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Sold House Now Buyer Going Legal

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    #11
    Originally posted by northernladuk View Post
    What's your gut feeling. Are you flush enough to bung them 100 quid with a carefully worded agreement that there will be no more communication? Or are the type of person that would be happy to see them in court out of principle?

    I'm the latter. So personally I'd give them the 35 quid and then tell them to **** off.

    God I hate people like this. They must have such a stressful sad life to spend so much time and effort on crap like this.
    Our first response was we will pay £35 towards the rails but no further payment. We’ve stuck to this out of principle however he isn’t giving up.
    They told us this was their dream forever home however they’ve done their best to make this as negative as possible for themselves.

    Comment


      #12
      Originally posted by Sezbo88 View Post
      I chose this site as I saw a similar post from someone else that got great responses - not exactly the same however which is why I posted my story. And it feels unjust to us, this was a personal comment not a legal judgement...

      He’s given us until 16 October to pay the tiny amount of £70 which we refuse to pay on principle. We have agreed to pay £35 as outlined above.
      If we don’t pay up by 16th then he says he’s going to court and his solicitor is confident that he will win. Our solicitor on the other hand says he’s being ridiculous.
      In a small claims court he cannot claim any costs. So let him take you there. It will cost you, at most, the money he sues you for (£70).
      If he loses, which is likely, and has paid for legal advice it'll cost him hundreds.
      If he wins and has paid for legal advice it'll still cost him hundreds.
      He's not going to do it.

      When you say "his solicitor is confident that he will win".... Is that in a letter from his solicitor? Or is it from the idiot directly? If the latter it's likely just bluster.
      See You Next Tuesday

      Comment


        #13
        I would not have any contact with this person post completion. Everything should be directed via your solicitor, even if only for protecting yourself from stress or agreeing to some kind of liability you aren't aware of.
        Ignore the indignant here about light fittings, etc. Properties are bought and sold in all sorts of condition.
        Purchase was completed, you have a solicitor for anything further.

        ps: if people can't deal with missing rubbish bins and light fittings, they shouldn't be buying a house.

        Comment


          #14
          Originally posted by Lance View Post
          In a small claims court he cannot claim any costs. So let him take you there. It will cost you, at most, the money he sues you for (£70).
          If he loses, which is likely, and has paid for legal advice it'll cost him hundreds.
          If he wins and has paid for legal advice it'll still cost him hundreds.
          He's not going to do it.

          When you say "his solicitor is confident that he will win".... Is that in a letter from his solicitor? Or is it from the idiot directly? If the latter it's likely just bluster.
          Amazing! But he seems to think we will have to pay costs should he win. Will it have to be the small claims court for this type of case?

          Comment


            #15
            Originally posted by mudskipper View Post
            Agree re: light fitting. You have to leave the house in a safe condition. I'd be livid if I moved into a house and couldn't use the lights. At minimum, there should be a pendant and bulb or it is uninhabitable.
            Yeah, that's bizarre thing to do. Even as someone happy enough to replace light fittings myself (Well, I rewired our house) I'd still be thoroughly unimpressed at that. OP, that was a strange thing to do and a bad decision.

            Comment


              #16
              the council have a photo of the bin on the property
              Gave up at that point, too busy laughing.
              The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn't exist

              Comment


                #17
                You’re in the wrong for leaving bare wires, if they’d called in an electrician you would have been paying half a day emergency call out rates, and would lose in court if you disputed it. Pay the £70 in full and final settlement and move on

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                  #18
                  Originally posted by Sezbo88 View Post
                  Amazing! But he seems to think we will have to pay costs should he win. Will it have to be the small claims court for this type of case?
                  yes. Almost certainly as it's less than £15k (that figure might have changed).

                  On a technical note.... If it starts in a different court, before going to small claims court, then in some circumstances costs can be claimed........... but..... and this is from personal experience..... if it was only ever in another court for incorrect reasons (inflated claim value for example) then those costs cannot be claimed. If he tries to take you to a different court you write back saying that due to the small amount of claim you believe it should be in small claims you'll be OK.
                  But again, that's not going to happen.
                  See You Next Tuesday

                  Comment


                    #19
                    Originally posted by oversteer View Post
                    You’re in the wrong for leaving bare wires, if they’d called in an electrician you would have been paying half a day emergency call out rates, and would lose in court if you disputed it. Pay the £70 in full and final settlement and move on
                    That would be my opinion too - for the sake of £35, is it worth the stress and hassle?
                    The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn't exist

                    Comment


                      #20
                      Originally posted by Sezbo88 View Post
                      We sold our property a couple of months ago to a couple who have been pests ever since to put it mildly.
                      We knew it was coming when they asked for keys in advance of completion as they knew it was empty and wanted to store furniture.
                      Of course we refused this.

                      Since completion they have made the following demands:

                      Cost for replacing a missing recycle bin.
                      - we never had this bin and the council wanted to charge us for a new one which we refused to do on principal.
                      The buyer says that the council have a photo of the bin on the property. So ask for £12 from us for losing it!!

                      Cost for the loft key.
                      - again Barratts never gave us a key to the loft when we bought the house from new. We never chased for it as loft access wasn’t important to us. We informed the buyer when viewing that we did not have a key to the loft. The buyer now says we promised to get one for him. He wants to charge us for the new key.

                      Cost for electrician.
                      - when viewing the property we informed the buyer that we would be taking the light fitting from the living room.
                      He is unhappy that we didn’t fit a pendant for them and left wires loose from the ceiling. When they moved in they had to call an emergency electrician.
                      I have to say that when we moved into our new property, we knew that there wouldn’t be a light fitting so we arranged for an electrician in advance to fit our light on moving day!

                      Cost for missing towel rails.
                      - we hold our hands up to this one as we did say on fixtures and fittings list that we would leave him in the house.
                      In view of our error we have offered £35 to replace the rails.

                      The buyer is now going legal as he wants us to cover the cost of all the above.

                      It all feels very unjust to us as we’ve discovered many botched DIY jobs in our new house and have had to pay a fortune to sort it all out. We haven’t approached our seller to cover any costs at all.

                      Would welcome your thoughts. Thank you in advance.

                      What was on your inventory list when you sold the house?
                      And what was in the contract of sale?

                      Generally you agree what is included in the sale and what is not. You don't leave bare wires, there should be a light fitting there. It is a different matter if you are buying a new-build house, but for one that has already been lived in, the lights should work. (Are you one of those people who sell a house and take out every light bulb as well?)

                      Your solicitor should have taken you through all that and got you to fill out the necessary paperwork, you may want to have a word with them about it.
                      …Maybe we ain’t that young anymore

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