effect? Does anyone know the exact date?

Google 'repeal of property misdescriptions act' or 'repeal PMA', perhaps along with 'consumer protection regulations' or 'CPR'.

PMA was repealed 1 Oct 2013, making the CPRs apply by default, as I read it.

Leo2020

You are correct googler about the 1st of October date. Although I believe that both the Property Mis-Descriptions Act and the The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 applied at the same time until the Property Mis-Descriptions Act was repealed just leaving the CPR.

The CPRs apply directly to businesses, so EAs and house builders in the case of house buying.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2008/9780110811574/contents

The idea is this should protect you from unfair trading practices such as mis-selling and aggressive practices; such as threatening behaviour or exploitation of your circumstances to force you to make a decision you wouldn't otherwise make.

An EA could use in their defence that they were told the incorrect information by the Vendor, if the Vendor did tell a few porkies and they couldn't have known they were lying.

moneyistooshorttomention

What is the position for a vendor that tells lies? Also, does it depend on whether they were direct lies or lies by omission (ie a direct lie being to say that something is this way, rather than that way). A lie by omission being to carefully "forget" to mention a relevant fact that might influence a buyers decision to buy (or, at any rate, the price they would be prepared to pay).

Leo2020

If it is the vendor that has lied then you need to pursue them. You might want to seek advice from your solicitor.

There is a form which the seller has to fill in about the house (the Seller's Property Information Form). They have to be truthful so if they know of any problems for example with the neighbours or with boundaries then they should declare this on the form.

You can seek damages from the vendor. You could only pursue the EA if they also knew about the problems but didn't tell you.

System

So on the basis of

if a previous sale has fallen through because of a bad survey

shouldn't the vendor now have a legal right to be given a copy of the survey to enable them to accurately list the reasons for the bad survey?

Otherwise how can you be legally bound to disclose information that you have no legal right to see?