Can we sue our vendor for misrepresentation?

ugm1dak

Hello,

I'm looking for a bit of advice. We recently purchased a new build house which is on a terraced street in a busy urban area. Parking is at a premium in this location. The house was sold with off street parking and we were happy to pay a premium for this. Indeed we wouldn't have purchased the house without it.

At the time of purchase we noticed the drive did not have a conventional dropped kerb. It straddles what looks like an old access road and can easily we driven over. We asked our solicitor to query this with the vendor. The builder and architect both replied that there was historical vehicular access to the site, the kerbstones were level with the road and no dropped kerb is required. We have this in writing and our solicitor implied there was no problem. I tried to clarify with the council directly before purchase but they never got back to us. As the vendor was pushing us to complete and the house is in a popular location we exchanged.

Less than a month after we have moved in we have had a letter from the council saying there is no vehicular access to our property and we need a dropped kerb. The best case scenario here is a £1000 bill. The worst case is the dropped kerb is refused and we have paid for off street parking we can't use.

Do we have any comeback with the vendor as they have essentially lied to us or is this one of those situations where any legal action is unlikely to be cost-effective?

I'd be grateful for any advice if anyone has been in a similar situation.

Thanks,

David

G_M

If you have it in writing from the vendor that there is vehicular access then you could sue - assuming they are wrong.

It could of course be the council who are wrong if there is indeed 'historical vehicular access to the site', in which case you should present evidence to the council of the historical right.

Either way, the first step is to write to the seller asking them to clarify the asis for their claim of historical vehicular access to the site.

If they prvide the evidence, yu present it to the council.

If they don't, you sue the seller.

Hoploz

I think I would also be inclined to go back to your solicitor. After all, they should be checking the info given by the seller is correct and confirming. I would assume they asked the seller for some sort of evidence to show the vehicular access existed, and that they agreed with the paperwork they were shown.

[Deleted User]

I agree, it sounds like the first person to go to is the solicitor, either they didn't research the query properly or the vendor supplied false information. You need to know which is true before proceeding further.

However, if its a new build, I'd be wondering how there could be 'historic vehicular access to the site' and if that is as valid as assumed with a new build property (it might not be).

Being the suspicious person I am, I'd have wondered why no dropped kerb when I viewed the place if the driveway was intended to be used.

marksoton

I don't know who's right in this case but....

I used to do council based reinstatement work and you'd be amazed how many people asked us to do "private" drop kerbs. :A

Certainly the council round here charge a premium.

Thrugelmir

ugm1dak wrote: »

As the vendor was pushing us to complete and the house is in a popular location we exchanged.

I would have held out for cast iron confirmation before doing so myself. Waiting a while longer wouldn't have been issue.

davidmcn

ugm1dak wrote: »

the kerbstones were level with the road and no dropped kerb is required

Do you agree? If so, then in what sense does the council think the kerb requires to be dropped?

I tried to clarify with the council directly before purchase

Did your solicitor think this a good idea?

If it's a new build house then the parking, or lack of it, should be clear from the planning permission. What does it show?

Alderbank

marksoton wrote: »

I used to do council based reinstatement work and you'd be amazed how many people asked us to do "private" drop kerbs. :A

I wouldn't be amazed, Mark. I have had some professional involvement with this. Footpaths are not designed to carry the weight of vehicles and a 'proper' dropped kerb includes hidden reinforcement to prevent damage to drains and other services running under the pavement. Customers baulk at the cost and get a cowboy job done instead (I'm not saying any of your jobs were substandard, Mark).

This was a brownfield site - a building stood there before, hence the 'historic rights' claim. It sounds like both builder and architect saw the unofficial dropped kerb and just assumed it was pukka.

Was the vendor negligent? He was asked a direct question and gave a direct (wrong) answer.
Should the buyer have seen the dropped kerb and raised the issue of access to the off-road parking with his solicitor? No one wants to get caught out by a ransom strip

ugm1dak

Thanks for everyone's comments so far.

It's not a conventional new build in that it was built on reclaimed brownfield land. There was an old workshop there previously and this was demolished and our new end terrace was added to the row of terraces. The workshop had some sort of access but it looks quite narrow for a vehicle. However, it means there are flat kerbs next to our property.

Interestingly the plans never had off-street parking included. It was originally mentioned but then taken out. However, the developer said they managed to buy land at the back of the property which allowed them to use space at the front, which was to be a garden, to be changed to off-street parking. They said this could be done under the original planning. Again this is all in writing and was checked by our solicitor.

I agree we probably should have waited to complete but we are first-time buyers and were keen to move for work purposes. In retrospect we were probably a bit naive and trusted what we were told.

ugm1dak

Alderbank wrote: »

Should the buyer have seen the dropped kerb and raised the issue of access to the off-road parking with his solicitor? No one wants to get caught out by a ransom strip

But we did. I asked my solicitor to check this specifically. The vendor replied in writing "we confirm the kerbs are dropped to provide access to the property".

You can double check all the searchs yourself but at some stage you have to say you're employing a solicitor and paying them thousands - surely this is their job.

davidmcn

What exactly was your solicitor's advice?