Noise information and guidance now available for wary home buyers.
According to a recent European Environment Agency report ‘Environmental noise is linked to approximately 43,000 hospital admissions, and up to 10,000 premature deaths per year’.
Staggeringly, despite noise being cited as one of the most common nuisances that can affect house-holders and one of the main causes of purchase dissatisfaction, it is often not investigated by even concerned buyers because they struggle to find the information they need.
In addition, despite its capacity to cause real distress, there are no questions about noise being asked by most solicitors at any point in the conveyancing process either. The one possible exception to this is the question about disputes with neighbours on the current vendor questionnaire, but this only comes into play when the dispute has reached a high level and has been formally recorded by the council or the police.
Attempting to clarify noise problems with casually phrased questions during viewings and afterwards has no weight in the eyes of the law and the questions are regularly answered falsely by vendors to protect the sale.
Ultimately, the conveyancing process still heavily relies on the principle of ‘caveat emptor’ and much emphasis is still placed on the buyer to conduct their own checks. The responsibility for checking this important issue rests with the purchaser and there is currently no mechanism in place within the standard conveyancing process.
More often than not it is the Estate Agent who finds them self having to field questions on the subject from customers. The agent can be left with little room to manoeuvre when faced with the prospect of answering questions to which they don’t have a reliable answer.
With the launch of a new search product, customers who wish to are now able to find the assurances that they need, independently, without replying on the agent to gather what they can from the vendor or local observation. This should protect the Agent from unwelcome comeback and responsibility in this very difficult area.
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