Does a TA6 form carry any weight if problems are undisclosed?

thetcutkid

Hi,

A friend of mine purchased her first property in March 2025 - a leasehold ground floor apartment.

Her Level 2 survey completed in Dec 2024 picked up evidence of a chemical injection damp course to the rear of the building but also noted that '…the walls are generally true,and no serious issues were noted, however, there are some areas of worn pointing and spalled brickwork, these areas should be repaired as part of normal routine maintenance…'

Around Sept 2025, she started to experience severe damp in the main bedroom, a wall of which is the one treated with the chemical DPC. The damp got so bad she had to stop sleeping in that room and move into another bedroom for health reasons.

She was able to get in touch with the vendor to enquire who had installed the chemical DPC, the information was provided which also included details of a warranty that was still in force and could be transferred into my friends name as the new leaseholder.

With the warranty transferred, my friend asked the company to forward details of the work previously undertaken.

This documentation showed that in 2015 they had installed the chemical dpc and removed the internal render and plasterwork back to brickwork after high moisture meter readings were found in that room. They were then called out again in 2020 when the damp issues continued with another back to brickwork repair about 1m above the area previously repaired in 2015.

Looking at her TA6 form, under section 5, Guarantees and Warranties, sub-section 5.1, ‘Does the property benefit from any of the following guarantees or warranties? If yes, please supply a copy?’, with the exception of ‘New Home Warranty’ which has been marked ‘no’, everything else, including ‘Damp Proofing’, has not been completed at all and just left blank.

Obviously I can’t say that had damp proofing been ticked ‘yes’ and a copy of the warranty provided it would’ve influenced her decision to buy the property but shouldn’t she at least have had the opportunity to question why it was done?

Is there any requirement for a vendor to declare issues with the property they are selling?

Is it fair to expect that my friend’s solicitor would read the TA6 form through to at least see if it had been completed in full?

Bottom line, does a TA6 form have any kind of legality if something is knowingly not declared?

user1977

Was the seller the owner at the time of the works? Are the works are a leaseholder (rather than freeholder) matter?

No, there is no general requirement for a seller to declare "issues". All properties have "issues".

thetcutkid

Yes, the seller was the owner at the time of the works.

elsien

If the vendorbelieved that the issue had been resolved by the work completed in 2020, is there technically anything for them to disclose?
the about timescales e.g. in the last number of years?

thetcutkid

"If the vendor believed that the issue had been resolved by the work completed in 2020, is there technically anything for them to disclose?"

Yes, I guess that's a fair point.

What about the incomplete TA6 form…any thoughts?

elsien

The solicitor should have spotted any glaring errors.

But your friend would also have had a copy of the form and could have asked about any gaps.

So it would ultimately come down to what loss has been suffered by not mentioning there was in place. Which I think would probably be quite hard to prove if the survey also didn’t pick anything up.

user1977

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81858730#Comment_81858730

and they commissioned the works? Or the freeholder?

RiskAverse100

There is no legal requirement on the part of the seller to answer any of the questions in the Form TA6. However, if a blank form was supplied for example, then the buyer's conveyancer would no doubt send it back and ask for it to be fully completed and if there was a refusal to do so, advise the client not to proceed or possibly refuse to act.

If only some questions have not been answered then the usual response from the buyer's conveyancer is to ask for them to be answered in the further enquiries raised. It is certainly possible that it is just a simple mistake that they were not answered.

However, if there is still a refusal to provide any missing answers and no justification is given, then this is a big red flag. The obvious conclusion is that the seller does not want to provide the required information as if they did so then this could lead to the buyer not wanting to proceed.

What is not clear is if your friend's conveyancer didn't spot that answers about guarantees and warranties were missing, but didn't raise this with the seller's conveyancer. However, even if this was the case, did your friend not spot that they were missing when receiving the conveyancer's report on the property?

If the conveyancer didn't spot the missing answers and did nothing then this could be evidence of them not doing their job properly. But we don't have much to go on and so it is not really possible to say that this is the case.

However, not answering a question is just that. The seller hasn't said anything that is false or misleading if they choose not to answer specific questions and this is not picked up by anyone.

thetcutkid

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81858810#Comment_81858810

My understanding is that the seller commissioned the work but I'd need to double check with my friend to be 100% on that point.

thetcutkid

Many thanks for the detailed reply RA100

What is not clear is if your friend's conveyancer didn't spot that answers about guarantees and warranties were missing, but didn't raise this with the seller's conveyancer. However, even if this was the case, did your friend not spot that they were missing when receiving the conveyancer's report on the property?

She was sent a 260 page buyers pack (or whatever they call it) at 5pm the day before she was due to sign the contract at 10am the next day and was up to 2am reading it through and didn't pick up on the incomplete sections on the TA6.

However, not answering a question is just that. The seller hasn't said anything that is false or misleading if they choose not to answer specific questions and this is not picked up by anyone.

Interesting, seems the TA6 is little more than a courtesy really then altho I guess if I'd actually ticked 'no' to a question asking if I've been in dispute with my neighbours or have japanese knot weed for example when the opposite was true, I'd imagine that would be an issue? Just ignoring it seems a bit of a grey area?

TheJP

It could be that the seller felt the issue was resolved and at the time of the sale the warranty would have lapsed or they just forgot about it. Your friends survey pointed out that there had been a chemical injection for damp, this would have been the point of which to enquire about any guarantees or warranties. Your friend could pursue this as something that may have been missed by their solicitor in investigating further unless your friend didn't share this information with the solicitor?

A house could be held together by double sided tape, the seller doesn't have a legal requirement to disclose this. Unless they are asked the question of course…