Can / Should I complain about EA

Penguin2017

Hi all,

Read many threads but did not see a similar example so would really appreciate your comments. This is a question on whether I can seek damages against the estate agent

I am a buyer and am expected to sign contracts next week. I made an offer on a house in June of this year. Before we made the offer, the agent mentioned that a part of the house had planning permission but not building regulation approved. The agent then suggested (via email) that we take indemnity insurance which will be paid by the seller. We agreed as did the seller and made the offer. We also conducted a comprehensive survey (but not a structural survey) to ensure that the structure was safe.

However, now its emerged (via our solicitor searches) that the seller had approached the council to get the building regulations approved, and the structure had been rejected (All this happened before we made the offer). The indemnity insurance is not valid as a result, and the seller claims they didn't know that the insurance would be invalidated. The seller also told me that the agent knew of the rejection by the council before they accepted the offer. I assume agents would have known that the policy would not be issued given the rejection

I asked the agent about this, but they said they were not aware of the rejection letter, though I tend to disbelieve them. They came to us to check interest, after they had agreed an offer with another buyer on the same house, but booted him in 45 days (I dont know why), and asked us if were interested. Once we said yes, I assume they said bye to him. However, with him, they would have gone through the same process and should have known about the rejection. Also if they were so upfront on informing us on the building regs, wouldn't they have usually asked the seller on whether the council was approached?

As a result, we are now nervous about the exposure and will not sign, unless they rectify (seller is refusing) and its a potentially big job to repair. I have lost money on solicitors, mortgage, survey etc. which I could have saved if the agent had been straightforward. I can only assume either the agent truly didn't know or he thought we would go through with the purchase once spending all this money

Do I have a recourse?

walwyn1978

Agent can only go on what they have been told by the seller. Seller misleading, missing out information or lying...doesn't reflect well on the agent but it may not be all their fault.

Tiglet2

Unfortunately, the estate agent is working on behalf of the seller to sell his property. When a purchaser is found (you), you instruct a solicitor to carry out work on your behalf to make sure you are buying a good property. The solicitor will check all legal documentation, check the searches, mortgage offer, title documents etc to ensure that you are aware of exactly what you are buying. The estate agent does not get involved with the legalities of your purchase and cannot therefore advise you.

How long ago was this "structure" built? If a long time ago, it wouldn't meet today's building regulations anyway. Also, if built over 10 years ago, it is unlikely that the seller's solicitor will agree to any recourse action and you will probably have to take a view.

I don't think you will get any recourse from the estate agent. No doubt you have heard of Caveat Emptor (Buyer Beware), it is up to you/your solicitor to find out as much about the property as possible - this is done by your viewing/inspection of the property, surveys and by instructing a solicitor to act on your behalf.

davidmcn

Irrespective of what the EA did or didn't know (and I can't see you'll get far without evidence that the EA did know) - why on earth has it taken you five months to figure out that you can't get the insurance? That surely isn't down to the agent.

Penguin2017

There were complications, such as they broke their chain and decided to get another house so we ended up twiddling our thumb while they sorted that out. However, we could have caught it earlier but our solicitor didnt get around to approaching the company to buy the policy till recently, and then found that it was invalid.

Initially, we were asked to rush, so had everything in place within a month but that also meant we had spent our £ fees . In a way unless we had found out mid way or before we spent on mortgage evaluation or survey, we would not have saved any money

Penguin2017

It was built in the last 5 years.

You are right, that the buyer ultimately needs to do the diligence, however, this stinks!

thelem

The money you've spent so far is mostly on doing your due diligence - the searches and survey are all about looking for problems that may make you want to reconsider the sale. You've found one such problem, so they've done their job.

These steps exist partly because vendors and estate agents can't be trusted to highlight any potential problems.

silvercar

This is the seller's problem to sort. If no one can buy an indemnity then they are going to have problems selling.

ReadingTim

Would you rather "waste" hundreds of pounds on legal costs, or tens of thousands of pounds on building costs (plus hundreds of thousands of pounds buying the unsafe structure in the first place)?

Sometimes you can't get the "best" outcome, but are instead forced to choose the least worst.

And no, you don't have any recourse whatsoever.

Comms69

Well you can try sue the EA, but I don't think you have a cat in hells chance of actually winning - sorry

Penguin2017

Can I understand why I cannot get a recourse? The agent knew of the rejection letter, yet he suggested indemnity, and rushed me to finish the process in a month. Its because of this I lost all the money to do the mortgage, searches, solicitors. The seller did tell me that he knew and may corroborate