Landlord duty of disclosure

[DoctorP]

Today, 11:10:AM
Hi, we moved into a rented property on 19march this year. We’ve just had a letter through the door about outline planning, submitted by the landlord, to build 9 properties immediately adjacent to our new home. The outline planning was submitted on 17 March so was clearly underway well before we viewed or moved in. Should the landlord have disclosed this to us since there will be a dramatic change to the view from the property, traffic levels in what is currently a small village and a long period of noise and dirt?

[des8]

IMO yes
https://news.rla.org.uk/mark-hayward...of-disclosure/

[ULA]

Hi, this is not my normal area of expertise but I have done some research. There is a piece of legislation The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, which amongst other things, I believe, applies to letting agents meaning that rental properties must be accurately and fully described when marketed.

The responsibility to do this does not just fall to the agent, or landlord in the case of a rental property if one is used, they are jointly liable. Section 6 about Misleading Omissions relates to “omitting material information” “which the average consumer needs, according to the context, to take an informed transactional decision”.

Based on this you could potentially have an argument that by omitting this information you were not able to make a fully informed decision about whether to agree to renting the property. If your view would be that, had you known of the development you would not have agreed to renting the property, then you may at least have grounds for taking this up with your landlord and the letting agent if one was involved.

When did you first view the property since that will potentially have an impact on the timing of events. I am providing a link to the Regulations and the specific section which may help you.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2...ulation/6/made

As i said not my area but hopefully it may help and there may be someone else with better knowledge than me along to help you.

[DoctorP]

We first viewed on February 6th. I son`t think he could reasonably suggest that it occurred to him after this date to go ahead with the development, I imagine it would take a few months at the very lest to get plans drawn etc- I presume the date we viewed would be relevant to whether he was planning it at the time or whether the decision to go ahead came after this? He put the plans in for outline approval on 17 March, we signed on the 19th so things were definitely underway at the time.

[ULA]

I agree that this would have been in the pipeline when you viewed given the level of details and plans that need to be submitted with a planning application.

If this information was made available at the time you viewed the property would you have still done ahead with renting it? I think you also need to consider what you want to achieve out of raising any complaint with the landlord/agent.

[DoctorP]

One of the key things we look for in a property is its location, we like rural and have specifically avoided living on estates (we aren`t people people!) So if we`d thought we would end up being built into a housing estate then no, we wouldn`t have rented it. To be honest what I want to achieve at the moment is nothing- I`m thinking of keeping my powder dry to see how quickly we can get out of here and start our own self build project; I suspect that from outline planning to shovels breaking ground might be longer than we plan to stay anyway. If they get their skates on, however, and get to the point of building before the contract is up then I would be thinking of this as a way to get out before the minimum term is up.

[ULA]

Well hopefully as you say if they do not move quickly and the current uncertainty of things may indeed add to that, you might have concluded your current rental term before building starts.

If not at least you may have some information that can help you exit the contract early.