Municipal liability when purchasing a company home | Legal advice centre

Questioner

I work for the municipality and have been allowed to rent a house from the municipality for 1.5 years. The municipality offered me this house for sale last year. Because I had a temporary rental contract, I had to either buy the house or find another home. After thinking about it for a long time, I decided to buy the house. I also told them that we would then do a major renovation. Now, 4 days before the transfer, I found out that it is not an ordinary house but that the zoning plan states that it is a company home. As a result, the square meters may not be expanded and nothing may be changed on the facades. This did not appear in the land registry and nothing was mentioned about this in the valuation report either (the value of the house is therefore of course much lower). We had included a major renovation in our mortgage, which is therefore impossible. The purchase contract states that we are buying a 'corner house' and not a company home. Can we hold the municipality liable for the costs or have we not done enough to comply with the obligation to investigate?

Lawyer

A buyer must inquire about a zoning plan etc. themselves (or have them inquired about it). Depending on your function within your municipality, the location of the property etc. this aspect can be even more important than usual. At first glance your situation does not look rosy. However, to assess this properly much more information is needed. In my opinion, further consultation is necessary and this cannot be done properly via this forum. For more advice/help, you can contact one of the lawyers here without obligation, e.g. via the 'direct contact' link that you see - if you are logged in - with this answer. I'm happy to help you with this.

Lawyer

I believe that the municipality, as the seller, has a special responsibility with regard to the zoning plan. The municipality knows better than anyone that use as a 'normal' home is not possible based on the zoning plan and should have informed you about this. In this case, the seller's duty to inform takes precedence over the buyer's duty to investigate. The municipality cannot therefore blame you for not having assessed the zoning plan yourself. You could still suggest to the municipality that you expect the municipality to immediately grant an environmental permit for the use of the home as a private residence. Based on the Rural Homes Act (this law can also be suitable for homes on business parks), the municipality can grant a permit for the use of a company home as a private residence. The fact that the renovation you had in mind may not be fully implemented is at your own risk. The municipality is, however, authorised to grant a permit that deviates from the zoning plan. Perhaps obtaining that permit can function as 'bargaining money' in the negotiations with the municipality following the fact that the municipality has sold you a company home as a private home.