What do we do? Missold house

Emerald1992

Hi, we have just completed on a house.

The solicitors, estate agent and surveyor told us it was a detached house.

Next door is a piece of land were a man has a garage he runs a business from, there are two metal gates so we could never see in.

We have just seen it as the gates were open
and noticed the garage is attached to our house. What do we do about this is it just tough luck on us? Guess you can't take no one's word. I realise we should have really investigated it properly but we could never see so didn't bother.

PasturesNew

Tricky one. The default bottom line is it's up to the buyer to make their own enquiries. One of your things might've been the survey - if you'd asked for a survey on a detached house a surveyor should've peeked, I'd have expected.

Maybe the bloke next door just built his garage himself - without PP. Does it look like it's been there years?

The solicitor won't have told you - they don't know. They work blind. They rely on you to inform them/check etc.

The estate agent might've been a bit sneaky though.

kinger101

I'm curious here......how on earth do you buy are house without noticing it isn't detached? Are you telling us you bought the house without viewing it?

Emerald1992

Obviously we viewed the House we were buying we didn't look into the next garden tho why would we? If we are told byb3 people it's detached what need it there to demand the next door land owner to pride the gates open to ensure its detached.? It's only a low level garage which we new he had but we didn't know it was attached that is the point.

patman99

Surely a building the size of a garage would be visible over the fence or wall?.
They are not that easy to disguise after all.

PasturesNew

Any chance of you doing a Google Streetview screengrab/crop to show us the bit where they're joined? Obviously not a close up of the actual join, but the best angle Google Streetview can provide so we can see roughly what we're talking about ... the general ambience of the affected area so to speak.

moneyistooshorttomention

First thoughts being - any time I put in house requirements into RightMove and I always include "detached house" = the results that come back always include houses that aren't detached at all and mobile homes.

EA's seem to have a very odd definition of detached house imo - and its always worth a good check as to whether a place one is being told is a "detached house" really is = because so many of them aren't at all.

Emerald1992

He had massive metal gates there is no way you can see in. We knew there was a garage as you could see through the bathroom window however from that view we are on an angle so we honestly couldn't see. Like I've said what's done is done now we should of checked and not took other people's word. The question is what can we do about it.

His_Dudeness

The boundary must then run right along the side of the house, which should be a red flag for a detached house.

Even if it is fully detached, it means that the neighbour could potentially also build right up to the boundary.

kinger101

Emerald1992 wrote: »

Obviously we viewed the House we were buying we didn't look into the next garden tho why would we? If we are told byb3 people it's detached what need it there to demand the next door land owner to pride the gates open to ensure its detached.? It's only a low level garage which we new he had but we didn't know it was attached that is the point.

The thing with detached houses is you can see all four external walls and walk all the way round them without leaving your garden. If you can't, it's not detached.

You could possible have a claim for misrepresentation, but it probably wouldn't help your case any if it was obvious. If I bought a red car in person and later claimed the advert stated it was blue car, I'd look like a very silly man if I took it to court.

EDIT - Oh, I see now from Dude's post. One of the walls was on a boundary. Still thought this might be obvious from deeds, as they usually show adjoining properties.

Speak to your solicitor, or one that specializes in misrepresentation cases.

phill99

Problem is there is no legal definition of a 'detached house'. From what you describe your house is detached in that it does not abut another dwelling. It may be better to have described your house as 'link-detached'.


However, you are responsible for knowing exactly what you are buying.


Have you been mis-sold a house? Absolutely not. Have the estate agent used poetic licence? Quite probably. Are you likely to get any redress from anyone? No.