The estate agent who sold me my property failed to disclose serious defects in it.
The applicable term is “Caveat Emptor” – “Let the Buyer beware”. An agent who voluntarily discloses detrimental information about a property he is entrusted to sell would breach his contract of agency. His legal duty is to secure the best price he can and voluntarily disclosing negative facts about the property flies in the face of that duty.
However, it is important to emphasise that we are dealing with voluntary disclosures, e.g. where you innocently ask about stains on the wallpaper and the agent tells you that not alone is the house damp, it also is affected by dry rot, subsidence and timber infestation. An agent is not able to make such disclosures voluntarily.
On the other hand, the agent should not knowingly lie to you if you were to ask “Does this house have Damp / Dry Rot / Infestation or suffer from Subsidence?” If he/she knows for a fact that such faults exist he should answer your query honestly. To do so does not breach his duty to his client. The difference is that the agent cannot volunteer the information – you must elicit it.