Can an estate agent mislead you during negotiations?

manitravels

TLDR:
Long story short, I increased my offer on the basis that costs have been incurred to evict tenants. I'm now asking for evidence of these costs. 
Longer version
During negotiations it was mentioned that the seller would need to give his tenants 3-6 months notice meaning I would miss out on the stamp duty holiday. 
As a first time buyer I naively said I would increase my offer by £5k to cover these costs.
However: I went to visit the property a month later and to my surprise the tenants were unaware of their pending eviction. I was later told they were evicted with less than 1 months notice.
Upon further consideration I made my offer upon vacant possession and so don't think I should cover these. The estate agent said I agreed to this and I should keep my word. As a result I asked for evidence but was told there is no reason to believe that the vendor didn't incur these costs. 

Am I right to ask the vendor to demonstrate that these costs were incurred? Or should I take the vendor at their word? 

user1977

What stage are you now at in the transaction?

manitravels

user1977 said:

What stage are you now at in the transaction?

Survey done and legals nearly there. We haven't exchanged yet.

verytired11

I may have missed a step, but why did you offer to cover the costs of eviction?

m0bov

Don't pay the seller to evict, don't spend a penny on survey or legal until it's vacant.

manitravels

verytired11 said:

I may have missed a step, but why did you offer to cover the costs of eviction?

First time buyer naivety but also it was to get the tenants out in time for the stamp duty holiday. At the time it seemed like a fair trade if it were true. However my offer was made on the basis of vacant possession. 

manitravels

manitravels said:

verytired11 said:

I may have missed a step, but why did you offer to cover the costs of eviction?

First time buyer naivety but also it was to get the tenants out in time for the stamp duty holiday. At the time it seemed like a fair trade if it were true. However my offer was made on the basis of vacant possession. 

Also if we didn't make the stamp duty holiday the offer would drop to the original price.

verytired11

manitravels said:

verytired11 said:

I may have missed a step, but why did you offer to cover the costs of eviction?

First time buyer naivety but also it was to get the tenants out in time for the stamp duty holiday. At the time it seemed like a fair trade if it were true. However my offer was made on the basis of vacant possession. 

I still don't see how paying for it would speed it up - presumably as you say the tenants have to be served the correct notice anyway.  What was the nature of your offer? Did you just increas the purchase price, or did you say ' I will pay the tenants £5000 if they leave early'? 

moneysavinghero

Not sure where the £5,000 comes from. All the seller (the Landlord of the property) needed to do was to issue a Section 21 notice. This would cost them peanuts. Even if they got a solicitor to do it for them it would be like £50 rather than £5,000. Presuming this was fairly recently the tenants could not have been legally evicted with 1 months notice. They must have left voluntarily. Or was the £5,000 to be used a cash incentive to give to the tenants to leave early?

manitravels

verytired11 said:

I still don't see how paying for it would speed it up - presumably as you say the tenants have to be served the correct notice anyway.  What was the nature of your offer? Did you just increas the purchase price, or did you say ' I will pay the tenants £5000 if they leave early'? 

Presumably the tenants would be paid to leave early but given the tenants had 4 weeks notice instead of the 3 months I was quoted, I'm starting to think I was misled / lied to. If there were costs then upping my offer by £5k to push this along, I don't mind too much as it was still a fair price. 
But I'm starting to think I was lied and so am asking for evidence to back up the claims given earlier i.e. 3-6months / £5 k costs
At present they are unwilling to provide it. 
So should I complain to the estate agency / property ombudsman? Or was I just fooled and need to accept it? 

moneysavinghero

But to answer the thread title. No, a Estate Agent cannot mislead you. This would be a breach of both the TPOS Code of Practice (Ombusman) and The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations (The Law). But i am not sure that this is the case here. I think you may have mislead yourself by getting confused about things.