416 thoughts on “My Seller Lied To Me! When Is It Property Misrepresentation?”
Hello, I had a question related to this article. We bought a new build property from a well known building company in the UK. We exchanged January 2022 and were meant to move in May. This was delayed until July and then as we were a week from the move in date they told us there was a legal issue. They have been ignoring us for a month and now have said that the planning permission they had from 2018, expired in 2021. Do you have any advice about what we can do next please? Thank you very much.
You should raise this point with your conveyancing solicitors. A detailed consideration of the contract of sale will be important.
Most of the time when developers sell off-plan properties which are yet to be constructed, there will be certain contractual clauses relating to what is called “practical completion”. This is when, normally subject to minor snagging issues, completion can take place. Normally a notice would be served and completion would take place shortly after this. You will need to consider what your contract says about delays and whether or not you are in a position to either serve a notice to complete the transaction (which is unlikely to be appropriate – you do not want to purchase a property with planning issues that cannot be addressed) or rescind the agreement and walk away from the transaction, which may also be appropriate if there is a breach of any contractual terms.
Our new neighbours are refusing to share costs to the upgrade of and on an old shared concrete gully. The gully was cracked, leaking and causing damp to our property. We have only just discovered its serves the property next door too so is deemed as shared. We our neighbours an email explaining that it was shared and needed replacing.
They inspected the old gully and agreed in writing for all work to go ahead and agreed to contribute towards its cost. We got the work done sent the invoice to the neighbour and they have refused to pay claiming no liability as there is nothing in the deeds.
We have now discovered after asking around the village that the previous owner of our house had a meeting with a drainage expert in 2009 and agreed to have 2 soakawys dug and she agreed to share them with the neighbouring property. We contacted thw drainage expert who confirmed this information. The vendor did not share this information with us during our conveyancing in 2014. We still do not know the location of the soakaways or what pipes are shared as they are not visible. What should we do?
Thank you for your comment. While obviously we cannot give definitive legal advice based solely on this, the first thing that springs out is that since the property was purchased over 6 years ago you may already be statute barred from bringing a claim. A claim in misrepresentation must be brought within 6 years of when you could reasonably have discovered the misrepresentation. In practice this is usually 6 years from the date of completion on the sale.
As regards whether there is a misrepresentation, the starting point is that there is no requirement for the seller to volunteer information. However, normally the Property Information Form contains questions about drainage. There will be a misrepresentation if the seller was asked something about this aspect of shared drainage and stated that it was not an issue. Merely failing to mention it generally may not be enough. Therefore we would need to see the exact words used on the PIF before we could give any proper advice. You would need to show a false statement by the seller that you relied upon and were entitled to rely upon, and as a result of which you were induced to enter into the contract and suffered a loss.
As regards a claim against your neighbour, it is not clear what basis you may have for this. There would be the question as to what was agreed back in 2009 and whether this gave rise to any legal easement or covenant or other item intended to run with the land. This may be problematic to find out due to the effluxion of time.
Grateful for your advice. We required a house with ample parking and were delighted when we saw a house advertised as “benefiting from a large front driveway sufficient for 2 large cars”. Additionally the Property Information form stated “non shared driveway at front available for parking”.
As such we undertook surveys etc and commenced purchasing. Within the conveyancing process, our conveyor asked the vendor when the drive was added, when dropped kerb added with relevant permission from council dates etc. The vendor stated that they did not know when the drives and dropped kerb were added as it was in the house before they moved in.
Shortly before exchange, it became apparent that the kerbs were not dropped, they were just very low, and therefore the drive could not legally be used. Additionally it became evident that the driveway was added by the vendor – ie he had lied about house having parking and when it was added. This had to be reported to the mortgage lender, as planning permission is not guaranteed, and a request made to the vendor to make the change or drop the price to cover cost of works (likely less than drop in value of house if drive not useable)
The vendor refused and the house sale fell through at the very last minute as the vendor withdrew rather than negotiate. What is the liklihood that claiming for loss of costs incurred would be successful given the misrepresentations / lies on advert, PIF and when asked specifically about the issue? (Never mind the time wasted in which we could have been proceeding on another house)
Thank you for your comment. I can appreciate that it is not necessarily what you want to hear to find out that the seller has been economical with the truth on a house you are otherwise very keen on. Unfortunately, if you did not exchange contracts it is unlikely that there is any cause of action here, based solely on what you have stated. This is because a claim in misrepresentation would not arise without there being a contractual relationship between the parties. The elements of misrepresentation are that a party to a contract made a false statement to the other party, that the other party relied upon it, and was entitled to rely upon it and thus was induced to enter into the contract, and that as a result of same that other party suffered loss or damage.
If the parties did not exchange contracts then there was no contractual relationship into which you were enticed by the false statement. Moreover, any pre-contract negotiations would likely have been subject to contract in any event.
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Hello,
I had a question related to this article. We bought a new build property from a well known building company in the UK. We exchanged January 2022 and were meant to move in May. This was delayed until July and then as we were a week from the move in date they told us there was a legal issue. They have been ignoring us for a month and now have said that the planning permission they had from 2018, expired in 2021. Do you have any advice about what we can do next please? Thank you very much.
You should raise this point with your conveyancing solicitors. A detailed consideration of the contract of sale will be important.
Most of the time when developers sell off-plan properties which are yet to be constructed, there will be certain contractual clauses relating to what is called “practical completion”. This is when, normally subject to minor snagging issues, completion can take place. Normally a notice would be served and completion would take place shortly after this. You will need to consider what your contract says about delays and whether or not you are in a position to either serve a notice to complete the transaction (which is unlikely to be appropriate – you do not want to purchase a property with planning issues that cannot be addressed) or rescind the agreement and walk away from the transaction, which may also be appropriate if there is a breach of any contractual terms.
Our new neighbours are refusing to share costs to the upgrade of and on an old shared concrete gully. The gully was cracked, leaking and causing damp to our property. We have only just discovered its serves the property next door too so is deemed as shared. We our neighbours an email explaining that it was shared and needed replacing.
They inspected the old gully and agreed in writing for all work to go ahead and agreed to contribute towards its cost. We got the work done sent the invoice to the neighbour and they have refused to pay claiming no liability as there is nothing in the deeds.
We have now discovered after asking around the village that the previous owner of our house had a meeting with a drainage expert in 2009 and agreed to have 2 soakawys dug and she agreed to share them with the neighbouring property. We contacted thw drainage expert who confirmed this information. The vendor did not share this information with us during our conveyancing in 2014. We still do not know the location of the soakaways or what pipes are shared as they are not visible. What should we do?
Thank you for your comment. While obviously we cannot give definitive legal advice based solely on this, the first thing that springs out is that since the property was purchased over 6 years ago you may already be statute barred from bringing a claim. A claim in misrepresentation must be brought within 6 years of when you could reasonably have discovered the misrepresentation. In practice this is usually 6 years from the date of completion on the sale.
As regards whether there is a misrepresentation, the starting point is that there is no requirement for the seller to volunteer information. However, normally the Property Information Form contains questions about drainage. There will be a misrepresentation if the seller was asked something about this aspect of shared drainage and stated that it was not an issue. Merely failing to mention it generally may not be enough. Therefore we would need to see the exact words used on the PIF before we could give any proper advice. You would need to show a false statement by the seller that you relied upon and were entitled to rely upon, and as a result of which you were induced to enter into the contract and suffered a loss.
As regards a claim against your neighbour, it is not clear what basis you may have for this. There would be the question as to what was agreed back in 2009 and whether this gave rise to any legal easement or covenant or other item intended to run with the land. This may be problematic to find out due to the effluxion of time.
Hi Mark,
Grateful for your advice. We required a house with ample parking and were delighted when we saw a house advertised as “benefiting from a large front driveway sufficient for 2 large cars”. Additionally the Property Information form stated “non shared driveway at front available for parking”.
As such we undertook surveys etc and commenced purchasing. Within the conveyancing process, our conveyor asked the vendor when the drive was added, when dropped kerb added with relevant permission from council dates etc. The vendor stated that they did not know when the drives and dropped kerb were added as it was in the house before they moved in.
Shortly before exchange, it became apparent that the kerbs were not dropped, they were just very low, and therefore the drive could not legally be used. Additionally it became evident that the driveway was added by the vendor – ie he had lied about house having parking and when it was added. This had to be reported to the mortgage lender, as planning permission is not guaranteed, and a request made to the vendor to make the change or drop the price to cover cost of works (likely less than drop in value of house if drive not useable)
The vendor refused and the house sale fell through at the very last minute as the vendor withdrew rather than negotiate. What is the liklihood that claiming for loss of costs incurred would be successful given the misrepresentations / lies on advert, PIF and when asked specifically about the issue? (Never mind the time wasted in which we could have been proceeding on another house)
Many thanks
Jim
Thank you for your comment. I can appreciate that it is not necessarily what you want to hear to find out that the seller has been economical with the truth on a house you are otherwise very keen on. Unfortunately, if you did not exchange contracts it is unlikely that there is any cause of action here, based solely on what you have stated. This is because a claim in misrepresentation would not arise without there being a contractual relationship between the parties. The elements of misrepresentation are that a party to a contract made a false statement to the other party, that the other party relied upon it, and was entitled to rely upon it and thus was induced to enter into the contract, and that as a result of same that other party suffered loss or damage.
If the parties did not exchange contracts then there was no contractual relationship into which you were enticed by the false statement. Moreover, any pre-contract negotiations would likely have been subject to contract in any event.