Accordingly, since at least 1970, the law of England and Wales concerning defective new dwellings has been under scrutiny at a high level. Unfortunately however:

i)   There is still a shortage of homes in England and Wales[1], and the purchaser’s bargaining power remains correspondingly weaker;

ii)  Purchasers are incentivised to instruct a conveyancer identified and recommended by the house-builder following a process of competitive bidding by conveyancers;

 iii) It is questionable in some cases whether the conveyancer is always acting in the best interest of the purchaser;

iv) House-builders are able to (and do) stipulate poor (and many knowledgeable people would say shocking) terms and conditions in the contract of sale from the purchaser’s perspective;

v) There remains considerable disquiet in:

 a.     the operation of the law in relation to the purchase of dwellings (even after the law was amended following high level reconsideration and a new statutory cause of action was passed by Parliament in 1972); and

b.      in relation to the behaviour of some house-builders when defects in design and/or construction manifest themselves.

vi)   Purchasers owning defective new dwellings in 2019 undoubtedly need improved protection in respect of quality defects in new dwellings purchased. 

What is clear, is that householders such as purchasers of newly constructed dwellings enjoy a complex pattern of rights, from different legal sources, which ought to enable them to insist on their property being properly designed and constructed to a proper standard, to ensure such purchasers are able to properly declare the same to a subsequent purchaser upon resale or at any rate not to have to declare defects with the dwelling’s design and/or construction that only became apparent after purchase and due to defects the responsibility of the vendor/house-builder.

Indeed, even a subsequent purchaser who buys a property with latent defects, provided s/he acts promptly may have a measure of statutory etc. protection against the wayward house-builder etc, who is responsible for the defects (provided the target is not impecunious in which case other considerations may apply). 

Next Section: Has There Been Any Change?

[1] See Homes England ‘Strategic plan 2018/19-2021/22’