A businessman has urged house buyers to beware after his £850,000 property purchase failed to measure up.
Andrew Watson, 48, bought Windmill Farm at Windmill Lane, Cumberworth, in September, 2015, when the property was advertised as being set in approximately eight acres of land.
Mr Watson, who works as a contractor, also owns about five-and-a-half acres of grazing land at Flockton Moor. Together with the eight acres at Cumberworth, that meant he had more than the 12 acres needed to apply for the minimum level of support under the Rural Payments Scheme (RPS).
However, when he used an online tool called MagicMaps to confirm the field locations and approximate size of each field as part of an application to the RPS, he was “shocked” to find the land at Cumberworth was only 5.7 acres.
Mr Watson said he also bought a professionally plotted map created on a software app called Promap, which uses Ordnance Survey data. Promap showed the land at Cumberworth measured 5.967 acres – two acres smaller than advertised – meaning Mr Watson was “missing” the equivalent of two football pitches.
Mr Watson said he asked the agent if they had access to Promap to check the area of land themselves, but said he was told: “Yes, but we will be charged” and “Smart Phone apps are notoriously unreliable.”
Mr Watson said: “I was furious as the cost to have an area of land plotted is nominal, whilst we are missing two acres of land.”
Mr Watson said he was told that the information in the agent’s sales literature had come from the vendor and a previous agent’s brochure.
Mr Watson said he had contacted a number of other estate agents who told him they would certainly check the area of land on a property for sale using Promap before producing sales material on it.
Mr Watson said he had written to the Property Ombudsman asking for the matter to be investigated, but added: “We don’t hold out much hope of receiving any form of compensation as it seems nobody knows who is actually at fault.”
Justin Dugdale, director of family-run agent Yorkshire’s Finest, said: “I am surprised Mr Watson has chosen to take this matter to the Examiner.
“In correspondence to Mr Watson, I drew his attention to the fact that our sales brochure made clear that the ‘land had not been formally measured.’ This he was aware of before he purchased the property some years ago.”
Mr Dugdale added: “I am entirely satisfied my company had acted properly.”
