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Whatever type of freehold or leasehold home you are trying to sell, it’s possible that it has some problems such as structural damage, legal disputes and more. You might be thinking about not disclosing these details to buyers due to concerns they would lose interest in your home. This guide explains the issues with not disclosing such problems, and how to best attract a buyer.
- The types of problems you may have when trying to sell a property
- What are your legal duties for disclosing problems with a home?
- The consequences of trying to conceal property issues from buyers
- Should you resolve problems with your home before selling?
- Options for selling a house or flat that has undisclosed problems
- Top queries about selling a property without disclosing problems
The types of problems you may have when trying to sell a property
Throughout the UK there are many leasehold and freehold homes that could be considered problem properties for one or more reasons, and this may make them harder to sell.
There’s a long list of potential problems that a property could have and they are not all structural, because some can involve legal issues, financial problems and more. If you are the owner of a house, flat or other type of residential property that you are looking to sell, you should assess every aspects of your home before selling to identify and such issues.
Structural problems
This covers any physical damage and related issues at your home, such as dry rot, damp, high radon levels, asbestos, storm damage, subsidence and more.
Legal problems
There can be a number of legal complications affecting your property, including boundary disputes and litigation over unpaid service charge fees as two examples.
Other problems
If the negative factor at your home is not structural or legal then it likely falls into this category, and one typical situation may be noisy neighbours.
Many of these issues may need to be disclosed to potential buyers, as the law firm Chancellors notes. Failing to reveal certain problems with your house or flat can create a number of problems, including potential legal challenges.
Keep reading to discover more about your obligations for telling people interested in your property about any problems with it, along with advice on whether to try and fix certain issues before seeking a buyer, and finally tips on the best ways to quickly sell your home.
What are your legal duties for disclosing problems with a home?
There is no overarching law or regulation in the UK that forces buyers to disclose each and every problem with their property when they are attempting to sell it. But depending on how you try to proceed with the sale, there are certain legal duties for disclosure that can arise.
The primary way that you will end up with a legal obligation to honestly and fully disclose information about any problems with your property is through the conveyancing process, where the solicitor or other legal representative of a prospective buyer seeks to collect as much information as possible about the property ahead of any formal offer and purchase.
One of the key documents involved in this process is the Property Information Form, often referred to simply as the TA6 form. Lying about various aspects of your home on this form is against the law and you can be sued for penalties if the buyer finds out about it.
The long list of details that you must disclose when completing a TA6 form includes, but is not limited to, property boundaries, any ongoing disputes with neighbours, environmental problems and related details, information about the property’s insurance, the applicable council tax rate, an explanation of any part of the home you share with a neighbour, the area’s average number of burglaries, specifics about planned property development nearby and more.
But you are not required to complete a TA6 form when attempting to sell your property, and by not filling out this form then that is one way through which you could try to conceal problems with your home.
However, as you’ll learn in the next section of this guide, there are a number of negative consequences that you might encounter when trying to withhold problems from buyers.
The consequences of trying to conceal property issues from buyers
The legal obligation of homeowners to disclose problems with their properties through the relevant forms involved with the selling process are designed to promote transparency and help buyers make informed decisions about whether to purchase a house or flat, as Rose & Rose Solicitors says. But what happens if you conceal such issues?
There are a few different scenarios that can apply when discussing trying to sell a home without disclosing problems, with the first being not being fully honest when filling out the TA6 form.
This situation can be the most problematic from a legal perspective because you would knowingly be hiding potentially negative information about your home from a potential buyer, and they might not make an offer on the property if they knew about the problems you’re withholding. If they end up buying your home and then discover the flaw, they would be within their legal right to sue you and you could owe expensive penalties if they succeed.
Alternatively, you may simply opt against completing the TA6 form when selling your home, and this can create complications.
Buyers typically will want to see the full details that the form would provide and they could lose interest in your property if you do not agree to complete one, because they may worry that you are withholding information about serious faults with the home. This can reduce the number of people that will be interested in making an offer to purchase your property.
In addition, mortgage lenders will be unlikely to approve a loan for someone to buy your flat or house if they are unable to obtain the necessary details that a TA6 form would provide. Home loan providers may ultimately have to try reselling the property if they buyer ends up defaulting on the monthly mortgage payments, as they will help them to recoup the remaining debt. But the lender may fear that the home is unsellable because of undisclosed problems, and therefore they will reject any mortgage applications and close off that type of private buyer.
Should you resolve problems with your home before selling?
If there are certain problems at your house or flat that you would prefer not to disclose to prospective buyers, one solution can be trying to resolve the issue before selling.
This might not always be possible, for example if the problem is an ongoing dispute with difficult neighbours that has no promise of a happy resolution. But there are certain flaws with a property that can be fixed before you attempt to find a buyer, particularly if it is structural damage, which might range from a small amount of damp through to major subsidence.
What you will need to consider is whether you have the financial resources, time and willingness to invest in what could be months of work to repair the problem before you sell.
The upside of pursuing such improvements is that it would eliminate a few difficult scenarios, the first being if a potential buyer is made aware of the issue that you tried not to disclose before they make an offer. They might lose interest in the home entirely, or they might still be interested but they’ll reduce their offer significantly to account for the costs of fixing the issue.
The second situation you want to avoid is not disclosing a problem to a buyer and then they purchase your home and discover the flaw, because that could eventually result in legal action against you, as GetAgent highlights. But if you are able to fix a structural flaw or similar problem with your home before selling then you can avoid this outcome.
Small-scale issues with a property might be relatively low-cost to fix, like replacing missing roof tiles, whereas larger problems can easily cost hundreds or thousands of pounds. And for those owners who want to keep their costs low when selling, such work will not be a viable option.
If this applies to your situation then you still have ways to sell your home, and the next section elaborates on these methods in more details, including their various pros and cons.
They include selling to a quick home buyer like LDN Properties. These companies make fast and fair offers to purchase almost any type of house or flat, regardless of any problems that it might have. And not only can they complete the entire process of purchasing your home within a few short weeks, but you will also get to avoid having to pay any commission on the sale.
Options for selling a house or flat that has undisclosed problems
When you are ready to seek a buyer for your home with undisclosed problems, you will need to choose which method to use for selling, and there are several choices as Which? explains. You could sell at a property auction, through an estate agent, to a quick home buying company like LDN Properties or you could sell without any help.
Consider writing down your main aims with the sale of your house, including the ideal sale price, whether you can accept paying commission, and how long you can wait before selling. Then compare these factors against the information about all four of the selling options below, and this should help guide you toward the method that best pairs with your unique needs.
You’ll see that some of the choices have obvious disadvantages, for example potentially having to wait more than a full year before selling when using an estate agent. Other strategies have some clear advantages, such as not paying fees when you either sell without any assistance or you get in touch with a zero-commission quick home buying company.
Selling at a property auction
The first way to sell your property is by trying your luck with an auction, where people will be able to place bids of ever-increasing value to purchase the home. Your goal is to have many buyers interested so that the competing bids result in a very high final sale price.
But you could get just a single bid on your property at what’s known as the reserve price, which is the lowest value at which you agree your home can sale. This is considered a binding legal agreement to sell your house or flat, and the top bidder can sue you to enforce the sale if you try to walk away from it after the auction is over. For that reason, you must calculate a reserve price that will produce some profit from the sale, even after paying the auctioneer their fees.
Typically, an auctioneer will charge commission at 2.5 percent of your home’s eventual sale price, and this adds to your costs as the fee is taken out of the sale proceeds. This pays for the auctioneer’s work in creating a listing that describes your home and includes photographs of the interior and exterior, advertising it, hosting the auction and completing a successful sale.
Homeowners wanting a rapid sale may want to review other options because auctions are not a fast choice for selling a home. There is a long wait of several weeks or months from the day that you decide to sell this way until the day of the auction, and then if your home manages to sell at the auction then the buyer will have about 28 days to complete all of their required tasks to finalise the purchase of your property, such as signing the relevant legal documents.
You might be able to persuade some auctioneers to set a shorter deadline for the buyer to finish these steps, but note that other auctioneers may allow even more time than 28 days.
Selling through an estate agent
The second way to sell your flat or house is with an estate agent, who will also charge commission that will add to your costs, as it will be taken out of the eventual selling proceeds. Usually, estate agents charge this fee at a rate between 1.15 percent and 1.40 percent of your home’s eventual sale price, although the exact rate can be higher or lower than this.
Estate agents charge this fee to cover their work with selling your home, which begins with creating a listing then advertising it in their office, in local newspapers and online, followed by handling viewings to give people interested in your home a tour of it, and hearing offers.
Selling through an estate agent is a slow process that can take many months or even more than a full year. And even if you get an offer, the person making it could later cancel the offer and make the sale collapse, and if contracts aren’t exchanged they can do this without any penalty. This would force you to start over with looking for a buyer, delaying a sale even further.
Beware also that some estate agents might struggle with trying to sell a property where you don’t want to disclose certain information to buyers. Many properties that are sold this way go through the typical conveyancing process, which includes the seller filling out a TA6 form. You could find that estate agents will either refuse on principle to try selling a property where the owner won’t disclose certain problems, or they won’t know how to attract any buyers.
Selling to a quick home buyer
The third way to sell your property is by contacting LDN Properties or another quick buyer. These companies are so-called because they have the funds available to buy homes right away and can complete the purchase within a few short weeks, and this includes the time needed for the important final stages of exchanging the contracts and paying the seller their proceeds.
And when you sell your home to an honest no-fee quick buyer then you will also be guaranteed to receive those full sale proceeds. For many sellers that’s much better than selling to a commission-charging estate agent or auctioneer, as they will deduct their fees from the eventual property sale proceeds, which will increase your overall expenses when selling.
Quick buyers also make competitive and speedy offers for properties no matter their age, condition, location, shape or size, and regardless of any problems that the home might have.
As well as buying properties where the buyer hasn’t disclosed problems, LDN Properties also has experience with purchasing high-rise flats, homes with septic tanks, properties that have asbestos, houses of multiple occupancy, flats with old or faulty wiring, homes that are lacking a kitchen or a bathroom, properties located within a conservation area, houses that have council tax arrears, flats with expensive service charges, homes that have been vandalised, properties situated close to an electrical substation, flats with drainage problems, and many other varied home selling scenarios.
That makes a quick buyer an ideal choice for a property that has problems you are reluctant to disclose because you will get a decent and fast offer even with the existence of those issues.
Selling without any help
The fourth way to sell your home is doing so without any assistance, which means you will handle all of the tasks involved with trying to attract a buyer to your property – putting together a listing, advertising it, scheduling viewings, hearing offers and taking one to completion.
This is a lot of work and it can quickly become tiring and take up all of your days, so if you want a stress-free sale then you should look at other strategies. You should only pursue this method if you have a friend or family member that has managed to sell a home like yours in the past and is willing to help you at no cost with the sale of yours, or if you have such experience.
Otherwise, you risk spending more than a year waiting before you even get a serious offer. And someone can offer to buy your property but then decide against it and rescind the offer, which they can do without facing any penalties so long as contracts have not been exchanged. You will need to begin again with looking for a buyer, adding much more time to the process.
The most obvious advantage of selling without any help is that you will not have to pay any commission to a fee-charging estate agent or auctioneer, which lowers your costs. But this saving may be cancelled out by the funds you use on advertising your listing and other steps.
For a more streamlined and hassle-free way to sell your home, you could get in touch with a zero-fee quick buyer like LDN Properties. This would give you the same benefit of not having to pay any commission on the sale of your home, but you will also get the advantage of securing a much speedier sale as the typical timeline with a quick buyer is only a handful of weeks.
Top queries about selling a property without disclosing problems
For more than 20 years LDN Properties has purchased homes where the buyer may not have disclosed problems, and here you’ll find our answers to questions about such sales.
