A fifth of home sellers admit to covering up problems during the viewing process!

The latest research from property purchasing specialist, House Buyer Bureau, has found that one in 10 (13%) of home sellers have avoided showing a particular room to potential buyers during the viewing process, while 19% admitted to steering them away from a particular view such as a mobile phone mast.

The survey of over 1,000 UK homeowners to have previously sold a home, commissioned by House Buyer Bureau, found that as many as 13% of respondents have purposely failed to show potential buyers a room in their house while conducting a viewing.

The top reason for neglecting to fully preview their property was due to using the space for storage at the time of viewing. Other reasons to make the top five for keeping a part of their property on the down low were the need for renovation, the fact it hadn’t been cleaned, because the interior design was outdated or unappealing and, most mysteriously, because it was housing an embarrassing secret.

The good news is that when it comes to our outside space, we’re far less secretive, with just 2% stating that they had purposely avoided showing a potential buyer an outdoor area when viewing.

However, almost a fifth (19%) of those surveyed said that they had purposely avoided showing potential buyers a view that was visible from their property that they didn’t like, such as a mobile telephone mast.

Perhaps more worryingly, as many as 8% came clean about attempting to hide a negative issue associated with the property itself.

The most common cover up was water damage or mould, followed by cracks in the wall which could indicate subsidence, nasty smells from, for example, pets or smokers, windows or doors that didn’t properly close and pest problems.

Managing Director of House Buyer Bureau, Chris Hodgkinson, commented:

“We’re probably all guilty of sweeping something under the rug in order to improve the appeal of our property during the selling process, but even more of us would try to hide an eye-soar outside our property in case it makes a bad first impression.

It is tempting to try and purposely conceal an issue to get a sale over the line, but you have a legal obligation as the seller to disclose anything that might affect the buyer's decision."

"Selling a home is stressful enough, and the reality is that the buyer will inevitably find out, pull out of the sale and you’ll be out of pocket and back to square one.

If you're concerned about the state of your property then you might be better approaching a property buying company. They're much less concerned about the state of the property and you won't have to worry about cleaning or repairs!”