Advice: was estate agent at fault?

[buzzbeebee]

Sorry for epic post - don't want to drop feed

So we viewed a house with estate agent. Detached on its own grounds down a shared lane in the country side. We specifically asked if it was freehold. We were told verbally that it was.

Put offer in on house. Got survey completed. Then solicitor highlighted issues. He found that house was being sold due to a divorce. The house was built on family land and family land was never signed over to woman who was selling the house. So she wasn't named on all the deeds. In addition to this, the house was leasehold. We never would have put offer in on house if we knew it was leasehold. Family who own land did not want house sold and it was their shared lane. None of this was mentioned obviously until my solicitor found it out. He also says reading between the lines we are not the first people to put in an offer and get caught out with this.

I called estate agent and he denied knowing any of this- but yet did tell our surveyor that it was leasehold. I wrote a complaint as we had lost a lot of money on solicitor and survey. Estate agent basically said sorry you are not happy he takes instructions from the seller. Other things have been happening in my life so have not been able to follow up any further. Before I spend lots of time wasted following this up, does anyone know if it's just hard luck and be thankful we realised before we bought it or should estate agent have give us accurate information, especially when asked about leasehold?

I don't have any written proof that he told us it was freehold. He did however keep the property up for sale for weeks after. I was also talking to another local estate agent and mentioned we had put an offer in on that house and he rolled his eyes and said I bet that didn't end well, so seems it's well known that there are issues with the house.

I'm kinda hoping you all are going to tell me just to be thankful we didn't end up buying it as I don't have the time to follow it up but alternatively if the estate agent was wrong I don't want to let him away with costing us lots of money. Thank you if you got to this point!

Depends on what the seller said to the EA.

Be thankful you now know and the Solicitor picked it up. Often things aren't picked up until the solicitor sees the title deeds.

I tried to sell a house last year where it turned out there was a section of the front garden that belonged to a neighbour. No one had any idea until something came up in an extremely old, hand written title.

I honestly don't think you'll get anywhere with this. Move on, it's your word against his.

Thanks - what I wanted to hear!

To be honest I feel so so sorry for woman trying to sell as her in laws have completely blocked her in every way from moving on. She is stuck in the middle of all her in laws with 6 kids and can't get moved.

Was the property advertised as freehold?

I doubt the agent deliberately lied, they would know searches would throw up the issue. So I'd suspect he was repeating what the woman told him.

If the agent didn't know if the property was freehold or not, they should have said so.
As (if) you made it clear that you were only interested in proceeding if the property was freehold, and they lied to you, or knowingly misled you, then I think they should be responsible for your wasted costs.
Did your solicitor put in writing the reason for you withdrawing at the time you pulled out?
I think it's certainly worth a letter to the agents/MD asking to re-imbursed for wasted costs- you might not get anywhere, but if no-one complains, agents will continue to behave like this. I'd also consider contacting the professional body.

I would raise it with the NAEA if the agent is a member. While the agent takes their instructions from the seller they are under obligations under the property misdescriptions act and the NAEA would probably take a dim view of this kind of lying by omission.

You'll probably find the marketing info was heavily caveated to say buyers need to carry out their own checks and the EA is acting in good faith based on the information provided by the vendor so I think you would be on a hiding to nothing.

Wowfudge, it doesn't sound like the EA was acting in good faith.

Obviously buyers need to carry out their own checks, but if the EA said it was freehold, then either the vendors lied to them or the EA are lying. If they told the surveyors it was leasehold, it rather suggests they did know .
If they really were unsure, then they could have said " I don't know".

It isn't the estate agents' job to advise on things like Freehold/Leasehold - that's the point of legal enquiries. The bigger issue is that they're selling a house on behalf of someone who has no right to sell it.