Material information: what must appear on a listing, and where agents get caught

What material information means

Material information is information the average consumer needs in order to make an informed decision about a property. If omitting it would cause someone to take a different decision — to view, to offer, to offer at a different price — it is material and it belongs in the listing.

The obligation sits in consumer protection law, not in a code of practice. That is worth restating, because it means the test is not ‘did I follow the guidance’ but ‘would the average consumer have wanted to know’.

Parts A, B and C

National Trading Standards grouped material information into three tiers, and the framework remains the clearest way to think about it even as the guidance evolves.

Part A — required on every listing

• Council tax band or rate
• Price and tenure
• For leasehold: lease length remaining, service charge, ground rent

Part B — required on every listing, because it applies to every property

• Property type, construction materials and build form
• Number and types of room
• Utilities — electricity, water supply, sewerage, heating
• Broadband availability and speed
• Mobile signal and coverage
• Parking arrangements

Part C — required where it applies, and this is where the risk sits

• Building safety issues including cladding
• Restrictions — conservation area, listed status, tree preservation orders
• Rights and easements, including public rights of way and shared access
• Flood risk and flood defences
• Coastal erosion
• Planning permission and proposals for development nearby
• Accessibility and adaptations
• Coalfield or mining area status

The five that cause the most trouble

1. Flood risk

Sellers describe flood risk by whether the house has flooded. Insurers and buyers care about modelled risk by source, and surface water flooding affects a great many properties nowhere near a river. A postcode-level statement is not good enough.

2. Mining

Coal mining referral areas cover much of the North West, including parts of the Wirral, St Helens, Knowsley, Wrexham and Flintshire. Whether a property sits in one is a matter of record, and it is a Part C disclosure.

3. Rights of way and shared access

A shared drive, an access strip, a public footpath crossing the garden. These affect value and they affect whether a buyer proceeds. They are on the title or on the definitive map.

4. Restrictions

Conservation area status and Article 4 directions remove permitted development rights buyers assume they have. A buyer who bought intending to extend, and cannot, has a complaint.

5. Connectivity

Broadband and mobile coverage are Part B, so they are required on every listing. Estimating them is a poor idea when the actual data is available per address.

Getting it from data rather than from the seller

The reliable answer to most of Part C, and the connectivity elements of Part B, is a search. Ordered per instruction and evidenced — which is what matters when somebody asks eighteen months later what you knew and when.

Published 29 July 2026. This article is general information about conveyancing practice and property regulation. It is not legal advice, and the regulatory position changes — check the current position before relying on it.