Estate agent misrepresentation

Joshbentley1

Hi,

We’ve recently been looking at houses for our first property together and visited a number of houses over the past few weeks.

We went to view an end terrace house at the weekend and the current owner had showed us around. We noticed that the side of the house had a door and a couple of windows bricked up with breeze blocks as we were leaving so decided to check plannin permission submissions for the house.

The house has a small piece of land to the side that looks to have been split on the deeds with ola. Big permission to build a two storey house on the end of the current building. Obviously as this is an end terrace currently it will knocks a significant amount of the value of the property once build. Neither the seller or the estate agent had mentioned this and it was only as I had done my due diligence that I had noticed these plans.

I rang the estate agent for confirmation and they had said that once the house had sold construction would proceed on the new building. Is there anything that I am able to do to force the EA to change the description to clearly outline this to prevent people losing a significant amount of money?

worried_jim

Joshbentley1 wrote: »

Hi,

We’ve recently been looking at houses for our first property together and visited a number of houses over the past few weeks.

We went to view an end terrace house at the weekend and the current owner had showed us around. We noticed that the side of the house had a door and a couple of windows bricked up with breeze blocks as we were leaving so decided to check plannin permission submissions for the house.

The house has a small piece of land to the side that looks to have been split on the deeds with ola. Big permission to build a two storey house on the end of the current building. Obviously as this is an end terrace currently it will knocks a significant amount of the value of the property once build. Neither the seller or the estate agent had mentioned this and it was only as I had done my due diligence that I had noticed these plans.

I rang the estate agent for confirmation and they had said that once the house had sold construction would proceed on the new building. Is there anything that I am able to do to force the EA to change the description to clearly outline this to prevent people losing a significant amount of money?

No. .

Tom99

Covered by Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, I would think?

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-2315200/Learn-new-house-rules-Estate-agents-reveal-property-problems-says-OFT.html

diggingdude

That's pretty low if them to not mention it

middleclassbutpoor

We saw a house advertised and it was mentioned in the particulars.

Saved us a viewing...

I did wonder whether the EA was just being honest or whether there was a requirement to mention.

AnotherJoe

Just a thought... Send them an invoice for £X for your time and costs travelling to see a house you would not have visited had you known it would become a mid terrace rather than an end terrace. State you will sue them in small claims court if they dont pay you. (you dont have to follow through)

See what happens, you never know.
Very sharp practice IMO

PasturesNew

All you can ever believe of an estate agent's details is: "we have something that can probably be bought .... and here's a guesstimate of the price of that".

You then have to take anything else with a pinch of salt and double check it for yourself.

Just remember that ... ALL you can trust is "something for sale here"...

wesleyad

You would think the seller/EA are wasting their own time here as the solicitor would notice this pretty quickly, at which point buyer would probably either pull out or ask for a huge reduction.

googler

Joshbentley1 wrote: »

We went to view an end terrace house at the weekend and the current owner had showed us around. We noticed that the side of the house had a door and a couple of windows bricked up with breeze blocks as we were leaving ...

You went through a whole viewing and only noticed this as you were leaving .... really?

Where's the online listing for this? I must see how the EA managed to get photos of an end-terraced house without showing bricked-up windows and door on the gable end....

davidmcn

Irrespective of what the planning position is - what do you think might happen one day, if the property boundary is a gable wall ?