Property misrepresentation

lucas20042004

Hello,

I bought a 1950s house in August. Everything appeared to okay which was reflected by the full structural survey.

Since moving in we're finding issue after issue. A lot of these issues are cosmetic and possibly expected due to the age of the house, however some a proving very costly and I'm worried about finding more. It appears that the vendor bodged everything in order to hide certain defects and issues during the sale.

Here's just a few:

• House needs a full re-wire due to old VIR cabling. I have accepted this is on me as I should have had an electrical report done, even though the structural survey said the installation was safe. Clearly the vendors knew it was unsafe.
• The neighbours said that the vendors mentioned to them recently that they had done something in the loft. I went up and pulled back some of the insulation. The felt is completely deteriorated and crumbled. The neighbours said the the vendor simply covered it with insulation to band aid the issue. If they hadn't the structural survey would have picked up on this.
• Various pipes behind appliances are leaking. There's containers that are now full. This was only discovered because the electricians had to get behind the cabinets for the rewire.
• There's sponges shoved in gaps in the conservatory roof to stop leaking  

Do I have any legal recourse or is this all a buyer beware thing?

Thanks

x_raphael_xx

Unfortunately as the buyer, you accepted the state of the house based on the surveys and your own viewings. Unless there was something major/structural that was missed in the surveys, it's just one of the risks you take with buying a house.
We had something similar when we bought our house, things painted over and bodged up to look better condition than they were.

MorningcoffeeIV

Unless they lied to you about stuff, then it's just things you'll need to fix.

What was the 'misrepresentation' aspect of the transaction?

GDB2222

You have no rights against the vendors. It is possible that your surveyor was at fault. 

I think your expectations are also a bit overoptimistic. The house is 70 years old. I'd expect the felt to be in poor condition at that age. I don't know what the survey said about this?

lucas20042004

Thanks. They haven't lied as such but they didn't disclose issues and tried to hide them. For example, fitting insulation to hide the roof issue.

housebuyer143

Did the survey say it was in good condition, or that they couldn't inspect it because of X? 
If it says it's good condition and it's not and you had a building survey, then you might have recourse from the surveyor.

lucas20042004

mortgageFTB said:

Unless the vendor lied in writing, to a direct question, and you have physical evidence of their lie, then you have no recourse.

lucas20042004 said:

 For example, fitting insulation to hide the roof issue.

What’s your proof that the insulation was added to hide an issue? They could have just added insulation and been oblivious to the issue.

What’s the concrete physical proof to substantiate this claim? The above assumption, is not proof, FYI.

Unfortunately, it’s buyer beware when purchasing a house. These are your issues to deal with, I’m afraid.

They literally told the neighbour they added insulation to cover the issue up before they put the property on the market. But yeah, I get it, I thought this might be the case that we'd have no comeback. 

lucas20042004

GDB2222 said:

You have no rights against the vendors. It is possible that your surveyor was at fault. 

I think your expectations are also a bit overoptimistic. The house is 70 years old. I'd expect the felt to be in poor condition at that age. I don't know what the survey said about this?

In hindsight the survey was pointless. They absolve themselves of any issues in basically every statement they make in the report.

ReadingTim

Welcome to home ownership!  Sadly this is just part and parcel of what it entails, especially if you buy an older property, and part of the reason you get searches and surveys done before you buy. 

Now, you won't forget to point out every flaw, fault, hack, crack, job bodged and corner cut that you've discovered about the place when you come to sell it, will you?!?  

MeteredOut

lucas20042004 said:

<snip>

• House needs a full re-wire due to old VIR cabling. I have accepted this is on me as I should have had an electrical report done, even though the structural survey said the installation was safe. Clearly the vendors knew it was unsafe.

<snip>

Who is now telling you it unsafe? In what way is it unsafe? If you have a professional telling you that, and the surveyor explicitly said it was safe, then claim against the surveyor.

And in what way is it clear that the vendors knew it was unsafe?

Emily_Joy

1. If the paperwork you got from your solicitor didn't mention that the house has been rewired, you should have assumed that it was not. The house of this age would need rewire at some point. Furthermore, this should have been pretty evident from the fuse box.

2 and 4. What stopped you from examining the loft during the viewing? What stopped the surveyor from examining the roof? The full structural survey should have roof survey - usually done with help of drones & people getting on the roof. The same for the conservatory. 

3. The leaking pipes would typically lead to high dampness. Did the report mention anything regarding the damp?