Re: Kind of...
IANAL, so I'm not sure where UK law stands on this if I were to buy a house advertised as having a garage, but it not actually being there when I exchange contracts? What would be my legal recourse if I only found out it had no garage once I took legal ownership? Either way, this being the main reason we all pay lawyers to due diligence when we buy a house yes?
If you buy a house that you think has a garage, but you fail to check this then there is a specific legal concept to describe this problem that's so old that it's actually in Latin which is "Caveat Emptor", which loosely translated into English means "let the buyer beware". In other words, if you don't check then it's your problem.
You pay a conveyancer money when you buy a house to do the conveyancing, ie; make you aware of wider issues that are not likely to be apparent just by taking a glance at the property such as that your ideallic cottage in the middle of nowhere with a premium price has had all of the land next door sold to a developer who has planning permission for 2500 houses.
Your Solicitor would certainly highlight the package of land that you are buying on a Land Registry map, however they don't visit the property, and absent of you communicating that you expected there to be a garage they don't check for the presence of outbuildings etc. The suitability of the building for the purposes that you are purchasing it for are entirely your problem; if you don't notice that a building is missing a garage when you expected one to be present then it's your problem, even if that was part of the advertising. Your not buying the advertising; your buying the property as it stands at the point of exchange of contracts.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
