Purchase about to fall through due to misrepresentation

eddddy

You could try the route of complaining to the estate agent about failing to disclose the lack of building regs - and then complaining to the Property Ombudsman.

FWIW, here's a link to a  situation that sounds similar. The Ombudsman ruled that the EA must pay the buyer £1k compensation (£900 for the survey cost and £100 for the aggravation).
https://thenegotiator.co.uk/features/30220-2/



But the test the Ombudsman would apply isn't "Was the info in the listing misleading?"

Instead, the test is likely to be "Did the EA take reasonable care about what they said in the listing?"

e.g. If a reasonably competent property professional visited the house (like the EA did), should they have realised that there might be a building regs issue - and therefore made further investigations.


(If a reasonably competent property professional wouldn't have spotted the potential issue - then the Ombudsman might say the EA has done nothing wrong.)

AJM1984

eddddy said:

You could try the route of complaining to the estate agent about failing to disclose the lack of building regs - and then complaining to the Property Ombudsman.

FWIW, here's a link to a  situation that sounds similar. The Ombudsman ruled that the EA must pay the buyer £1k compensation (£900 for the survey cost and £100 for the aggravation).
https://thenegotiator.co.uk/features/30220-2/



But the test the Ombudsman would apply isn't "Was the info in the listing misleading?"

Instead, the test is likely to be "Did the EA take reasonable care about what they put in the listing?"

e.g. If a reasonably competent property professional visited the house (like the EA did), should they have realised that there might be a building regs issue - and therefore made further investigations.

Thanks, that's what we're going to try and do. I appreciate you sending me the relevant article! We mentioned to the EA today that we'll be chasing them on this and they said we couldn't because they would have listed it as two bedroom AND an attic room. All brochures and listings online say otherwise. It only comes up when searching for a three bedroom requirement on their own website. It states "Three bedroom, including attic" and on Rightmove and Zoopla it's also under the three bedroom filter with a big three next to the bedroom icon. We have nothing to lose by pursuing it at this stage. Their attitude has changed since we pointed it all out. 

BlueVeranda

AJM1984 said:

eddddy said:

You could try the route of complaining to the estate agent about failing to disclose the lack of building regs - and then complaining to the Property Ombudsman.

FWIW, here's a link to a  situation that sounds similar. The Ombudsman ruled that the EA must pay the buyer £1k compensation (£900 for the survey cost and £100 for the aggravation).
https://thenegotiator.co.uk/features/30220-2/



But the test the Ombudsman would apply isn't "Was the info in the listing misleading?"

Instead, the test is likely to be "Did the EA take reasonable care about what they put in the listing?"

e.g. If a reasonably competent property professional visited the house (like the EA did), should they have realised that there might be a building regs issue - and therefore made further investigations.

Thanks, that's what we're going to try and do. I appreciate you sending me the relevant article! We mentioned to the EA today that we'll be chasing them on this and they said we couldn't because they would have listed it as two bedroom AND an attic room. All brochures and listings online say otherwise. It only comes up when searching for a three bedroom requirement on their own website. It states "Three bedroom, including attic" and on Rightmove and Zoopla it's also under the three bedroom filter with a big three next to the bedroom icon. We have nothing to lose by pursuing it at this stage. Their attitude has changed since we pointed it all out. 

I hope you have screenshots and copies saved. Do not rely on them leaving the evidence online.

RHemmings

Hopefully next time you'll find a property that is both as described, and is being sold by a reasonable person.

Good luck with the complaint to TPOS. Remember you have to go through the EA's internal complaints process first. This should be listed on their website. 

AJM1984

Thank you for the advice all.

I have saved PDF copies of their brochures and taken clear copies of their web pages (including visible website domain information) and any other listed adverts I've found so far. Including those on things like Facebook. All headlined as "THREE BEDROOMED TERRACE" and described as such in the description. One site lists it as "Third bedroom, currently being used as a gaming room".
I will definitely approach them via their internal complaints process first.

ThisIsWeird

eddddy said:

You could try the route of complaining to the estate agent about failing to disclose the lack of building regs - and then complaining to the Property Ombudsman.

FWIW, here's a link to a  situation that sounds similar. The Ombudsman ruled that the EA must pay the buyer £1k compensation (£900 for the survey cost and £100 for the aggravation).
https://thenegotiator.co.uk/features/30220-2/



But the test the Ombudsman would apply isn't "Was the info in the listing misleading?"

Instead, the test is likely to be "Did the EA take reasonable care about what they said in the listing?"

e.g. If a reasonably competent property professional visited the house (like the EA did), should they have realised that there might be a building regs issue - and therefore made further investigations.


(If a reasonably competent property professional wouldn't have spotted the potential issue - then the Ombudsman might say the EA has done nothing wrong.)

Nice work, Eddddy.
I suspect the EA is doubly nobbled here as they should have been very aware of the other similar houses in the 'hood that had non-compliant 'loft conversions' carried out, but being described correctly as 2-bed. 
On visiting this house, their antennae should have been twitching; "Ah! A proper loft conversion, you say? Cool - could we see the certs?"