Leasehold conditions have changed after sale agreed and costs incurred - is there any recourse?

loubel

If would be unusual for the lease to permit short term lets so, if your solicitor knew this was your intention, I would have expected them to check the lease on receipt and let you know that this isn't the property for you. Unless this is a new lease and they have been trying to negotiate this to be included in the lease?

Marshy1

eddddy said:

If you end up walking away from the purchase as a result of the misleading information the estate agent gave you, you could try a complaint to whichever redress scheme the estate agent is a member of - either the Property Ombudsman Scheme or the PRS - to potentially get compensation for your losses.


In simple terms, the estate agent would have broken consumer protection laws if they give you information which they knew was misleading, or should have known was misleading.


In my experience, it is extremely unusual for a residential flat lease to allow holiday lets. So there's the argument that a 'Property Professional' like an estate agent should have queried such an usual statement from the seller, and asked to see a copy of the lease to check.

But it would be up to the Property Ombudsman / PRS to decide whether they agree with that view.


If they did agree, they might order the estate agent to repay your abortive legal fees, survey fees, etc.


But there's also the argument that saying "We have been informed..." implies some level of doubt that the statement is true. (It might have been better if the estate agent added something emphasising this like "...however, prospective buyers should make their own enquiries to confirm this".)

that's really helpful thank you ... I'll definitely consider this as an option once I follow-up formally with the estate agent and solicitors

Marshy1

anselld said:

Marshy1 said:

artyboy said:

Well it sounds like you could at least reduce your offer to take account of the new information, if as you say you had specifically offered at a higher level initial on the basis that holiday lets were allowed.

The vendor can obviously refuse, but that, as you also say, is the game. They might be less than pleased that their EA has wasted time here by implying something that wasn't the case, but again, that's pretty much par for the course.

thank you - and yes a reduced offer is exactly our plan at this stage ....

Surely if you plan to live there it is better that holiday lets are dissallowed, so why lower offer?

If you plan to holiday let then it has become a non-starter.

Unfortunately no recourse, but next time on any leasehold purchase get a copy of the lease before doing anything else.  If it is not forthcoming from the agent it can be got from Land Registry for a £7 fee.

we want it as a holiday home AND as a holiday let - so ideally both purposes, that's what drew us into looking at this beach front property in the first place

Marshy1

Albermarle said:

anselld said:

Marshy1 said:

artyboy said:

Well it sounds like you could at least reduce your offer to take account of the new information, if as you say you had specifically offered at a higher level initial on the basis that holiday lets were allowed.

The vendor can obviously refuse, but that, as you also say, is the game. They might be less than pleased that their EA has wasted time here by implying something that wasn't the case, but again, that's pretty much par for the course.

thank you - and yes a reduced offer is exactly our plan at this stage ....

Surely if you plan to live there it is better that holiday lets are dissallowed, so why lower offer?

If you plan to holiday let then it has become a non-starter.

Unfortunately no recourse, but next time on any leasehold purchase get a copy of the lease before doing anything else.  If it is not forthcoming from the agent it can be got from Land Registry for a £7 fee.

Maybe just because it is a good excuse to try and renegotiate lower.

now to decide what sort of lower offer to make ... online searches don't really give a steer on that (ie - what % value does having holiday let add to the value of a property?) ... thanks again for the feedback to all those who have commented

EssexHebridean

"Prospective buyers should seek legal advice to confirm this" - the argument that an EA should have been asking for a copy of the lease (not something I would have been providing to ours when we sold - on the basis that they had no requirement whatsoever for it) doesn't really stand up as they're not qualified to give advice on it in any event - that's a job for a solicitor. I'd agree that a complaint might well get the OP something, but in their shoes I would be cautious about saying anything in that complaint about the agents being liable to have checked the lease.  Whilst agents are very quick to give opinions on matters that they really shouldn't be getting involved in, they are also very quick to say "oh of course we can't comment on that" when they are picked up on it later! If only they would stay in their lane quite so vigorously throughout, a lot of transactions would run far more smoothly! 

eddddy

EssexHebridean said:

"Prospective buyers should seek legal advice to confirm this" - the argument that an EA should have been asking for a copy of the lease (not something I would have been providing to ours when we sold - on the basis that they had no requirement whatsoever for it) doesn't really stand up as they're not qualified to give advice on it in any event - that's a job for a solicitor. I'd agree that a complaint might well get the OP something, but in their shoes I would be cautious about saying anything in that complaint about the agents being liable to have checked the lease.  Whilst agents are very quick to give opinions on matters that they really shouldn't be getting involved in, they are also very quick to say "oh of course we can't comment on that" when they are picked up on it later! If only they would stay in their lane quite so vigorously throughout, a lot of transactions would run far more smoothly! 

On the other hand, the Property Ombudsman and Trading Standards are increasingly expecting estate agents to act like 'Property Professionals'

And, as mentioned, a lease allowing holiday lets is very unusual - so the claim should have rung alarm bells for the estate agent. And the estate agent probably should have requested documentary evidence.



Trading Standard's GUIDANCE ON PROPERTY SALES AND LETTINGS says:






I can't find any cases relating to misleading statements about "holiday letting",  but, for example, there are lots of discussions about misleading statements about "loft conversions" being bedrooms - and the level of diligence expected of estate agents.

So I imagine that the Property Ombudsman might expect a similar level of diligent checking before mentioning "Holiday Letting".


The Property Ombudsman says:


Link: https://thenegotiator.co.uk/features/30220-2/


A firm of solicitors say:

Link: https://www.boyesturner.com/news-and-insights/when-is-a-loft-conversion-not-a-loft-conversion



And the Propertymark (formerly the National Association of Estate Agents) says:

https://www.propertymark.co.uk/resource/attic-descriptions.html

EssexHebridean

The problem is, all the entities in the world can suggest that EAs should be able to advise on this sort of thing, but it's an incredibly dangerous territory to step on to - unless of course there is going to be a requirement for anyone working as an agent to also take some sort of at least basic legal training as well. (And I suspect that in itself would simply cause them to stray even further out of their lane than they often do already). 

If an agent is told something by a client that they have no way of being able to verify, my view is that they should be required to either say "Sorry, we can't put that in the marketing I'm afraid" or at the very least to put it in a form that makes utterly clear that it should not be relied on - as we were saying earlier on. It doesn't help the OP in this situation though - and I suspect will come down to whether in fact the wording can be seen as sufficiently misleading to allow for any sort of claim to be successful. 

ExEstateAgent

When you buy a leasehold property you're basically buying the lease, that bundle of A4 paper. 

I've said for ages it should be mandatory that the lease is provided on request to a potential buyer, not at some later stage in the conveyancing process.