Seller's solicitor won't answer question about neighbours

[Wizzywoo18]

Under offer to buy a property.
TA10 form - under section 2 'Disputes and complaints'
Q. Have there been any disputes or complaints
regarding this property or a property nearby?
If Yes, please give details: No
Q. Is the seller aware of anything which might lead to
a dispute about the property or a property nearby?
If Yes, please give details: No

My solicitor raised additional enquiries including asking the sellers to confirm that their decision to move has not been influenced by the
conduct or behaviour of any adjoining or nearby occupier, or the use or proposed use of any nearby property.

Their solicitor replies that this is not a CQS (Conveyancing Quality Scheme?) enquiry and the seller is
under no obligation to respond to it.

Would that make you concerned? Wouldn't you just answer that there had been no problems?
It's making me feel a bit jittery as neighbour disputes can be utterly horrendous, as you can see from some of the posts on MN.
What would you do?

The answers to the questions are clear and not ambiguous

The solicitor is stepping out of line, OP hasnt instructed them to do this.

@fiddlesticksandotherwords They had a choice of 'yes' or 'no' to those questions. You expand if you've answered 'yes'. Hope that makes sense.

Well I wouldn't answer additional ones either. They have clearly stated there were no disputes

Honestly it’s highly unlikely the other sides solicitor even asked the sellers. I’d expect my solicitor to tell the other side to do one as well if they did this. It’s clear the other side’s solicitor is just pushing back at pointless enquiries.

Everyone should take my dad with them when buying a house!

He turns on taps, flushed toilets, asks for the heating to be turned on to make sure the boiler is working and knocks on neighbours houses to see what they we like and he goes back there at different times of the day to see what the neighbourhood/ road is like!

I think he even looked in the loft of a property I was looking at when I was a young woman!

Who needs surveys with my dad around?!

I think the idea that you would buy a place (or at least a place over a certain age) without looking in the loft is mental.

You won't be able to tell everything a surveyor might, but you might be able to spot obvious leaks, condition of rafters+joists, insulation levels, whether it has been boarded over for storage, whether there is a whole load of nasty looking crap in there (asbestos for example).

I noticed when I bought my place the loft was huge. I won't convert it, but someone else might. It adds value to the house.

Im sorry @MariePaperRoses but i cant stop laughing at the thought of a cat being ridden by a spider 🤣🤣🤣
Fwiw i think a tarantula would die if it fell off a cat as they are not designed to be off the floor (source - london zoo)

It's great that your solicitor did ask the question because it sounds like there is something to hide.

FWIW the form my seller filled in included things that are definitely untrue now I've moved in. I wished I'd followed up on N/A or not known when someone living in a house for 60 years definitely would have known and did know it.

What do you mean 'Hope that makes sense'? It's not me who is misunderstanding the question or answer, it is me pointing out that the question itself is worded misleadingly and they have possibly answered the question in the wrong way.

I am fairly familiar with those type of questions, seeing as how our family has had to fill in a whole set of questions like that to sell a probate house, and to read a whole lot of answers like that for another property being bought by a family member, both within the last 3 months.

The question is ambiguous, and really not up to the job in legal terms. They should have asked yes or no. Then there should have been a different box saying 'if the answer to the above question is 'yes', please give description'.

What they have done is to write the word 'no' in a box they should only fill in if the answer is yes. So by saying no, do they mean no disputes, or yes there are, but they refuse to describe the dispute?

Isn't the legal position that if they've said no there aren't any neighbour problems... but it turns out later that there are, you can sue them ...
Wouldn't that be all the come back you can have/need!?

The question is not ambiguous in the slightest.

It's a yes or no question.

If you indicate yes, then you elaborate in the space provided.

What if they are moving because the vendors wife has shagged the bloke 2 doors down, but they have decided to stay together and have a fresh start elsewhere? What if the vendors husbands previous boss who he can’t stand has moved in across the road? Both of those are a reason connected with a neighbour which motivated their move but it is utterly irrelevant to you. They would refuse to answer because it is none of your damn business and nor could they answer “no” as they isn’t correct.

if you want belt and braces go knock on a few neighbours doors and ask.

@Reachingreach Thanks. I agree it's not ambiguous.
@Delphigirl I'm planning on doing that!

I had a word with an EA of 25 years + to get their take (no connection to this purchase) - they also thought it was probably a case of the solicitor not asking the client rather than the latter refusing to answer. They did think the question was reasonable and that it would look odd not to answer in the circumstances.
But I appreciate some of you will disagree with that view very strongly.

Pure speculation- I wonder if your solicitor has raised these additional enquiries because a previous client has been burnt by buying a house with bad neighbours and now asks this as an extra measure.

I think their solicitor would likely have passed the questions on, and the vendor has not wanted to answer.

If it were me - I'd be concerned enough to ask your solicitor to put the enquiries to the vendor again.

If they still refuse, you can safely assume there's a problem!

I would assume having already answered No to the 2 questions they have decided not to put their client to the unnecessary additional expense of asking them to reconfirm what they have already said.

I hope you have a fixed fee arrangement with your solicitor because it seems like they are asking unnecessary additional enquiries for which you will be charged if not

I agree, the question is definitely ambiguous. The answer - are they saying no, there haven't been any disputes or are they saying no to giving any further details? Like you've said, there should have been something along the lines of a box for yes and a box for no. Then if yes was ticked, a further space should have been provided to give details.

You'd think that a solicitor would be adept at asking questions in a clear, concise manner with no room for misunderstanding.

Assuming the 'no' means no to have there been any disputes etc really isn't good enough.

"If yes, please give details". No.

Is that a no to have there been any disputes or is it a no to providing any further information about the disputes? One can only assume that they mean no to have there been any disputes but assuming isn't really good enough, is it? If the buyer, down the line, took action against the seller for not declaring any disputes and the seller turned around and said that they didn't state that there were no disputes, that the 'no' meant that no, they weren't willing to provide any further details on the dispute....where would that leave everyone?

Surely a legal contract has to be 100% without an ounce of ambiguity?

The question has two options: Yes or No.

If yes is selected, then further information must be provided. You cannot refuse to give further details, even if you were to refer to your solicitor to answer, you would need to state that in the box.

There is no 'ounce of ambiguity'.

Also, if you're not able to understand, you can check the Law Society Property Information Form (TA6)
Explanatory Notes for Sellers and Buyers for clarification with accompanies the forms.

It's the vendor's responsibility to ensure they understand what they're filling out, they can check with their solicitor if they are in any doubt.

If they were to incorrectly fill the form in and were found liable in the future, saying the questions on the TA6 were ambiguous is laughable and a poor excuse. It would be obvious they were withholding information.

I wouldn't buy from a vendor who refused to answer enquiries.

In reality, it's actually very difficult and very expensive to pursue any financial claim against a vendor who failed to disclose even significant information regarding a property, and certainly no solicitor would entertain pursuing a claim over a noisy dog so that's ridiculous.

So I would always, always do as much research as possible and make use of your solicitor with as many enquiries as you need to raise, because the reality is that once you've bought the house, you get what you get...