How honest do vendors have to be?

[ImaginaryCat]

We're looking at a house to buy, but are curious about why the current owners haven't put in a decent shower in the upstairs bathroom. They've just got one of those attachment pipes coming off the bath taps, and a shower room downstairs off the kitchen. A decent upstairs shower would be essential for us, so we'd be prepared to do that work. But their bathroom is pretty new so we're wondering if there's a reason they didn't put a shower up there (low water pressure, incorrect plumbing, etc).
If we ask the agent to ask a straight question about that, how legally bound would they be to answer truthfully?

As I understand it they cannot lie to you. I have just filled in a Sellers Info form and discussed it with the agents as I was worried about it. It was made clear to me that I couldn't mislead but if I genuinely wasn't sure I could answer "don't know".

I imagine that they didn't need two showers and preferred a bath. The attachment was just for cleaning the bath or maybe washing hair.

Hi OP I don’t think they’re legally bound if you are just viewing. Think it’s different if it’s asked as part of the searches when you’ve put an offer in. I’m not in any type of legal field so I may be wrong. Is the shower over the bath one you can stand under? We have this in our current house which we redid the bathroom on. We could have put in an electric shower but the builder said our water pressure was really good so it wasn’t necessary. Maybe that’s it? I would just ask them.

Thanks both. No the shower isn't fixed up high on the wall, it just slots into a holder at tap height. That wall is sloping, so the bath would need to switch ends to put the shower up on the wall at the other end where there's a full height wall.
So for proper standing up showers you'd need to go downstairs, through the house, and into the drafty utility room. Hence wondering why they wouldn't just whack in a decent shower at the same time as the rest of the bathroom work.

We viewed a house once and it had a shower cubicle in the corner of the living room right next to the front door. Apparently it was because the vendor was a builder or mechanic or farmer or similar (I can't exactly remember but it was something where his job got him dirty) so he literally stepped in the door and in to the shower!

That would work if it's in the utility room too.

That's a genius idea for the current occupant but what happens when he needs to sell!

Maybe they aren’t big shower people? Maybe the bathroom was on a v tight budget?

How long has it been on the market for? I've looked at properties that have obviously been done up to sell on, and it's quicker and cheaper for them to put in like for like, rather than installing extra pipes etc for the shower. One I saw literally still had the stickers on the loo, beautiful tiles etc. but no shower and it was the only bathroom in the house. I think some hope you'll overlook the lack of shower in all the "ooo, shiny"ness.

It's entirely possible there's a very valid reason. In fact I'm really hoping there is, because then we could put one in.
But given our own priorities and preferences, we just wouldn't be making an offer on a house which couldn't have an upstairs shower. So I'm going to get the agent to ask the question and go from there!

You could go back for a second viewing and check the water pressure yourselves. No one who thinks you are a serious buyer will object.

Perhaps they felt one shower was enough? Could be like my Mum and not like having to step into the bath to shower, and prefer a dedicated shower cubicle elsewhere?

It might be as simple as they didn't want to move the plumbing around to have the head height to get the shower in at the other end.

Maybe they are bath people.
Why would they go to all the trouble of changing all the design of the bathroom round, if they didn't need to use it for a shower ?

Most of us do rooms up for ourselves - unless they are property developers on a quick turn around (who I wouldn't be keen to buy from) then not many ordinary people make decisions on how they are going to do their house up on trying to second guess what a hypothetical future buyer might prefer.

Yeah I think one shower would be enough and that is why they didn't put it in properly upstairs. lme you have to be very truthful about the house, they ask you everything!!