Am I responsible for incorrect claims made by my EA

paulj2021

Hi all, I’m having viewings done on my house by the EA at present, I’m not present when the EA does the viewings but from brief bits of conversation I’ve overheard as I go out the door, or things my neighbour has told me, the EA seems to be inventing things as they go along, for example saying that the house was once part of a much larger building (not true) and that a concrete area at the rear of the garden was once used for car parking (this is not true either, there has never been a rear vehicle access). Am I at any risk if a future buyer believes what the EA says, or is it all down to their conveyancers to confirm the true details?

elsien

Have you addressed this with your estate agent, given that you are paying them to provide a service? 

ThisnotThat

paulj2021 said:

Hi all, I’m having viewings done on my house by the EA at present, I’m not present when the EA does the viewings but from brief bits of conversation I’ve overheard as I go out the door, or things my neighbour has told me, the EA seems to be inventing things as they go along, for example saying that the house was once part of a much larger building (not true) and that a concrete area at the rear of the garden was once used for car parking (this is not true either, there has never been a rear vehicle access). Am I at any risk if a future buyer believes what the EA says, or is it all down to their conveyancers to confirm the true details?

Ultimately they are acting as your agent and you are responsible for the actions of your agents.

As elsien says, you need to take this up with them.  Bending the truth is one thing, outright lies are another.  I'm not sure that there would be any loss arising from their current claims (what it was in the past is not really relevant) but you never know what the next lie is going to be, it could be a lot more substantial.

I suppose there is the other issue that they may well tell a load of porkies, their conveyance searches find out it's a load of old cobblers and they wonder what else is a lie and pull out.  You need to nip this in the bud, IMO.

paulj2021

elsien said:

Have you addressed this with your estate agent, given that you are paying them to provide a service? 

I intend to, when they open on Monday, they did several viewings yesterday so I’m concerned if those people put in offers based on what they’ve been told!

Jude57

Your EA is just that - your agent. That has a specific meaning in law, very basically it means that they 'are' you to a certain extent. If they misrepresent the history of the property or its composition and a purchaser relies on that misrepresentation and then suffers a quantifiable loss, the purchaser can sue you. If you can prove the misrepresentation by your agent you can sue them for any quantifiable loss you suffer. 

In practice, most people realise that EA fluff is just that and sensibly leave it to solicitors to hash out the contractual terms.  My concern in your situation would be whether what your agent is saying is putting off potential buyers. That could be, for example, lack of planning permission on phantom property split or led to believe rear vehicular access could be reinstated then pulling out when it's discovered to never have existed.

If I were you, I'd be sending a stern email to the agents telling them what you overheard and putting them in no doubt that you'll take your business elsewhere if there's any recurrence. I'd also be correcting them at the time if I heard them making errors of fact to potential purchasers.

Windofchange

I can't see how any of this is ever going to come back to bite you on the bottom. When you sell there will be an inventory of things that you will agree on with your purchaser, so they can't make up any of the fittings and furnishings that are staying put. If they said there was a car parking space around the back and there never was, again, the buyer has a duty to satisfy themselves through their legal representatives that the purchase can go ahead. Once legal proceedings begin, you will get a flurry of back and forth between your representative and theirs, and ultimately through purchasing the property the buyer is stating that they are happy with what they are buying. The only caveat to this would be if you and your solicitor just outright lied or misrepresented something quite big such as failed to disclose a public right of way or that the upstairs conversion didn't have building regs. The estate agent can tell potential purchasers the house used to be lived in by Henry the 8th and Churchill once smoked a cigar in the front room and I can't see how it will come back to get you. 

Carrot007

paulj2021 said:

I intend to, when they open on Monday, they did several viewings yesterday so I’m concerned if those people put in offers based on what they’ve been told!

This is why I would never do a viewing with an agent. Either the seller is there or no-one.

thriftytracey

Well, what I hear most frequently from EA's when conducting viewings is "I don't know".

badger09

Like this one:

Warning - its long!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ladHhiTM6V4

paulj2021

Carrot007 said:

This is why I would never do a viewing with an agent. Either the seller is there or no-one.

Unfortunately not always possible, when you have to go to work during the daytime 

Carrot007

paulj2021 said:

Carrot007 said:

This is why I would never do a viewing with an agent. Either the seller is there or no-one.

Unfortunately not always possible, when you have to go to work during the daytime 

Which is why viewings are not likely to be in the daytime? I do not see what it has to do with my point. Both work? Evening viewing. One side works. Evening Viewing. View on day off. Agent will unlikely accomiodate OOH viewing right? (and as I implied the agent is welcome to let me in and then stay outside if it is really needed, their talking will only detriment the sale).