191 thoughts on “Property Misrepresentation Claims in Practice”
Hi – I have just bought a house and moved in 4 days before Christmas. The same day I moved in the boiler completely packed up. Gas valve not working, water pressure non existent, circuit board failure and expansion vessel broken. We had 3 quotes on the same day, all said you need a new one straight away. We now don’t have heating or hot water over Christmas and the house was also left unclean so cleaning with cold water. Aside from that, one of the people I had a quote from was the sellers gas engineer I found from an invoice in the legal paperwork. I wanted someone over who knew the boiler and could help quickly. I chatted about the problems we were having and mentioned that in the legal work the seller had written down that the boiler was 8 years old. The gas engineer told me this wasn’t true, as he had been the sellers engineer he knew it was 15 years old!!! And he spoke to the seller about replacing it last year. We also have written down from the seller that the boiler was in “good working order”. To contrast this further, I took a photo of the boiler when I viewed it and looking back, I can now see in that photo 3 months before we bought it that the same error code is on the boiler. The same one we have now that has lead to replacement. I’ve never had a boiler before so it didn’t occur to me to check that very minor detail whilst we were offering as all the information I had on the transfer forms were that it was 8 years old and in good condition. Do I have grounds for a case based on fraudulent misrepresentation here? Thanks
Thank you for your comment. While we cannot give full advice without having seen all the documentation and evidence, it would appear that there may be a case here.
The seller is not required to volunteer information but any information they do volunteer must be correct. It appears that the seller knew, or could reasonably have known, that the boiler was faulty yet they put that it was in good working order on the Property Information Form. This is a false statement. As it was on the property information form you would have been entitled to rely upon it and you did. Based on this there may be a valid claim there, though this will be subject to any exclusion or non-reliance clauses within the contract.
In terms of damages, this will be relating to the losses of and occasioned by the misrepresentation. This would likely be the costs of a new boiler and possibly damages of and occasioned by this, together with a potential diminution in value. However it is unlikely to be particularly high value in the grand scheme of things.
We purchased a property 4 years ago which had one right of way over our property – our immediate neighbour. After a couple of weeks we noticed other people coming through our property, on foot and horseback. When we asked the immediate neighbour she said they had been coming through for years. As we were new we didn’t want to cause trouble so didn’t say anything, we were also busy renovating inside. However once we started clearing and making a garden outside, these people started causing damage to newly planted grass and flower beds – letting their dogs run amock and their horse causing damage to the grassed areas instead of staying on the driveway. There is nothing in our deeds giving them access or A right of way. We sent a solicitor letter asking them to stop causing damage. On the TA6 form the sellers said NO when asked about any other rights of way or arrangements. Although they haven’t used the drive for approx 18months (due to the police getting involved and telling them to stop using shortcut) we have recently found out the have applied and been granted a prescriptive right of way. We never received notification of this, presumably because of covid and the L.Reg office working from home. Our question is would we have a case against the seller as we wouldn’t have purchased if we had known ‘random strangers and neighbors could come through our property.
Thank you for your comment. While we are not able to give detailed advice at this stage as we do not have all the documentation to hand, there may be a claim in misrepresentation against your seller. To make out such a claim you will need to show that the seller made a false statement which you relied upon, and on which you were entitled to rely, and as a result of which you have suffered a loss. If the seller made a false statement regarding rights of way on the property information form then that is a false statement that you could rely upon. However, you will need to show also whether they knowingly made this false statement or otherwise as that will affect whether it is a fraudulent or reckless misrepresentation or merely a negligent or innocent one. We also would need to see the contracts of sale as that may contain further non-reliance or exclusion clauses. This would also depend on the extent of the right of way that was not disclosed when asked about.
Regarding what redress is available, rescission of the contract will likely be off the cards due to the fact it was 4 years since the sale took place. However there may still be a claim open to you in damages. As to how much those damages would be, this would be the consequential losses of potential damage to your property as a result of the right of way, increased maintenance, and also diminution in the value of the property to you as had you known there was a public right of way over it you may not have paid so much for it.
Hi there I bought a share-of-the-freehold flat, managed by a limited company where the directors are the other flat owners. In the last two years, numerous problems with lack of maintenance and poor quality repairs stretching back well before I purchased have come to light. These will cost 10s of thousands of pounds to put right, and I seem to be the only person interested in fixing things, so I would have to organise all the work, too… I believe at least some of these past problems were outlined in past AGM minutes of our limited company, but these minutes are ‘unavailable’ to me, for some reason. Would I have a claim for misrepresentation based on e.g. the Leasehold Information form TA7 where the seller states that he doesn’t know of any problems re management/service charge (5.6) when actually there were and continue to be disputes about the repair schedule, charges, etc, and (5.5) where only a very limited work scheduled is outlined -this work is necessary but by no means the whole story. The company secretary (who also owns the basement flat in the building) also states on LPE1 that the service charge was suspended for two years prior to the sale due to “the amount of funds” however these funds were not nearly enough to carry out all the repairs that are currently (and also were then) necessary. The work mentioned on TA7 directly benefits the basement flat but no others, looking to me like some kind of ‘agreement’ was reached between the seller (who was the previous company secretary) and the current company secretary (who owns the basement flat). (Neither of them lived in the building and rented their respective flats out). Thanks for any advice! (PS I’ve slightly obscured my published name – hopfully for obvious reasons)
It does sound like a frustrating situation. If it can be said that the facts that the seller gave you were not accurate, then there may be a claim for misrepresentation. We often see cases where sellers make an express representation that they are not aware of anything which might lead to a dispute, only for the buyer to move in and find that there is an ongoing argument with the neighbour.
We would, however, question what your loss is. At a basic level, the loss in a misrepresentation claim like this would be based on diminution in value. This is the difference between what was paid for the property and what it is worth with the defects or issues. Put another way, you do have a property which has some value. Whilst as solicitors, we would have to ask a suitably qualified surveyor to give us an opinion on diminution in value, we do question the extent to which the inconvenience and poor management of the building would have on the value of your property.
Do feel free to get in touch if you would like to consider matters in more detail with us.
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Hi – I have just bought a house and moved in 4 days before Christmas. The same day I moved in the boiler completely packed up. Gas valve not working, water pressure non existent, circuit board failure and expansion vessel broken. We had 3 quotes on the same day, all said you need a new one straight away. We now don’t have heating or hot water over Christmas and the house was also left unclean so cleaning with cold water. Aside from that, one of the people I had a quote from was the sellers gas engineer I found from an invoice in the legal paperwork. I wanted someone over who knew the boiler and could help quickly. I chatted about the problems we were having and mentioned that in the legal work the seller had written down that the boiler was 8 years old. The gas engineer told me this wasn’t true, as he had been the sellers engineer he knew it was 15 years old!!! And he spoke to the seller about replacing it last year. We also have written down from the seller that the boiler was in “good working order”. To contrast this further, I took a photo of the boiler when I viewed it and looking back, I can now see in that photo 3 months before we bought it that the same error code is on the boiler. The same one we have now that has lead to replacement. I’ve never had a boiler before so it didn’t occur to me to check that very minor detail whilst we were offering as all the information I had on the transfer forms were that it was 8 years old and in good condition. Do I have grounds for a case based on fraudulent misrepresentation here? Thanks
Thank you for your comment. While we cannot give full advice without having seen all the documentation and evidence, it would appear that there may be a case here.
The seller is not required to volunteer information but any information they do volunteer must be correct. It appears that the seller knew, or could reasonably have known, that the boiler was faulty yet they put that it was in good working order on the Property Information Form. This is a false statement. As it was on the property information form you would have been entitled to rely upon it and you did. Based on this there may be a valid claim there, though this will be subject to any exclusion or non-reliance clauses within the contract.
In terms of damages, this will be relating to the losses of and occasioned by the misrepresentation. This would likely be the costs of a new boiler and possibly damages of and occasioned by this, together with a potential diminution in value. However it is unlikely to be particularly high value in the grand scheme of things.
Hi
We purchased a property 4 years ago which had one right of way over our property – our immediate neighbour. After a couple of weeks we noticed other people coming through our property, on foot and horseback. When we asked the immediate neighbour she said they had been coming through for years. As we were new we didn’t want to cause trouble so didn’t say anything, we were also busy renovating inside. However once we started clearing and making a garden outside, these people started causing damage to newly planted grass and flower beds – letting their dogs run amock and their horse causing damage to the grassed areas instead of staying on the driveway. There is nothing in our deeds giving them access or A right of way. We sent a solicitor letter asking them to stop causing damage. On the TA6 form the sellers said NO when asked about any other rights of way or arrangements. Although they haven’t used the drive for approx 18months (due to the police getting involved and telling them to stop using shortcut) we have recently found out the have applied and been granted a prescriptive right of way. We never received notification of this, presumably because of covid and the L.Reg office working from home.
Our question is would we have a case against the seller as we wouldn’t have purchased if we had known ‘random strangers and neighbors could come through our property.
Thank you
Thank you for your comment. While we are not able to give detailed advice at this stage as we do not have all the documentation to hand, there may be a claim in misrepresentation against your seller. To make out such a claim you will need to show that the seller made a false statement which you relied upon, and on which you were entitled to rely, and as a result of which you have suffered a loss. If the seller made a false statement regarding rights of way on the property information form then that is a false statement that you could rely upon. However, you will need to show also whether they knowingly made this false statement or otherwise as that will affect whether it is a fraudulent or reckless misrepresentation or merely a negligent or innocent one. We also would need to see the contracts of sale as that may contain further non-reliance or exclusion clauses. This would also depend on the extent of the right of way that was not disclosed when asked about.
Regarding what redress is available, rescission of the contract will likely be off the cards due to the fact it was 4 years since the sale took place. However there may still be a claim open to you in damages. As to how much those damages would be, this would be the consequential losses of potential damage to your property as a result of the right of way, increased maintenance, and also diminution in the value of the property to you as had you known there was a public right of way over it you may not have paid so much for it.
Please feel free to contact our Braintree office for a confidential discussion if you want to go further.
Hi there
I bought a share-of-the-freehold flat, managed by a limited company where the directors are the other flat owners. In the last two years, numerous problems with lack of maintenance and poor quality repairs stretching back well before I purchased have come to light. These will cost 10s of thousands of pounds to put right, and I seem to be the only person interested in fixing things, so I would have to organise all the work, too… I believe at least some of these past problems were outlined in past AGM minutes of our limited company, but these minutes are ‘unavailable’ to me, for some reason. Would I have a claim for misrepresentation based on e.g. the Leasehold Information form TA7 where the seller states that he doesn’t know of any problems re management/service charge (5.6) when actually there were and continue to be disputes about the repair schedule, charges, etc, and (5.5) where only a very limited work scheduled is outlined -this work is necessary but by no means the whole story. The company secretary (who also owns the basement flat in the building) also states on LPE1 that the service charge was suspended for two years prior to the sale due to “the amount of funds” however these funds were not nearly enough to carry out all the repairs that are currently (and also were then) necessary. The work mentioned on TA7 directly benefits the basement flat but no others, looking to me like some kind of ‘agreement’ was reached between the seller (who was the previous company secretary) and the current company secretary (who owns the basement flat). (Neither of them lived in the building and rented their respective flats out). Thanks for any advice!
(PS I’ve slightly obscured my published name – hopfully for obvious reasons)
Thank you for your comment.
It does sound like a frustrating situation. If it can be said that the facts that the seller gave you were not accurate, then there may be a claim for misrepresentation. We often see cases where sellers make an express representation that they are not aware of anything which might lead to a dispute, only for the buyer to move in and find that there is an ongoing argument with the neighbour.
We would, however, question what your loss is. At a basic level, the loss in a misrepresentation claim like this would be based on diminution in value. This is the difference between what was paid for the property and what it is worth with the defects or issues. Put another way, you do have a property which has some value. Whilst as solicitors, we would have to ask a suitably qualified surveyor to give us an opinion on diminution in value, we do question the extent to which the inconvenience and poor management of the building would have on the value of your property.
Do feel free to get in touch if you would like to consider matters in more detail with us.