416 thoughts on “My Seller Lied To Me! When Is It Property Misrepresentation?”
Hi we recently bought a property where the previous owner built a summer cabin on an access pathway we are end of terrace. We were poorly advised by our conveyancing firm. The neighbour is now taking court action against us to move the cabin and reinstate the access path, said neighbour has confirmed in writing via a solicitor that he had raised the issue with the previous owners. The previous owners stated on the buyers information pack that there was no issue with the access pathway with the neighbours, a blatant lie. Do we have a case against the people we bought the house off?
You may have a claim for professional negligence against your solicitors, but much will turn on the scope of their retainer (i.e., what they said they were going to do and advise you on and what they actually did). What they actually said about the rights of way will be very important.
As for a claim based on misrepresentation against the seller, if you were expressly told there were no issues and there were, there may very well be a claim.
Hi – i have just moved into a property with a septic tank. The lady selling told us she had had the new tank installed 10 or 12 years earler and that it was a really enormous one. She couldn’t give it’s any documentation of the tank when we asked – she says she couldn’t find it but stressed the tank was absolutely enormous, and bigger than needed for a 5 bed home. We moved in and first thing we did was have the tank emptied and drained. Not only is it not draining – the drainage consultants commented on our being the smallest tank they had ever seen – that it’s absolutely a tiny and needs replaced completely. This will cost thousands. Do we have any chance of contesting this with or seller? As she didn’t give us the documents pertaining to the tank can we object? She made such a deal about how great the tank was it was one of the first things the estate agents mentioned when we viewed.
Thank you for your comment. Ordinarily things said orally would not be actionable. The reason for this is the standard conditions of sale, which are normally incorporated into the sale of residential property, would exclude them.
Having said this, there is normally a clause which states that fraudulent or reckless misrepresentations are actionable, whether made orally or in writing. Whilst it would be necessary to review the position in full before offering any advice, from what you have written, there may be some scope here to argue that there is a fraudulent or reckless misrepresentation on the basis that it was specifically said to you that the septic tank was suitable for the property and that transpires to be untrue.
If you would like to consider the matter in more detail, please do feel free to get in touch.
Hi – thank you so much for the info in this article. We have recently purchased a property and during the surveyor/conveyancing process we asked many times about the condition of the boiler. The seller did say that it was just out of its warranty period but that it ‘was working great’ – after our survey report came back he again verbally informed us that there was nothing to worry about. In the report, no specific mention was made of this particular problem below.
We have just discovered that he had applied cellotape to a broken pipe under the boiler, where water has been leaking out since we moved in. We have just had a plumber informing us that doing this was very dangerous due to it being right next to the boiler. It’s taken us one month to discover this issue but god knows what could have happened if we hadn’t found it ourselves.
The cost to fix the pipe is around £450 – is it possible that I would have a case here, and if so should I give the seller the option to make right before doing anything?
Thank you for your comment. The standard conditions of sale generally incorporated into a contract to sell residential property specify that oral representations are not actionable. However, normally there is also a clause to say fraudulent or reckless misrepresentations are excluded from this.
The effect is that if fraud can be proved, the fact that a representation was made orally as opposed to in writing can be actionable. In this matter it does appear that the seller had known that tape had been applied to the boiler and it may very well be the case that a fraudulent misrepresentation has occurred.
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Hi we recently bought a property where the previous owner built a summer cabin on an access pathway we are end of terrace. We were poorly advised by our conveyancing firm. The neighbour is now taking court action against us to move the cabin and reinstate the access path, said neighbour has confirmed in writing via a solicitor that he had raised the issue with the previous owners. The previous owners stated on the buyers information pack that there was no issue with the access pathway with the neighbours, a blatant lie. Do we have a case against the people we bought the house off?
Thank you for your comment.
You may have a claim for professional negligence against your solicitors, but much will turn on the scope of their retainer (i.e., what they said they were going to do and advise you on and what they actually did). What they actually said about the rights of way will be very important.
As for a claim based on misrepresentation against the seller, if you were expressly told there were no issues and there were, there may very well be a claim.
Hi – i have just moved into a property with a septic tank. The lady selling told us she had had the new tank installed 10 or 12 years earler and that it was a really enormous one. She couldn’t give it’s any documentation of the tank when we asked – she says she couldn’t find it but stressed the tank was absolutely enormous, and bigger than needed for a 5 bed home. We moved in and first thing we did was have the tank emptied and drained. Not only is it not draining – the drainage consultants commented on our being the smallest tank they had ever seen – that it’s absolutely a tiny and needs replaced completely. This will cost thousands. Do we have any chance of contesting this with or seller? As she didn’t give us the documents pertaining to the tank can we object? She made such a deal about how great the tank was it was one of the first things the estate agents mentioned when we viewed.
Thank you for your comment. Ordinarily things said orally would not be actionable. The reason for this is the standard conditions of sale, which are normally incorporated into the sale of residential property, would exclude them.
Having said this, there is normally a clause which states that fraudulent or reckless misrepresentations are actionable, whether made orally or in writing. Whilst it would be necessary to review the position in full before offering any advice, from what you have written, there may be some scope here to argue that there is a fraudulent or reckless misrepresentation on the basis that it was specifically said to you that the septic tank was suitable for the property and that transpires to be untrue.
If you would like to consider the matter in more detail, please do feel free to get in touch.
Hi – thank you so much for the info in this article. We have recently purchased a property and during the surveyor/conveyancing process we asked many times about the condition of the boiler. The seller did say that it was just out of its warranty period but that it ‘was working great’ – after our survey report came back he again verbally informed us that there was nothing to worry about. In the report, no specific mention was made of this particular problem below.
We have just discovered that he had applied cellotape to a broken pipe under the boiler, where water has been leaking out since we moved in. We have just had a plumber informing us that doing this was very dangerous due to it being right next to the boiler. It’s taken us one month to discover this issue but god knows what could have happened if we hadn’t found it ourselves.
The cost to fix the pipe is around £450 – is it possible that I would have a case here, and if so should I give the seller the option to make right before doing anything?
Thank you for your comment. The standard conditions of sale generally incorporated into a contract to sell residential property specify that oral representations are not actionable. However, normally there is also a clause to say fraudulent or reckless misrepresentations are excluded from this.
The effect is that if fraud can be proved, the fact that a representation was made orally as opposed to in writing can be actionable. In this matter it does appear that the seller had known that tape had been applied to the boiler and it may very well be the case that a fraudulent misrepresentation has occurred.