There are limits to what we can do for you using our fixed fee, limited service. It is important that you understand these.
What we do
We will ask you a series of questions and ask you to upload some documents. We will then email you our invoice and once this has been paid, we will review your documents and explanations and may also give you a call to clarify anything which is not understood or clear.
Once we have reviewed what you have provided us with, we will send you an email setting out our preliminary view of whether or not you could have a misrepresentation claim.
Please bear with us, we will do this as quickly as we can, but it might take us a few working days.
What we can’t do
We can’t always advise you on the value of your claim.
Normally, the damages that would be awarded are based on the difference in value of the property at the time of the transaction with and without details of the misrepresentation being known to the hypothetical buyer (but not always – sometimes it can be the cost of repair and sometimes, but rarely, rescission or a “reversal” of the contract can be ordered). This is called diminution in value.
The reason that diminution in value is the usual basis for calculating the damages is because, at least in theory, an average buyer would look for a discount on the purchase price to take account of the fact that there are “problems” with the property. The value of your claim is therefore something that a surveyor would have to provide us with input on, as it involves considering not only the property itself, but the market conditions at the time of the transaction.
In short, to calculate the value of your claim we would need the opinion of a qualified professional surveyor of what the property was worth and what an average buyer would have paid for it knowing about the “problem”. Therefore, if the basic elements of your claim are there, we might need to ask a surveyor to provide us with input on its value.
We can’t always predict the outcome of a claim.
We also cannot give you with absolute certainty advice on what the outcome of your matter might definitely be. This service is not a full review of all of the evidence and facts of the claim and even after a full review of evidence, there are a lot of variables in any case which can have an impact on what steps are taken and its eventual outcome.
In summary, we cannot normally predict what the outcome of it may be. What we do is identify the strengths of your claim and its weaknesses and give you advice on this and your options moving forward, including the possible cost and possible outcomes (i.e. risk vs benefit).
This service is aimed at identifying the basic elements of a claim. If these are not there, it is unlikely to be worth incurring further cost or time pursuing a claim. If these basic elements are there, and once we have provided you with advice on the merits, risk and options in relation to your claim, you can then decide how you want to proceed after that. This might be to investigate further points, consider the value of your claim in more detail, prepare a letter of claim with a view to pursuing the matter further or indeed it may be that of the risks we identify, you are not comfortable to proceed any further.
Who this service is for
- This service is for people who have purchased a property (i.e. exchanged contracts and completed on the purchase) having been misled by a seller. If you have not exchanged contracts, or if you have exchanged contracts but not yet completed, and discovered that something said to you or provided to you was inaccurate, you should discuss your concerns with your existing conveyancing solicitor right away.
- This service is for people who relied on something that the seller told them or provided to them with about the property BEFORE EXCHANGE OF CONTRACTS but what they were told or provided with was factually untrue.
- This service is for people who want a preliminary view on the circumstances of the case and the evidence that they think proves that there is claim for misrepresentation, before deciding whether or not to consider matters in more detail and incurring the further cost associated with that.
- This service is for people who want to know whether or not they might have a claim, through a solicitor checking that the basic elements of it are there.
Who this service is not for
- This service is not for people who are accused of misrepresentation or misleading their buyer. If you sold a property and the buyer is saying that you have misled them, you should pick up the telephone to us as soon as possible.
- This service is not for people who want a detailed and full consideration of their prospective claim.
This would involve a far more detailed look at matters and is something we can do if you wish. The aim of the service is to enable you to decide whether or not you want to proceed further with pursuing the matter, by checking if the basic elements of a claim are there. If you want to instruct us to undertake a full assessment right away, please pick up the telephone to us. - This service is not for people who argue that their seller has simply failed to disclose something. For a misrepresentation claim to exist, there must be a factually inaccurate representation made. A seller does not generally have to volunteer information to a buyer. If a seller has not disclosed something and the buyer has assumed something incorrectly, the buyer has relied on their own assumptions, and not something the seller has said. It is therefore unlikely that there would be a claim because we would not be able to say that the seller misled the buyer; it was the buyer’s assumption that was incorrect.
- This service is not for people who would have proceeded with the purchase on the terms agreed (including the purchase price) even if the information provided to them had been accurate. It cannot be said that the buyer relied on what was said to them by the seller, if the buyer would have proceeded with their purchase on the original agreed terms anyway. In short if it can be said that even if the “truth” had been known to the buyer, but the buyer would have proceeded anyway, there is unlikely to be a claim as what was said would have made no difference to the buyer’s decision.
- This service is not for people who completed their purchase more than six years ago. If this is the case, there is every chance that you are out of time to bring a claim. However, this is not always the case, particularly when it comes to fraudulent misrepresentation, but if completion was more than six years ago, you should contact us by telephone to discuss instead.
- This service is not for people who are contemplating professional negligence claims against their solicitor, surveyor or other professional involved. Sometimes, on a full review of the evidence, it becomes apparent that one of the professionals involved could have warned you about or otherwise alerted you to the seller’s possible misrepresentation. If you believe that you may have grounds for a professional negligence claim, you should give us a call instead.
Return to Fixed Fee Misrepresentation Assessment introduction page
Have you also read our guidance on evidence?
If you have read and understood both our page evidence and this page on what we can and cannot do who and this service is for, you are Ready To Go.