Miss sold a house

hazyjo

As above, really.


EAs only really go on what they're told by the vendor. They don't ask to see building certificates or approvals, they don't check leases on LH property sales, they are really just sales-people.


Your surveyor and solicitor are the ones who represent you and ensure what the EA and seller say are true. They told you about the bedroom. You chose to ignore it.


Really not sure how the EA is liable. Does the EA know your surveyor flagged it up? As someone said above - if the surveyor valued it the same as you're paying, I'd not be too worried. Did you knock money off when you first offered or did you pay the asking price? Any money off following the survey?


Jx

G_M

I agree with all but one of the posts above.

Seller tells his agent it's a 4 bed house. Agent views and sees attic conversion, and values accordingly, relying on seller's description.

Agent is not a legal bod. It is not his job to check Planning & Building Regs (or indeed to undertake a survey or other specialist checks).

That is what (sensible) buyers instruct their relevant professional advisers to do.

Yes, if seller had said "I've got an attic conversion with no Planning Permission or Building Regs cos I got a cowboy to do the conversion last year" and agent said "Never mind, we'll call it 4 bed anyway" that would be illegal.

cr1mson

Another thought if the survey highlighted fact that 4th bedroom should not be termed as such then the valuation should have reflected this? How did the purchase price compare to the valuation on the survey?

G_M

cr1mson wrote: »

Another thought if the survey highlighted fact that 4th bedroom should not be termed as such then the valuation should have reflected this? How did the purchase price compare to the valuation on the survey?

OP said

survey had come back that the stairs leading to the loft would not be acceptable to current building regulations and that our soliceter should check that.

So
a) buyer was rightly advised to check and
b) surveyor only referred to current BRs. Surveyor would be well aware that BRs could have been granted under older Regs

So valuation probably based on 4 bed. And the difference in value (between 3 & 4 bed) may anyway have been within the margin of the LTV, which is all the lender's Valuer would be looking for.

mrginge

OP cannot demonstrate that they relied on information given by the EA, since they had a survey done which highlighted the issue.

In the example case by antrobus, the compensation was limited to cost of survey and searches that would have been unnecessary had the information been provided. The OP cannot demonstrate that they wouldn't have incurred the 5-10k extra cost had they known about the issue, because
A. They did know about it
B. They still bought the house.

Sledgehead

Look at it this way: you paid for 3 bedrooms and a loft conversion with a non-standard staircase - a staircase you not only saw, but walked on. You still have those bedrooms and that loft with its non-standard staircase. Instead of whining, take the compensation and then spare a thought for the Lloyds TSB shareholders who were sold HBoS with hidden debt north of £15bn, and the promise of a monopoly in British banking. The debt remained whilst the EU made the Bank of England £15bn loan and promise of monopoly illegal. The merged bank had to fire-sell £13.5bn of shares that further crushed the stock price, destroying 9/10ths of shareholder value. All of the information that this would happen was in the hands of politicians, regulators, bankers and senior staff before the merger was signed off on. the shareholders were kept totally in the dark. they have never received as much as an apology.

Think yourself lucky.

Davesnave

Sledgehead wrote: »

Instead of whining, take the compensation and then spare a thought for the Lloyds TSB shareholders......

And don't forget the American Indians, the Aborigines and the Aztecs!

Sledgehead

Davesnave wrote: »

And don't forget the American Indians, the Aborigines and the Aztecs!

Point taken, tho in my defense I was trying to draw attention to the fact that the OP got what they paid for, so the example quoted (Lloyds TSB shareholders) as a contrast by comparison was not as random as your reply might otherwise imply.

tiggerbodhi

Davesnave wrote: »

And don't forget the American Indians, the Aborigines and the Aztecs!

And Honey Badgers, no one ever thinks of them :-)

charltonkeston

Take the money a put it towards a new staircase.
Then when you come to selling your house you will be selling a 4 bed house.