Disclosure and the Consequences of Not Being Transparent
This month we will review what information a property seller should disclose as part of a conveyancing transaction and consider a recent case where a seller has been accused of misleading a buyer by saying nothing.
The starting point in any sale of land is to apply the contractual principle of caveat emptor or buyer beware. However, in practice it is rarely this simple. As part of a normal conveyancing transaction, a seller would complete a property information form in order to give a buyer detailed information about a property. The form has several versions, which cover sales of freeholds, leaseholds and new build residential properties. All of these forms have been designed by the Law Society as part of the national conveyancing protocol used in the majority of transactions in England and Wales.