Am I an average consumer?

hachette

I am a housewife and last year I bought with my inheritance 2 properties at auction with a tenants as a investment. One of the properties was under Council improvement scheme for about 1 year prior to my purchase. The vendors failed to disclose this information and as a result I had to spend thousands of pounds ( approx £8000) in repairs after receiving council repair order. The vendors are Ltd property company.

I want to take action against them for failing to disclose material information under the CPR 2008 but they claim that I am not a consumer as I have 2 properties let to tenants and therefore this law does not apply to me. Is this correct ?

vuvuzela

My personal opinion is that they are not correct. However I have no legal basis for this...
More importantly though - what did your solicitors say when you presented this information to them ? They acted for you - did they not do searches as you instructed ?

hollydays

Did you buy the properties without a survey?

hachette

They did not do searches as I have already entered into contract.

shaun_from_Africa

I would say that they are correct.
You stated that you bought the properties that had tenants in them and you bought to use as an investment. As this will class as a business, you can't be a consumer for the purposes of The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.

The definition of a consumer is:

any individual who in relation to a commercial practice is acting for purposes which are outside his business

and buying a property with the sole intention of letting it out means that you are running a business.;

hachette

There was no time for survey. I have relied upon what vendors provided in their legal pack. At auction you have to decide quick.

hachette

The vendors own 500 properties I bought 2 and am totally new to this and will not buy more as used up the money

unholyangel

hachette wrote: »

I am a housewife and last year I bought with my inheritance 2 properties at auction with a tenants as a investment. One of the properties was under Council improvement scheme for about 1 year prior to my purchase. The vendors failed to disclose this information and as a result I had to spend thousands of pounds ( approx £8000) in repairs after receiving council repair order. The vendors are Ltd property company.

I want to take action against them for failing to disclose material information under the CPR 2008 but they claim that I am not a consumer as I have 2 properties let to tenants and therefore this law does not apply to me. Is this correct ?

When it makes reference to average consumer, it is literally meaning whether it would be likely to mislead the average person (rather than you specifically being the average person). If its not likely to mislead the average person, then its not an unfair trading practice - even if some people would be misled by it. If it is misleading, then it could be an unfair practice - even if some people weren't misled by it.

As for being a consumer, you are not living in the homes yourself, you are receiving an income from them so you were acting in the course of a business I'm afraid. This doesn't necessarily mean you have no claim, you just can't rely on consumer protection and are expected to use due diligence when entering into a contract.

You may be better getting proper advice on this one as liability for misrepresentation can be subject to a limitations clause if it passes the reasonableness test of the unfair contract terms act (which applies to both b2c and b2b sales).

bris

Your not a consumer as the properties are part of your business. You need to seek your own legal advice on this matter, this forum will not give you the answers you want to hear.


One thing to note however is the fact you bought them at auction, the legal pack should have been requested (by you) and looked at by your solicitor. The legal pack is your contract, any searches etc over and above this is your responsibility, auctions are a gamble unless you know what you are doing.

hachette

Sadly I did not know what I was doing, but there must be a protection for people like me. The vendors were hoping to find somebody like me to buy. They had an estimate for private sale that was 25K over what they put the reserve price for the property at auction. They knew they would never secure private sale with the council repair order on the property.

hollydays

It could have been a lot worse.