Need advice re:- house sold.

moonstone

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Aug 30, 2012
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I recently sold my house and have now moved to a new property:)
The buyer's of my house were difficult to say the least:rolleyes:from the outset we had trouble with them as they kept insisting that we pay for insurance policies that they wanted in place before they would agree to complete:mad:
Two moving dates passed thanks to them for stalling and also they tried to get £10.000 knocked off the price they had agreed to pay..eventually we settled on a £5000 reduction as we were getting desperate to move.
Even then they only agreed to complete in the late afternoon of the big move next day and that was after my husband had paid £150 for another policy for them....as they refused to complete without this policy:rolleyes:
Now we have had a letter from our solicitor informing us that they are planning to take us to court for "breach of contract" as they claim that we left the house and garden full of rubbish:.
The estate agent checked the house before we left and also we took pictures of it (we lived there for 26 years)so will be able to prove them wrong but can they really take us to court for this?
Any advice would be helpful...as naturally we are very upseet by this accusation and the thought of a court appearance.
 

moonstone

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Aug 30, 2012
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Forgot to mention that they asking for us to pay them £500 which is the amount they are claiming for clearing out the rubbish they claim we left behind..they have sent my solictitor a fake invoice for the hire of a van plus a two day labour charge.
 

Witch consumer

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Sep 8, 2008
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Debtors retreat
I doubt it but if you have photos showing they are lying, I certainly wouldn't worry about it. Nor would I share that information with them, let them do it, it's not like appearing in Crown Court, you just sit in a room with a mediator.

I doubt it will get that far, they are just after more money off you, when you receive papers to put in your defence (if you ever do) that is the point at which you disclose you have photographic evidence.

We will be here to support you every step of the way, just look forward to getting your own back, oh and don't bother appointing a solicitor, you won't need one.
 

trickygj

Moderator
May 31, 2010
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www.richardgjohnson.co.uk
If they do take further action, make sure in your letter of defence that you include the way they behaved during the purchase. Courts generally see through things like this particularly when parties have behaved less that honourably. ;)
 

moonstone

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Aug 30, 2012
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Thank you for the replies..i have spoken with the estate agent who dealt with the house sale today..he is totally amazed by the actions of the buyer's and said he has never come across this happening before..apparently they seemed happy when they collected the keys and made no complaints about the house afterwards..i think that they will go ahead and start court action against us as it seems to be a battle of wills that they will not give up on..they have seen a way to get money from us again.i am determined that they will not get another penny from us.
The estate agent is surprised that their solicitor has taken this step and thinks it's a bluff in the hope we will roll over and pay up.
 

Witch consumer

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Sep 8, 2008
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Debtors retreat
Yes I agree with him, hopefully he'll be willing to provide you with a statement confirming all this.

Just sit back and wait for the court papers to arrive, try not to be drawn into conversation with them.

You can reply to the solicitor saying you have no comment on the matter and if they need to take you to court - so be it.

Please keep us informed.
 

moonstone

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Aug 30, 2012
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Thank you for your advice as an update to this,we have been informed by our solicitor that they are starting court procedings against us for "breach of contract" among the allegations are that we left a large overflowing bowl of cat food on the doorstep (not true) that we had left inordanate (their words) amounts of chicken and bacon strewn across the front of the house (as we never eat bacon not sure how that came about)as a vegetarian i find this revolting to say the least:mad:overflowing rubbish bins (yes they were full) oh and the mattress again,I have spoken with the council and they have confirmed that they collected the mattress (it did look awful but we explained that we had made arrangements for collection) also they collected the two overflowing bins and emptied them too:rolleyes:and i have the ref.number for confirmation.
I have spoken to their solicitor and he kept telling me to pay up ,and also to instruct my solictor but she is no longer working for us,although she has retained £500 which they have asked for.
I am now waiting for her to forward all the letters of complaint that have been sent to them (we only received two)and will be interested to see just what claims they have been making against us:eek: the house was left empty for several weeks after we moved out so this could have happened after we left although i can't imagine anyone wanting to put bacon on their front garden:D
Their solicitor didn,t think it would go to small claims court but a higher one..my husband has high blood pressure and this is making him ill..i am not sleeping with worry..i find it hard to believe that people would be so wicked..we left them lot of extras with the house and left it clean and tidy and EMPTY!!
 

Witch consumer

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Sep 8, 2008
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Debtors retreat
If they take this higher than the small claims court they are looking at a very big bill.

I know it must be very worrying for you and I don't wish to play down your concern but I honestly find this solicitor and the buyer of your house laughable.

Breach of contract? I'll bet their solicitor is laughing all the way to the bank. Where's the breach? They got a house didn't they?

Love the chicken/bacon/vegetarian bit, at least it proves they haven't got rats :D

Can't stress enough that this is going nowhere, keep calm and carry on and keep us informed, if we can help when you get the court papers, we'll be happy to do so.
 

NickiSue

New Member
Sep 30, 2012
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North Yorkshire
I've heard it all now. They sound like delightful people to deal with. Any updates as of yet? I can't believe that they would actually take it court.