Discovered hidden council deed after buying house – any legal options?

UKresident3333

Hi everyone,

I’m hoping for some guidance on a situation I’ve discovered recently.

I bought my house about 2 years ago. I’ve just found out that a deed was signed between the seller and the council a few years before the sale. This deed states that no occupier or owner of the property can apply for a residents’ parking permit because the house is part of a low car housing scheme. This was a condition imposed by the council when planning permission was granted to the developers to split an existing house into two houses - one of which we purchased.

This deed was never provided to me or my solicitor during conveyancing.

In the TA6 Property Information Form (I think that’s what it’s called - the seller’s questionnaire), the seller answered “not known” to the question about whether the property is affected by any parking schemes or restrictions. Their solicitor even told ours to “rely on your own searches”.

Our solicitor later concluded that all searches were fine - though I’m not sure whether this deed was missed by them or simply not available in the searches.

My questions are:

1. Can I take legal action against the seller for withholding this information?

2. Would this amount to fraudulent misrepresentation, given the seller clearly knew about the restriction (they signed the deed themselves just a few years earlier)?

3. Is it realistically worth pursuing legally - what are the chances of success or recovering any money, and what would the costs likely be?

I’d really appreciate any advice.

Thanks in advance for any help - this has been a real shock to discover and my wife and I feel as though we've been conned. 

kinger101

It would be difficult to prove the seller did know.  Your solicitor has failed so my initial complaint would be with them.

user1977

Wasn't it mentioned in the planning consent?

What was discussed about parking permits? 

UKresident3333

kinger101 said:

It would be difficult to prove the seller did know.  Your solicitor has failed so my initial complaint would be with them.

But if they signed the deed in 2018, surely that proves they did know? The entire deed is about the parking permit restriction. How could they have signed it without knowing that they've signed it?

UKresident3333

user1977 said:

Wasn't it mentioned in the planning consent?

What was discussed about parking permits? 

We didn't receive any information about parking permit restrictions throughout the entire process. When the seller applied for planning permission for the development, they were told by the council that this could go ahead with the condition that a deed is signed restricting any occupier of the house from applying for a parking permit. We were not given this information during the process of buying the property.

sheramber

If they signed the deed it is strange that they answered ‘not known’. 

Are you aware the house was part of a low car housing scheme? 

If you were, what enquiries were made as to what that entailed? 

user1977

UKresident3333 said:

user1977 said:

Wasn't it mentioned in the planning consent?

What was discussed about parking permits? 

We didn't receive any information about parking permit restrictions throughout the entire process.

Ok, but presumably you were aware there's a permit scheme in operation? Did the seller say the house was entitled to a permit? Didn't you see the planning consent, if not that deed in particular?

UKresident3333

sheramber said:

If they signed the deed it is strange that they answered ‘not known’. 

Are you aware the house was part of a low car housing scheme? 

If you were, what enquiries were made as to what that entailed? 

During the process of buying the house, we had no idea it was part of a low car housing scheme as that information was withheld by the seller. When our solicitor pushed back on their 'not known' answer, they simply responded that we need to rely on our own searches. This seems like a dishonest and sly tactic to avoid telling us what they knew about the deed they signed - which in my opinion counts as fraudulent misrepresentation (although my legal knowledge is limited!). 

UKresident3333

user1977 said:

UKresident3333 said:

user1977 said:

Wasn't it mentioned in the planning consent?

What was discussed about parking permits? 

We didn't receive any information about parking permit restrictions throughout the entire process.

Ok, but presumably you were aware there's a permit scheme in operation? Did the seller say the house was entitled to a permit? Didn't you see the planning consent, if not that deed in particular?

No so strangely the document the seller did share with us shows limited correspondence with the council about planning permission but they have carefully not included the letter about the deed or the deed itself. So it is impossible to tell from the documents they shared with our solicitor that the deed existed. We were aware of a CPZ that exists during limited hours on the road but that exists in most areas in London and isn't a reason to withdraw from buying a house itself - because you can simply purchase a permit and park there. They specifically withheld the information about the specific deed they signed restricting occupiers of the house from purchasing a permit.

EssexHebridean

First - you will have been provided with a copy of the searches, so presumably when you read through them you didn’t flag up anything about the parking situation or you would have alerted your solicitor to this if you had thought they’d missed it, if that’s so, then you can assume there was nothing there to raise concerns. 

Looking at the planning stuff around the property - not just what was provided by the seller’s solicitor but also the stuff you found online yourself via the local planning portal - are you confident that there was nothing in there that ought to have raised a red flag, and that you just missed at the time?

if the seller signed the TA6 having put a “not known” about a parking restriction that they signed a deed relating to, then you would theoretically have come back there - but I suspect you will need to weigh up whether it will be worth what might be a protracted and expensive legal exercise to get anything sorted that way. And in any event what outcome do you want from this?

UKresident3333

EssexHebridean said:

First - you will have been provided with a copy of the searches, so presumably when you read through them you didn’t flag up anything about the parking situation or you would have alerted your solicitor to this if you had thought they’d missed it, if that’s so, then you can assume there was nothing there to raise concerns. 

Looking at the planning stuff around the property - not just what was provided by the seller’s solicitor but also the stuff you found online yourself via the local planning portal - are you confident that there was nothing in there that ought to have raised a red flag, and that you just missed at the time?

if the seller signed the TA6 having put a “not known” about a parking restriction that they signed a deed relating to, then you would theoretically have come back there - but I suspect you will need to weigh up whether it will be worth what might be a protracted and expensive legal exercise to get anything sorted that way. And in any event what outcome do you want from this?

So is it the buyer's responsibility to search on the local planning portal to find this information - if so, what is the point in the two solicitors' roles? Does that mean I do not have grounds for a legal case as I could have just searched this on the local planning portal, and the seller is allowed to lie and put 'not known' in the seller questionnaire? (These are genuine questions by the way as I'm not too experienced or knowledgeable in this field)

In terms of what outcome I'd want - for me it is clear. The value of the house was based on there being no parking restrictions and we paid an amount believing there was no parking permit restriction deed against the property. So I would want to be compensated for the decreased value of the property compared to what I paid for it.