The seller's questionnaire: read it literally

Duty to disclose versus duty to investigate

When buying a home, two duties apply alongside each other. The seller must state what they know about defects that stand in the way of normal use, that is the duty to disclose. You must make reasonable enquiries into the condition of the property, that is the duty to investigate. The questionnaire is the hinge between the two: it records what the seller declared, and therefore also where your own investigation should begin.

The sections that matter

• Defects and repairs. Leaks, damp, subsidence, wood rot, mould. Watch for answers in the past tense: "resolved in 2019" raises the question of what the cause was.
• Renovations and permits. Has there been a dormer, an extension or a knocked-through wall, and was there a permit for it? An unpermitted conversion can lead to enforcement later, and it is your problem the moment you become the owner.
• Installations. Age of the boiler and the electrics, last service, presence of a residual current device.
• Easements and boundaries. Right of way, a shared driveway, a fence that does not sit on the boundary.
• Disputes. With neighbours, the municipality or the owners' association.
• Soil contamination and tanks. An old oil tank in the garden is a classic.
• Ground lease. Is there a ground lease, and when is the next review of the canon?

How to read the answers

Three things to watch for:

1. "Not known" is not "no". It is a valid answer, for instance with an inheritance or an investment property the seller never lived in, but it means the information is not there and that you have to find it out.
2. Look for the contradictions. Does the questionnaire say there are no damp problems while the VvE minutes contain three reports of leaks? Then you have a concrete question to ask, in writing.
3. Watch what has been left out. A conversion you can see in the photos but that appears nowhere in the list deserves a question about the permit.

The age clause and the non-occupancy clause

For older homes the seller often includes an age clause: the buyer accepts that the structural condition matches the age of the property, and that the seller does not warrant defects that come with it. For a home the seller never lived in themselves (an inheritance, an investment) a non-occupancy clause follows: the seller cannot declare anything about the condition, because they have not lived there.

Both clauses are common and reasonable in themselves. What they do is move the risk to you. That does not mean you should walk away; it means your own investigation, through a structural survey, for example, becomes more important the more clauses the deed contains. Where needed, record a conditional clause.

This article is general explanation and not legal advice. Always have the purchase agreement checked by your notary or a purchase lawyer before signing.