When businessman Paul Edwards and his wife Hazel bought what they thought was their dream home, they were assured by the sellers that it had never flooded.
So the couple were astonished when, less than a year after moving in, they awoke to discover a heavy downpour had transformed their garden into a lake.
A few weeks later, the same thing happened again, and on a third occasion their basement flooded as well – which came as a shock because the sellers hadn’t declared any flood risk to their property in their Home Information Pack.
The couple decided to launch legal action against the previous owners, Robert John Corson and his wife Margaret, claiming they knew about the problem all along.
Deluge: The picture of the flooded garden that the sellers put on Facebook before it was bought by Paul Edwards and wife Hazel
Dry: When selling their house, Robert John Corson and his wife Margaret said it had never flooded
And to support their claim, they have unearthed an apparently damning entry on Mr Corson’s Facebook page from July 3, 2012, showing the back garden flooded, accompanied by the comment: ‘Our garden during the deluge.’
Two friends commented on the picture, with one quipping: ‘Maybe you should pull the plug.’
The £750,000 five-bedroom detached house is in an upmarket suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne and the back garden was a particularly strong selling point, laid mainly to lawn but with numerous pretty flower beds and backing on to moorland. The Edwardses say, when they were buying the house, that the vendors ticked a box on the Property Information Form saying there were no flooding problems.
A High Court writ issued by their solicitors, BTMK of Southend, claims: ‘Under the heading “Flooding” the Defendants were asked whether any part of the property (whether buildings or surrounding garden or land) had ever been flooded. To that question the defendants ticked the box “No”.’
The Edwardses, who own a commercial cleaning company, moved into the property in Fenham just before Christmas 2014.
Disaster struck on November 15, 2015, when the garden flooded, and the same thing happened that Christmas, when it was so bad that they were forced to buy a pump and industrial hoses. In January 2016 the situation became even worse when the basement flooded.
Downpour: John Corson made this Facebook post alongside a picture of his flooded garden
To back their claim, the Edwardses’ solicitors will submit the Facebook entry from Mr Corson, a consultant surgeon at Sunderland Royal Hospital. The Edwardses’ solicitors also say they have a letter written by Mrs Corson to Kevin Batey, Town Moor Superintendent of Newcastle, on December 21, 2012, saying water from Nuns Moor at the rear of the house had tipped into their garden ‘like a waterfall’.
The Edwardses, who are still living at the house, have applied for ‘rescission on the sale contract’ – meaning they would move out and the Corsons would take the property back and have to refund them the full amount paid. They also want their mortgage payments refunded and damages for ‘physical inconvenience and mental distress’.
Martin Roberts, presenter of the BBC property show Homes Under The Hammer, said using the Property Information Form, also known as a TA6, as key evidence in legal proceedings was ‘extremely rare’.
Flash: The £750,000 five-bedroom detached house is in an upmarket suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne and the back garden was a particularly strong selling point
He said: ‘The forms have been around for ages but the nature of them has changed. Previously it was for you to volunteer information you felt could affect the value or future of the property. In recent years, they have become a legal part of the sale.
‘It is very easy to think you can get away with just ticking these boxes, but you have to answer these things to the best of your ability and truthfully, otherwise you are misleading the buyer.
‘If that information is deliberately misleading and induced someone to buy the property, I’d say you have every right to renege on the sale. People don’t buy houses sold as seen, unless they are at an auction.’
Speaking outside his home in another part of Newcastle, Mr Corson said: ‘The matter is in the hands of our lawyers and we have nothing more to say.’