Under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, an agent must not omit information that the average buyer needs to make an informed decision. National Trading Standards turned that principle into a three-part list, and portals now enforce it.
Part A — on every listing, no exceptions
- Price, and whether it is a guide price or offers over
- Tenure — freehold, leasehold or commonhold
- Council-tax band
- For leasehold: lease years remaining, service charge and ground rent
An apartment advertised without the lease length and service charge is not a complete listing. Ours carries all three — the St Paul’s Street flat shows 118 years, £1,340 a year and £150 a year on the page, because a buyer who finds that out at week six is a buyer who withdraws at week six.
Part B — the standard things about the property
Property type and construction, number and type of rooms, utilities, heating type, broadband and mobile coverage, parking, and accessibility. Around here, two of these matter more than the others:
- Heating. A lot of our villages are off the gas grid. Oil, LPG or a heat pump changes the running cost by four figures a year.
- Broadband. Fibre reaches most of Stamford and about half the villages. Ask for the actual measured speed, not the postcode estimate.
Part C — the things that only apply sometimes, and matter most when they do
- Flood risk. Anywhere along the Welland, ask for the Environment Agency map. We send it with the particulars — the Uffington cottage has part of its garden in flood zone 2 and it says so on the listing.
- Restrictive covenants — particularly on barn conversions and former estate land. The Barnack barn cannot have another building in its paddock; that is in the title, not a rumour.
- Listed status and conservation areas. In Stamford this affects windows, doors, roofs, solar panels and sometimes paint colour.
- Mining, radon, Japanese knotweed, rights of way, building safety.
What we do with it
We gather all three parts before a house goes live, not after an offer. It slows a launch by two or three days and it is the reason our fall-through rate is 11.2%. A sale that collapses in week eight over a covenant that was in the title all along was never a sale, it was a delay.
If you are viewing with another agent and any of Part A is missing from the listing, ask for it in writing before you spend £550 on a survey.
