Estate Agents & Naughty neighbours

[minskey]

Hi Fellow Grapes

When an estate agent takes on the marketing of someones property are they not bound by some sort of rules or regulations to make sure that the actual property belongs to the person selling it when they put it onto the market.....................

[Incy]

I would imagine so but I am intrigued as to what is behind this question. Please spill the beans Minskey.

[SarzWix]

I'm not sure that they are actually. I think that's the sort of thing that solicitors doing Land Registry searches would check, not the estate agents. I think an estate agent would assume that there's very little point in putting a house up for sale if you don't own it, or have the right to sign the contracts at the point of exchange.

[Hazel at the Hill]

You sign an agreement with the estate agent when you appoint them to sell a property - the agreement lays down the fees and that sort of thing, and presumably also a clause that you are the property owner/proxy. But without fishing out the one I signed when I last moved a decade ago I wouldn't know for sure.

Why - has someone banged a For Sale sign up outside your house or something??

(that happened to me - I heard something out the front and found a For Sale sign in the front garden - just managed to catch the guys before they drove off. Confusion over our Street name being confused with the same name Road, round the corner.)

[dominic10]

Someone tried to sell this once The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower...Twice
The Land Registry is online now and you can purchase ownership information. I am sure it was on TV a while ago when a couple were on holiday they came home to find someone was 'renting' their house - they weren't squatters - someone had gained access to the house and rented it out and the poor family thought it was all legit.

[Alison]

My mum's just selling her house and the estate agent made her take in id showing she was the legal owner. Not sure if that always happens but defo has for her. Seemed perfectly reasonable to me.

[minskey]

Well...........

My neighbour is selling, and of course I had to go online to have a nosey. Imagine my surprise when a good portion of my land is included in the photos and also the 'blurb'. I had to get my solicitor involved and it will have cost me a fortune

[Hazel at the Hill]

Well...........

My neighbour is selling, and of course I had to go online to have a nosey. Imagine my surprise when a good portion of my land is included in the photos and also the 'blurb'. I had to get my solicitor involved and it will have cost me a fortune

Present the estate agent with your solicitor's bill, and if they won't pay it, take them to the small claims court.

[minskey]

Hazel at the Hill I was thinking along the same lines.

I have found this:

"Estate agents are not allowed to misrepresent property by law. The property misdescriptions act. They may be in breach.......16k more though........"

"Falsely describing a property
You must not make a false or misleading statement about a property. This is an offence under the Property Misdescriptions Act 1991. The law applies whether the statement is made:
• orally
• in writing
• in pictures
• or by any other method that produces a misleading or false impression"

But I'm not sure who I go to to enforce it

[Alison]

My neighbour is selling, and of course I had to go online to have a nosey. Imagine my surprise when a good portion of my land is included in the photos and also the 'blurb'. I had to get my solicitor involved and it will have cost me a fortune

Haven't you spoken to your neighbour about this though? My friend put her house up for sale and the estate agent blurb said that it had an extra bedroom and bathroom, was just an incompetent estate agent. Was all sorted out with a phone call and no need to employ solicitors. Yes, it sounds more extreme in your case but they can't sell your land and therefore there isn't really anything to worry about. I'd simply contact the neighbour and the estate agent and it could quite well go away.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Institute of Charted Surveyors may be a place to start.

Colin

[minskey]

Yes I did the decent thing before I had to employ the services of my Solicitor.

I'll let you all know the outcome

Migraine in full force so have to give up and go to bet

[zazen999]

Yes I did the decent thing before I had to employ the services of my Solicitor.

I'll let you all know the outcome

Migraine in full force so have to give up and go to bet

My [thankfully now ex] neighbours put my decking on right move several years ago. I called the estate agent and asked them to remove the photo and it was taken off a couple of days later. She [the miserable neighbour] had a right go at me about it but I don't give a monkey's - I just didn't want my garden listed as part of her house. We are canalside and their bit is tiny compared to ours, and the canalside garden is a huge part of why people live here...so we didn't want a struggle when they tried to 'claim' our patch.

[alldigging]

£4 for your deeds nd £4 for theirs from gov land registry site.
Buy copy and highlight error to ea.

[Newton]

Institute of Charted Surveyors may be a place to start.

Colin

It's the Royal Institution actually! I'm one!

Minsky - the photos of your land could be a mistake! In any event the solicitor can only convey the land owned by your neighbour.

You have no worries apart from the photos. Ask the agent to remove them.

Why on earth did you consult a solicitor? Did you hope for some form of legal redress or compensation?