Can Seller Be Sued For Misrepresentation Re Freehold Flat

[londonguy4u2]

I LIVE IN THE UK
I am in the process of buying a leasehold flat with a share of the freehold. This was mentioned in the sales particulars by the estate agent and also confirmed by the estate agent when we enquired about purchasing the flat. There was no disclaimer in the sales brochure. I agreed to purchase the flat and the process is going through solicitors. Just before intended exchange,i was sent a management report to check over and ask my solicitor any questions if i had any queries. All were answered but I wanted to find out how the freehold was to be distributed,for eg would it be given to the purchasers once all the flat sales for the block had gone through. My solicitor came back to me the other day and said the seller has no intention of selling the freehold yet it was in the sales brochure and confirmed by estate agent at time. Again there is no disclaimer and I have already spent money on solicitors fees. The Only reason i intend to buy the flat is because it comes with a share of the freehold which the estate agent knew. My solicitor has relayed this information to the sellers solicitor and is awaiting to hear back from them and she has mentioned the term misrepresentation to them. I just want to find out what my rights are if the seller doesnt include the freehold and goes back on this word.

As my solicitor mentioned I may be able to sue for damages, so just want your expert opinion on all of this.

I just also want to mention,this is a NEW BUILD BLOCK of 5 FLATS which i forgot to mention.

[bednobs]

in the nicest possible way, surely the expert point of view is your solicitors. Your are paying for her advice in the matter of your purchase.

[londonguy4u2]

Hi Bednobs I am just asking for other peoples views in the meantime hence why i am on here as of course my solicitor is looking into this matter but this site says you can ask questions and if people are glad to answer,then constructive answers would be appreciated apart from obvious answers like speak to my solicitor. Many thanks for replying though.

[Baldric]

Thought you would have known

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[Peter Pedant]

He is referring to the misrepresentation act 1967
which allows you to wind back the contract (sorry unwind) if you have have relied to on statements to make you enter the contract in the first place

sorry could have been expressed better

cant remember if the act allows you to recover outlay.
Not often used as it unwinds a contract rather than corrects or adjusts it

also if someone had made statements on which you rely,
and has led to loss, then you have a cause of action


so yes and yes

Are you sure it is the seller and not the estate agent ?
If the estate agent had got it wrong then there are a separate set of redresses, the nature of which momentarily escape me.

Your solicitor will be able to advise for a price of course

You will want our FREE ! advice but remember it is free and probably not as good. Altho Barmaid and Freddie are VERY GOOD.


Sorry this has happened.
I went and saw a house once and said 0 OJ where are the boudaries ?
and the estate agent said O god you get your solicitor to sort that sort of thing out,
and I said yeah but the price depends on what is offered
and she smiled such a lovely smile as tho I were some sort of retarded dipstick and said, 'your solicitor....'
and I ceased interest and never went to them again

which I kinda thought was bad - until I read your post.

Your damages would be for wasted outlay, search fees and solictiors fees.

Deep deep internal heart ache for something won and lost
sleepless night and dog diarrhoea are not recoverable.

[billywhizz]

Why on earth do you want the freehold? Freehold flats are bad news for very good legal reasons. It needs to stay as leasehold with the freehold owned by a freeholder which can be a group of the leaseholders or not. Your solicitor will explain why

[tonywiltshire]

An actionable misrepresentation may be considered a false statement of fact made by one party to the other whilst not being a term of the contract it induces the other party to enter the contract. For it to be Fraudulent Misrepresentation the representor (the person making the misrepresentation) must know the statement is untrue, or it could be negligent misrepresentation or even Innocent misrepresentation where he reasonably believed it to be true. Your solicitor who has all the information will guide you in the degree of culpability (if any) of the representor.

[tamborine]

I read this as "leasehold price included fifth share of freehold"? Flats usually are leasehold so the freeholder has ultimate control of site & development thereof.

The freeholder could issue 1k shares and allow leaseholders to own a fifth of one share. I advise to accept leasehold as norm & not waste further funds