Overbrooke Estates v Glencombe Properties [1974] 1 WLR 1335

• Defendant sold an object to Plaintiff through an auction, one of the conditions being that the agent/auctioneer had no authority to make representations.

• When a representation by the auctioneer turned out to be false, Plaintiff attempted to rescind the contract.

• The court (Brightman J) said that agents were entitled to limit the authority of their agents and such clauses are not invalidated by s.3 of the Misrepresentations Act. 

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NB At the time the Unfair Contracts Act had not yet been introduced so s.3 permitted exemption or limitation clauses that were “fair and reasonable” rather than those which were reasonable under the Unfair Contract Terms Act. However, the test under UCTA is no harder to satisfy than this one.