Estate Agent lied?

AlecEiffel

Hi all,

We have kicked off buying a house. When we viewed we specifically asked the estate agent if there was any planned development and were told no.

We have now found out that there is planning permission to build houses on the fields directly behind the property and the road the house is on (currently a dead end which we specifically asked about) will be made a main entrance to the development. We were told that the land owner refused to sell the land (agricultural).

We have paid conveyancing fees and started the mortgage process so have committed money.

I think that this is something the estate agent would have known and feel that to be told there wasn't any development planned is an outright lie leading to financial loss.

Any thoughts??

Thanks for any input.

Cheers.

k3lvc

And in other news bears !!!! in the woods :rotfl:

You're making a big assumption that each staff member knows everything about each property. You on the other hand could have checked planning portals before committing money

theartfullodger

The old saying was that if their lips moved they probably lied...

thelem

This is the sort of thing you pay your conveyancer to find out. You'd struggle to get anything from the estate agent even if you'd got it in writing that there would be no development.

AlecEiffel

Thanks all.

We did look on the local authority portal but as it’s considered a new development it didn’t come up in post code or name searches.

Reading a few articles they say that the estate agent is legally obliged to inform buyers of planned development.

Will pop in and see them for a chat.

Cakeguts

What you also need to know is that anyone can get planning permission on any land. They don't have to own it. So just because there is planning permission for the land doesn't mean that the owner has sold it to developers now.

The estate agent will only know what the vendor told them.

You pay your solicitor to find out if there are any problems with the land the house is on.

If you are worried about spending money on buying a house that might not lead to you actually buying the house you should rent instead. Buying a house is expensive and sometimes problems come up that might mean that you don't continue with the purchase.

Cakeguts

AlecEiffel wrote: »

Thanks all.

We did look on the local authority portal but as it’s considered a new development it didn’t come up in post code or name searches.

Reading a few articles they say that the estate agent is legally obliged to inform buyers of planned development.

Will pop in and see them for a chat.

How would you expect them to know if it didn't come up in the postcode or name searches? They can't tell you what they don't know. They may have got what they told you from the vendors.

kinger101

The EA quite possibly lied, but you don't have anything in writing. In is not the estate agent's job to make themselves aware of planning applications. In any event, there's never a cast iron guarantee land won't be developed at some point in the future.

How would you have felt if the planning application was submitted the day after you'd exchanged contracts?

If you want to preserve the view, you have to buy the surrounding land too.

VintageHistorian

AlecEiffel wrote: »

We did look on the local authority portal but as it’s considered a new development it didn’t come up in post code or name searches.

Reading a few articles they say that the estate agent is legally obliged to inform buyers of planned development.

Prove that they knew about it. At the end of the day that's what it comes down to - can you prove that they knew about this?

AlecEiffel

Thanks all. Points taken on board! I shall live and learn and see what happens.

k3lvc

AlecEiffel wrote: »

We did look on the local authority portal but as it’s considered a new development it didn’t come up in post code or name searches.

Does yours not have a map view ? Should be standard nowadays and part of the pre-viewing protocol - can save you hundreds