Can previous buyer request £500 for signing a form?

[JusWunderin]

Long story short, we’re selling our house and have run into an issue where the solicitors didn’t sign over the garden on the land registry. We’ve had to go back to the people we brought the house from to ask them to sign it over so that we can sell.

They have been extremely funny about the whole thing, refusing to collect the forms (after missing he signed for delivery) and are now requesting £500 compensation to cover solicitor fee’s, time they have taken to message with our buyers, something to do with their solicitors sickness.. it sounds so ridiculous. This is no fault of ours. They have said if we don’t send them £500 they will not send the forms, isn’t this blackmail? We brought the house from them and the garden should be ours, but they’re refusing to essentially sign it over.

we’ve already lost the house we offered on as they held it for months for us but this has just gone on for so long now that they’ve had to put it back on the market.

I appreciate any advice anyone can give!

Surely the solicitors you used to buy the house should be sorting this out for you - for free - as it was their fault not yours.

I'm assuming you have complained to them about this - what did they suggest the way forward was?

If they have incurred costs (solicitors, etc), then someone should be paying those costs. I think that should be the solicitors (yours and theirs) who bungled this the first time around.

I know it's annoying but just pay them the £500 and move on with your life - you've already lost a house, and they may well have incurred solicitors' costs. If my previous buyer contacted me out of the blue like this then I would assume it was some kind of scam and would definitely seek legal advice, but would want the other party to pay it. I don't think by any stretch this could be called blackmail.

It’s our current solicitor that’s had contact with them rather than us directly.

we had spoken to our previous solicitor about this but they haven’t given us much of a response at all.

we really can’t afford another £500 in fees. We’ve already lost so much money living in a house we can’t afford.

Cost us £2k. TBH I would actually have paid more.

Doesn't your solicitor cover this as it was their mistake? Have you asked them?
You can go to the ombudsman if you think you're being charged for work that should have been fine the first time.
But I would borrow that £500 and get that paper signed. If your sellers get stroppy and refuse to sign you are screwed.