- Property portals and estate agents not flagging deal breakers up-front to buyers
Estate agents continue to exclude critical property information on their online property listings, despite being legally required to do so.
Many property adverts are not compliant with current legislation, according to research by the HomeOwners Alliance, which means people are left without crucial information in the early stages of buying a home.
The HomeOwners Alliance research reviewed adverts across Rightmove, Zoopla and OntheMarket in London and Manchester and found that many agents are failing to comply with the rules.
Almost a quarter of leasehold listings did not include the number of years left on the lease.
Almost two in five listings failed to disclose service charge costs and around half excluded details of ground rent. Less than one in 10 included the date of the next ground rent review.
Lacking: Only 62% of listings mention service charges, and less than half include ground rent
Homeowners Alliance found that 6 per cent of listings fail to even disclose whether a property is either freehold or leasehold.
Agents are required to provide this and other ‘material information’ under the Consumer Protection against Unfair Trading Regulations, and were reminded of this by Trading Standards which issued guidance on the subject in November 2023.
Aside from shortcomings on leasehold listings, there was also a lack of information on energy and council tax.
A quarter of listings did not include an Energy Performance Certificate rating, despite being a legal requirement since 2013.
Only two-thirds of listings included the council tax band, despite this being required for all listings. London listings were less likely to feature council tax (55 per cent) than in Manchester (77 per cent).
Many listings also appear to be overlooking Building Safety Act issues. Only nine out of 45 high-rise property listings made reference to having an EWS1 certificate which is required by lenders due to the cladding scandal.
Only 5 per cent of listings include details about accessibility and restrictions on the property.
More than half of listings failed to disclose whether there was parking or not, while close to a third failed to share information on broadband speed or mobile signal coverage.
One in five failed to share the heating source, for example whether the property has a gas boiler, or is heated by another method such as oil or a heat pump.
A similar proportion of listings failed to show the square footage of the home.
When comparing the portals, Zoopla and OnTheMarket’s listings tended to be more comprehensive than Rightmove, according to the research.
For example, 86 per cent of Zoopla’s listings and 78 per cent of OnTheMarket listings included the number of years remaining on the lease, compared with 70 per cent on Rightmove.
Paula Higgins, chief executive of HomeOwners Alliance said: ‘We know location, price and parking are up there as the top things people look for when buying a home.
‘But very quickly after that we want to know about any potential deal-breakers: Is it a flat with only a few years left on the lease or sky high service charges?
‘Is there cladding which means we’ll struggle to get a mortgage and could face unfair costs? Is there a poor energy rating that means the house costs double what it should to run?
‘So the industry’s move to do more in providing information that could materially impact our decision to buy a home is very welcome.
‘But a year on, the picture is still patchy and simply not good enough. Homeowners shouldn’t have to wait until they are three months down the line, have spent hundreds on legal fees and surveys, to find the ground rent is due to double, the house will cost more to heat than their current home, and they can’t get a mortgage because of cladding.’
