Did our vendors lie on property information form

Halle71

angel00079 wrote: »

I imagine it would be hard to prove if the vendors did lie.

Not the point but is it worth seeing if insurance can be purchased to cover possible future problems? I remember purchasing insurance when we found that a drain was under part of property. I am sure that someone with more knowledge than me can say if building regs are covered by such policies.

As has been pointed out it hasn't fallen down so may be just a case of giving buyer peace of mind.

We could have got indemnity insurance if I hadn't contacted building regs . They have however, written us a letter of comfort saying they won't take any action. So now it's going to come down to the quality of the structure.

I was talking to friends at the weekend and we concluded that it's going to come down to the advice our buyers receive from their solicitor/parents/friends/colleagues etc.

It's just so upsetting that, although we did everything right, we have ended up with a house we may not be able to sell without significant expense. And we will undoubtedly lose our purchase if these buyer fall through.

Not to mention the not inconsiderable stress this has caused.

ReadingTim

You will be unlikely to prove the vendor lied, and thus will be unable to prove that these "lies" resulted any subsequent sale falling through.

The compensation you seek will therefore reflect your loss, being nothing.

Furthermore, you do not have to get this work done - you may choose to do so to facilitate the sale, but could equally say that you don't consider it an issue (as your solicitor didn't) so won't be getting any of the work done and won't lower the price to reflect the lack of the aforementioned bit of paper.

Halle71

ReadingTim wrote: »

You will be unlikely to prove the vendor lied, and thus will be unable to prove that these "lies" resulted any subsequent sale falling through.

The compensation you seek will therefore reflect your loss, being nothing.

Furthermore, you do not have to get this work done - you may choose to do so to facilitate the sale, but could equally say that you don't consider it an issue (as your solicitor didn't) so won't be getting any of the work done and won't lower the price to reflect the lack of the aforementioned bit of paper.

The point of my post was to ask people's opinion on whether or not they thought the vendor was lying so thanks for your opinion.

Fortunately the legal ombudsman disagrees with you re the cost to us / compensation should the sale fall through, although they are obviously only investigating the solicitor.

'Furthermore, you do not have to get this work done - you may choose to do so to facilitate the sale'

If the sale goes through of course - no issue, and everyone lives happily ever after. But if it doesn't, of course we have to resolve the issue or do we just market it to buyers (and their lenders) who have no problem with buying a property that may be non compliant? How would you identify this market? And would it take so long to find someone that our purchase falls through anyway?

The anecdotal advice online is 50/50 in this situation - half saying that if you like the house enough go for it anyway, the other half saying don't touch it with a bargepole or at least reduce your offer significantly. And given the price of our house (London 4 bed) I would expect people to err on the side of caution.

Thrugelmir

Halle71 wrote: »

We could have got indemnity insurance if I hadn't contacted building regs .

Being so recent it's questionable whether the purchasers mortgage company would accept an indemnity. As most certainly impacts saleability.

Halle71

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Being so recent it's questionable whether the purchasers mortgage company would accept an indemnity. As most certainly impacts saleability.

And the letter of comfort that the council have now given us covers what an indemnity policy would cover.

Someone who agrees with me re saleability.
And reduced saleability means a cost to us.....

This is all so stressful.

Unitoons

Can anyone clarify what a "Certificate of Lawfulness" is? Does this relate to planning permission? Ta

Halle71

Unitoons wrote: »

Can anyone clarify what a "Certificate of Lawfulness" is? Does this relate to planning permission? Ta

Yep, it's basically the document you get when you get approval to go ahead with a project that is allowed under permitted developement.

So we have that and we have the building consent document but the project was never inspected.

moneyistooshorttomention

Halle71 wrote: »

The point of my post was to ask people's opinion on whether or not they thought the vendor was lying so thanks for your opinion.

.

My opinion fwiw is that yep...your vendor quite definitely lied to you. The only question is as to whether they did it deliberately or inadvertently and my feeling is it was a deliberate lie.

My sympathies...as my own vendor lied and its quite clear they did so deliberately. So I know how you feel.

I can and will put matters right in time to get back to the position my vendor inferred I had, so I hope you find a way to do the same in your position.