Property Misdescriptions Act
Enacted in 1991, this piece of legislation is intended to prohibit those involved in estate agency business from knowingly making false or misleading statements. Full details are available on the Office of Public Sector Information website.
In real terms, the selling agent is going to try and present the property in the best light possible. Just like selling anything, you point out the best bits and try and use nice photographs. There is no requirement to point out any defects, in fact there is no requirement to provide any information at all. But what information is provided as fact must be accurate, so agents are not allowed to mislead you into thinking the whole house is in perfect condition if for example they know about a leaky roof.
Since we do not conduct a full survey prior to advertising the property, defects may come to light at a later stage that we were never aware of. This is why you should appoint a qualified surveyor to check the property over before you commit to a sale. If the property has a Home Condition Report as part of the Home Information Pack (HIP) - make sure you look at it.
When we draw up property details, we make our best efforts to try and ensure the details are correct. We ask the vendor to check them and point out any errors. Despite our best efforts, mistakes can happen so we advise any purchaser to check for themselves all details such as measurements and information provided.
