Compensation from estate agent for mismeasuring 25 October 2022 at 11:56PM in House buying, renting & selling 52 replies 6K views

penners324

If your furniture doesn't fit there is FB marketplace.....

Bought 2 sofas for £30 when I moved as sofas we had bought we're not due for delivery for awhile

Section62

taking_time said:

We bought a house in lockdown.

The first half of 2020. Or later than that?

Have you raised this issue with the EA at all?  Whatever route you go down you'd need to start with a formal complaint to the EA, and the longer you've left it since moving in, the less your complaint will look like a genuine one about misdescription, and the more like a fishing exercise for a bit of compo to help fund a move you are going to do anyway. (this is probably how the EA will see it)

As user1977 said, an idea of the size of the discrepancy is important for you to be able to get good advice here.

km1500

estate agent's particulars are specifically excluded from the house sale / purchase contract.

housebuyer143

taking_time said:

Hi
We bought a house in lockdown. Had to move due to work. Were issues seeing it more than once.

Moved in, couldn't fit in our furniture as estate agents had got measurement wrong of a room. It's had big impact on us. Can't afford all new furniture. 

Another estate agent told us the room measurements on the ad we bought it from were out by more than the allowed amount and we could get compensation. This was when we were getting it valued to resell due to the issue with it being too small. 

Anyone claimed for compensation and got it?  How much could we get?

Reason not done it so far is because the sellers estate agent sell a lot of houses in the area and we don't want it to cause us issues if we want to stay in the area when we buy another house 

Apologies for awful phrasing.

Thank you 

You can normally see at the bottom of every as ad in the small print saying all measurements are estimated and should not be taken as correct and should be verified by independent person.
If you see this then there is no leg to stand on.

Also, one room being measured slightly wrong isn't going to make the whole house "too small". It seems you bought a house that wasn't suitable and now want to claim compensation 

pinkshoes

How much is it out by?

The EA plans online are an estimate. As the furniture fitting was essential to the purchase then as you couldn't revisit due to covid, did you ask in writing for them to reconfirm the dimensions? If you did then you potentially have a case. If you didn't then unless it is a huge discrepancy then I doubt you will get far.

Dolor

My wife and I have moved house 24 times in 51 years which has included 5 new builds. I have never gone round with a tape measure in any house we have rented/bought to check the claimed dimensions. Other key factors come into play: for example, do we like the house; do we like the area etc.

On one hand the OP appears to be wanting compensation but doesn’t want to upset the Estate Agent because they might want to stay in the area. Would anybody actually incur the significant sale/purchase costs of a house change for a few pieces of furniture?

Most Estate Agents will not entertain a complaint made two years down the line. However, if the OP is serious about moving, the Estate Agent may agree a small discount on the commission to get the sale. Then again, it might just refer to the various disclaimers that all dimensions are approximate. It is called small print for a reason.

babyblade41

not a chance of compo

badger09

Section62 said:

taking_time said:

We bought a house in lockdown.

The first half of 2020. Or later than that?

Have you raised this issue with the EA at all?  Whatever route you go down you'd need to start with a formal complaint to the EA, and the longer you've left it since moving in, the less your complaint will look like a genuine one about misdescription, and the more like a fishing exercise for a bit of compo to help fund a move you are going to do anyway. (this is probably how the EA will see it)

As user1977 said, an idea of the size of the discrepancy is important for you to be able to get good advice here.

We moved house twice during the lockdown which started 4 Jan 2021. Also had issues seeing it more than once. Tough. 

OP has no grounds for compensation 

1616six

This feels mad, you viewed a house and bought it having obviously physically been in each room and as the measurements on the floor pan are out, you’re selling the house again? 

Surely you could gauge when you viewed it that the rooms either felt big enough or too small?!

I’ve just checked 4 random adverts on Rightmove and all of them have this on the bottom corner of the floor pan:

“TOTAL FLOOR AREA: XYZ sq.ft. (XYZ sq.m.) approx.

Whilst every attempt has been made to ensure the accuracy of the floorplan contained here, measurements of doors, windows, rooms and any other items are approximate and no responsibility is taken for any error, omission or mis-statement. This plan is for illustrative purposes only and should be used as such by any prospective purchaser. The services, systems and appliances shown have not been tested and no guarantee as to their operability or efficiency can be given.

Made with Metropix ©2022”

I don’t think you’ve got a hope in hells chance of compo to be honest, and going to the length of selling the house on the basis your furniture won’t fit seems excessive. Is there another reason you’re having second thoughts? If I bought a house and loved it but a piece of furniture wouldn’t fit, I’d just replace the furniture which would almost definitely be cheaper and certainly less stressful!

lookstraightahead

babyblade41 said:

not a chance of compo

Quite right.