Failed house purchase - incorrect info given

[eyesburntoutbylasers]

I would be really grateful for some advice on this. I have NC for this post as outing.

We were weeks away from completing on a property and pulled out because we discovered that some of the information given to us was incorrect.

We saw a double gate way between what would have been our (tiny) garden and next doors garden, and asked if it was for a right of way at the viewing. We were told no, no right of way it was historic because the house used to belong to the manor house next door. (only recently sold off)

We double checked this with the agent again before arranging a second viewing. They again said, no right of way. They knew this was really significant to us as I had discussed it with them.

Had a second viewing and had an offer accepted on the property. The form that the vendors sent to our solicitor also said no right of way.

Turns out via the searches, there is a right of way, for next door to get their oil delivered via what would have been our garden. For various reasons this is a problem for us so we have withdrawn from the sale.

This has cost us almost £2000 in solicitor fees, home buyer report, searches and mortgage arrangement fee.

The estate agent say that they can not refund any of this.
I find it impossible to believe that they do not have indemnity insurance against this sort of thing.
The vendor gave incorrect information to the agent and on the form they submitted, perhaps they were not aware, however, they have just bought the property themselves 7 months ago so they must surely have known this from their own searches.
Regardless of this being a genuine error on their part or not we are significantly out of pocket.

Does anyone have any experience of this please?

If we had gone ahead and bought the property then it would have been based on incorrect information would the vendor then have been liable in some way?

Thanks for any advice.

Not a lawyer - but I'd say this is exactly the reason you pay for searches - to check all the information you've been given is correct and to see if you still wish to proceed. It's annoying but I don't see why you'd be refunded anything? You chose not to proceed.

You won’t get any refund. It’s down to the buyer to have searches etc done to verify that the property is satisfactory for them to proceed on.

Thanks for the replies.

I can see the point of the searches, but would not have got past a first viewing if we had been given correct information then.
It's really frustrating.

No come back to the vendor for giving incorrect information on their form makes the form seem a bit pointless.

Do you know it is actually used? It’s possible they hadn’t realised.

You could try to bring a small claim but you have no contract until exchange. 2k for an abortive purchase seems excessive tbh.

No come back to the vendor for giving incorrect information on their form

There is come back. If you had gone ahead and purchased you may have been able to pursue the vendor for misrepresentation. In order to succeed you would have to show that they were aware of this right of way.

It’s not the estate agents fault. They don’t do searches, etc so will go on what the vendor tells them. You can’t prove the vendors knew. Even if it came up when they bought the house (and it may not have done) they could claim they’d forgotten as it wasn’t important to them.

Thanks for replies.

I don't know if they know, but presumably would also have been on their searches at the end of last year. It is only used when next door get their oil delivery so possible that they have not encountered it yet.

The costs are
Searches 300
solicitor 600
home buyer report 300
mortgage arrangement fee 600

All adds up :(

If you were in Scotland this would probably be caught under the Property Misdescription legislation
Otherwise you have no contract with the seller or agent so no chance of a successful claim
For future reference or for anyone else reading this it would have been a good idea to get your solicitor to check this or any other deal breaker out at the very beginning so you can walk away at the earliest opportunity ie before a large bill is incurred

Yes good advice user1487194234

If it’s the only issue why not check that it is actually used for oil delivery. May be they deliver a different way for whatever reason, better access from another place, oil tank been relocated for example.

Have you definitively pulled out? It seems unusual for this to be such a huge issue that you are willing to lose £2k. I would reconcile myself to the occasional oil delivery and ask for a reduction in the asking price. Is this an option?

But maybe you have reasons that I can't fathom myself.

I’m baffled the amount you have spent

The searches will have revealed this, hence it beingyhe first thing a solicitor does

No need to be baffled I've listed the fees above. We were trying to achieve a quick purchase because the rented property we are currently in has been given to the receivers and we need to move out. We therefore got the searches and mortgage application underway at the same time, and got the home buyers report done very quickly.

You have no comeback here I’m afraid.

Woukd the mortgage fee not also carry over to another purchase, likewise some of the solicitor fees.

Thanks for the suggestions. The oil tanker would need to reverse up off the road, and on to an area of the garden to get access through the gates apparently. (not drive through them, but needs to get off the road) and it is the only way of next door getting their oil delivery as they do not have any other access to their rear garden, other than through their house.

We were in the process of renegotiating the price when we got the Home buyer report, and then we got the search results back :-(

I can't imagine what's so bad about an occasional oil delivery that would make you pull out of a sale and waste 2k?!

No sadly the mortgage arrangement fee was for that property only it seems, and the solicitor invoiced only for her actual hours, the completed sale would have been more than £600 in total.

She charged you £900 for searches on an abortive purchase?

I’d seriously be querying that.

Searches were £300
Her time was £600 - she had got searches, looked at results, got the contracts and raised queries on them, I think her time was reasonable?

£300 of that is search fees the lawyer has paid to others.

£600 represents the work the lawyer has actually done, as the OP says they were in a hurry and told the lawyer to do the work
ASAP rather than waiting for search results.

Not outrageous really.

Yes, former lawyer here and I don’t think that’s unreasonable for that work done.

You rushed through, hence incurring early costs. Unfortunately I don’t think you have any chance of recouping money spent.

It sounds like you could easily prove that the vendor knew if that's the only way to have oil delivered you could ask them when they last had oil.

You might not have a legal claim but morally they should have told you if they knew, petty maybe but I'd want them to be aware of how much their lie had cost me if it turns out they did know