Can we sue our vendor for misrepresentation?

davidmcn

ugm1dak wrote: »

They initially said they were waiting on some queries before we could complete. They then said they were all "fine" and we could proceed. They sent us a copy of the letters between our solicitor and the vendor's. Our solicitor had stated "can you confirm the kerbs are dropped to allow access to off-street parking". Their solicitor replied "our vendor confirms the kerbs are dropped".

Doesn't sound like you got much advice about it.

Does the planning permission cover the whole property i.e. including the additional bit of ground you mentioned? Your solicitor should have checked that it corresponded with what you were buying (and a check would have revealed that there was no offstreet parking included in the consent).

ugm1dak

davidmcn wrote: »

Doesn't sound like you got much advice about it.

Does the planning permission cover the whole property i.e. including the additional bit of ground you mentioned? Your solicitor should have checked that it corresponded with what you were buying (and a check would have revealed that there was no offstreet parking included in the consent).

It doesn't include plans for the property as it is now built. With the off-street parking. There were three sets of plans in total and all had a garden where the drive is and no garden at the back. I asked the solicitor to check this and they said it wasn't an issue. I'm no planning expert so it wasn't entirely clear to me.

The first set of plans in 2005 had offstreet parking but this was removed voluntarily, to provide a garden according to the decision report. The architect informally told me they subsequently managed to buy land at the back to allow them to make both a garden at the back and offstreet parking at the front.

We trusted our solicitors and the vendors as, as you can see, it isn't a straightforward case.

steampowered

I am not clear what you actually asked the solicitor to check, beyond the answer you got from the vendor?

It might be better to push this a bit more with the council first.

I doubt there was a problem with the council before. You may have created one by checking the issue and then not being able to wait for their response.

davidmcn

ugm1dak wrote: »

The first set of plans in 2005 had offstreet parking but this was removed voluntarily, to provide a garden according to the decision report. The architect informally told me they subsequently managed to buy land at the back to allow them to make both a garden at the back and offstreet parking at the front.

So the land at the back doesn't have planning permission to be used as your garden, and the land at the front doesn't have planning permission to be used as parking? Unless there's something you've missed, it doesn't sound like your solicitors have done a great job here...but I'm still not sure why you decided to rock the boat by approaching the council? Had you discussed doing that with your solicitor?

ugm1dak

davidmcn wrote: »

So the land at the back doesn't have planning permission to be used as your garden, and the land at the front doesn't have planning permission to be used as parking? Unless there's something you've missed, it doesn't sound like your solicitors have done a great job here...but I'm still not sure why you decided to rock the boat by approaching the council? Had you discussed doing that with your solicitor?

No. The solicitor wasn't very communicative and was difficult to reach at times. We wanted to double check with the council as it would be difficult to sell without formal approval to use the offstreet parking. Agree it might have tipped them off but at this point we didn't own the house.

There are several things I'd do differently if I was buying the house again and dealing with vehicular access would definitely be one.