Law or legend? Property "facts" everyone believes

Every agency has them: the "facts" someone swears blind are true. We picked five and checked them. Some are pure legend. One or two might surprise you.

1. "Landlords can't evict anyone in winter"

Verdict: LEGEND (in England)

There's no winter ban here. Possession claims and evictions carry on all year round. England did have a "winter truce" over Christmas 2020, but that was a pandemic measure and it's long gone.

Hop across the Channel, though, and it's very much law. France's trêve hivernale starts on 1 November and runs to 31 March. During those five months most tenants can't be evicted from their home, even if the landlord has a court order. So the landlord who tells you it's illegal to evict in winter is quite right. They're just in the wrong country.

2. "Weekly tenants must be given a rent book"

Verdict: LAW

This one sounds like it belongs in a 1970s sitcom, but it's still on the statute book. If a tenant pays rent weekly, the landlord must provide a rent book or something similar. It's in section 4 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, and not doing it is a criminal offence with a fine of up to £2,500.

The bit agents will want to know: the offence also catches anyone who collects the rent while the rent book is missing, unless they didn't know and had no reason to suspect.

3. "If you cut your neighbour's overhanging branches, you have to give them back"

Verdict: LAW (more or less)

You can cut back branches that hang over your side, up to the boundary, without asking. But the branches still belong to the tree's owner, so you should offer them back. What you can't do is lob them over the fence. The same goes for apples: windfalls from next door's tree are still next door's apples.

One check before reaching for the saw: trees under a Tree Preservation Order or in a conservation area need council consent first.

4. "Squatters' rights mean you can't get them out"

Verdict: LEGEND (for homes)

Since 1 September 2012, squatting in a residential building has been a criminal offence in England and Wales, with up to 51 weeks in prison. That makes it a matter for the police. Commercial buildings are a different story. But if someone moves into a house while the owners are on holiday, the owners can call the police rather than wait for a court.

5. "Number 13 sells for less"

Verdict: BIT OF BOTH

Rightmove looked at valuations of more than 10 million homes in 2023 and found number 13 was the lowest valued of all door numbers from 1 to 100, around £5,000 below average. There are also far fewer of them: houses numbered 14 outnumber 13s by almost two to one, because so many developers simply skip it.

But those are valuations, not sale prices, and nobody has shown the number is the cause. Lucky for some?

Over to you

Which property "fact" gets repeated in your office that you're sure is nonsense? Tell us in the comments, and we'll check the best ones in a future column.

Questions? Email claudia@letiq.co.uk

Sources: Service-Public.fr: trêve hivernale, Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, s.4, Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, s.7, RHS: neighbours and trees, LASPO 2012, s.144, Shelter: squatting offences, Rightmove: number 13 homes

Claudia Brown, Director, LETiQ