Estate agency provided false information

Hiryu001

The estate agency said on their advert and while showing me the house that the ground floor and all bathrooms have underfloor heating. However, I was in a phone conversation with the seller last week talking about something else and he said that there has never been underfloor heating in any of the bathrooms, it's only on the ground floor. 

The house is due to be completed in less than 2 weeks to catch the 30th September stamp duty deadline (£2.5k saving). I estimated "wet" underfloor floor heating for 3 bathrooms to be £5k. I have a copy of the advert stating underfloor heating in all bathrooms and video evidence of the estate agent saying it. What should I do? Should I flip this on the agency after the completion or should I flip this on them now?  

Thank you so much! 

Irishpearce26

Hiryu001 said:

The estate agency said on their advert and while showing me the house that the ground floor and all bathrooms have underfloor heating. However, I was in a phone conversation with the seller last week talking about something else and he said that there has never been underfloor heating in any of the bathrooms, it's only on the ground floor. 

The house is due to be completed in less than 2 weeks to catch the 30th September stamp duty deadline (£2.5k saving). I estimated "wet" underfloor floor heating for 3 bathrooms to be £5k. I have a copy of the advert stating underfloor heating in all bathrooms and video evidence of the estate agent saying it. What should I do? Should I flip this on the agency after the completion or should I flip this on them now?  

Thank you so much! 

Do you think the EA is going to pay the £5k for underfloor heating? Ask them why they stated this in the advert and in conversation with you. The seller has to sign off on the advert so why didn't they pick up on this.

You have a decision to make, walk away from the sale because it doesn't have underfloor heating, reduce your offer to factor in the cost of underfloor heating or suck it up as a mistake in the advert and carry on with the sale.

The EA contract is with the seller not you, they would be the ones to recoup costs from the EA.

PollyWollyDoodle

If you read the small print on the bottom of the agents’ particulars you’ll see something saying that they give no warranty for the statements made. You don’t base your decision to purchase on the particulars but on your own enquiries. 

Are there radiators in the bathrooms, and did that make you wonder if there was underfloor heating?  What did your survey say?  There is no chance that the estate agents will be liable for anything in this scenario. 

AFF8879

The EA can only go from what the buyer tells them. I can’t imagine them purposely fabricating the coverage of underfloor heating, it sounds like either a miscommunication between vendor and EA or a simple mistake from EA.

Either way, you wouldn’t be entitled to any compensation after completion (EA particulars are not legally binding and buyer is expected to do their own due diligence). So if it’s a material issue for you, you need to ask for a discounted price now. 

But for what it’s worth, I’m not sure I would want to upset the vendor / chain so close to exchange for what is a relatively small amount in the grand scheme of things. Plus the time it would take to renegotiate, redo the contracts etc, would mean you’d probably miss the stamp duty cutoff for completion 

wilfred30

What do you hope to achieve by 'flipping' it on the EA at all?

AdrianC

Hiryu001 said:

The estate agency said on their advert and while showing me the house that the ground floor and all bathrooms have underfloor heating. However, I was in a phone conversation with the seller last week talking about something else and he said that there has never been underfloor heating in any of the bathrooms, it's only on the ground floor. 

The house is due to be completed in less than 2 weeks to catch the 30th September stamp duty deadline (£2.5k saving).

Have you exchanged yet?

What did your survey say?

I estimated "wet" underfloor floor heating for 3 bathrooms to be £5k. I have a copy of the advert stating underfloor heating in all bathrooms and video evidence of the estate agent saying it. What should I do? Should I flip this on the agency after the completion or should I flip this on them now?  

Both will have a roughly equal chance of getting the vendor to pay for installing UFH.

Hiryu001

Thank you so much for the advices. The exchange has not happened yet so I haven't seen the survey yet. It's just annoying that it is so close to completion. My aim is to either get UFH installed or equivalent monetary compensation. If I complain now I fear that the agency just going to tell me to back out of the sale which I don't want to do. But from "AFF8879" was saying I should complain right now or risk getting no compensation at all. I also fear that the EA could just purposely give me a bad offer of compensation and run the clock on stamp duty, therefore false me to accept the their terms..

saajan_12

Hiryu001 said:

The estate agency said on their advert and while showing me the house that the ground floor and all bathrooms have underfloor heating. However, I was in a phone conversation with the seller last week talking about something else and he said that there has never been underfloor heating in any of the bathrooms, it's only on the ground floor. 

The house is due to be completed in less than 2 weeks to catch the 30th September stamp duty deadline (£2.5k saving). I estimated "wet" underfloor floor heating for 3 bathrooms to be £5k. I have a copy of the advert stating underfloor heating in all bathrooms and video evidence of the estate agent saying it. What should I do? Should I flip this on the agency after the completion or should I flip this on them now?  

Thank you so much! 

You can't "flip it" on the EA, in any financial sense at least. 
This is because the EA will disclaim responsibility for ensuring their info is correct - its just an advert to invite you to view, make your own inspections or enquiries before offering. Also you now know there is no underfloor heating, so you're making the choice to purchase it for $X with that knowledge - so even if they were responsible, you'd have a duty to mitigate ie renegotiate or pull out, so your unavoidable damage is £0. 

Your options are to 
1. Renegotiate price (note mortgage may need redoing)
2. Negotiate a retention for (part of) the cost of underfloor heating (mortgage may need redoing but less chance than 1.)
3. Continue at current price
4. Walk away

user1977

Hiryu001 said:

The exchange has not happened yet so I haven't seen the survey yet.

This doesn't make sense. You'd expect to see your survey before (usually long before) exchange happens. Otherwise it's a bit late to do anything about what it discloses. And if you haven't even seen the survey yet, what makes you so sure that you're close to completion?

Irishpearce26

Hiryu001 said:

Thank you so much for the advices. The exchange has not happened yet so I haven't seen the survey yet. It's just annoying that it is so close to completion. My aim is to either get UFH installed or equivalent monetary compensation. If I complain now I fear that the agency just going to tell me to back out of the sale which I don't want to do. But from "AFF8879" was saying I should complain right now or risk getting no compensation at all. I also fear that the EA could just purposely give me a bad offer of compensation and run the clock on stamp duty, therefore false me to accept the their terms..

You seem to be under the impression that you are definitely going to get the £5k you just don't know who from.

1. The EA will state no claim as the seller is responsible for the information in the advert.

2. The seller will likely say the house was priced to reflect the house as is and is not sure why the advert had the UFH included.

You can try and renegotiate but I can see the seller saying no, so either back out or carry on with the sale.

Adsta

What do you mean you haven't seen the survey?

Have you actually arranged a survey done on the property? if so you should have certainly seen and read that before you get to exchange at which point there is no pulling out!