To not help the miserable bastards any more

[ohnonotagainagain]

Long story short: sold house, needed to get retrospective planning permission for garage, council taking long time to decide, new owners want to get a lawyer onto us and are being very rude to us, I want to withdraw application and tell them to do it themselves.

All the details so as not to drip feed ... Sold our house to a very friendly couple who seemed like decent folk. Didn't realise at the time that we should have applied for planning permission for a garage conversion we'd done the year previous (new law brought in in our country, not the UK FWIW). We said they could pull out of the sale if they wanted (this was early days before any money had exchanged hands, surveys been done or mortgages applied for) or otherwise we'd help them apply for retrospective planning permission.

DH has been working on planning permission since then. Each time we submit, the council has a month to consider then come back with a yes/no or a request for further information. Twice they've asked for further information. Second time we took a while to get back to them (4 weeks) as I gave birth on the same day we received the demand, and between a single day paternity leave and a ft job, DH was a bit busy and it slipped his mind. So that bit I can see would be annoying for the new owners.

So additional evidence was eventually submitted and as of today we're coming to the end of another month-long waiting period, and told them at the beginning of last week that we'd know by this Tuesday (11th) if we'd been successful. They, however, took it upon themselves to call the council on Friday and were told that the application had been shelved indefinitely - in fact, looking at the time frames involved, the council must have given them the results of another application we made at our new house, which has been shelved; they don't have the right to ditch this current application at this point.

So, thinking that their application had been refused, they called their notary who in turn called me and said they were going to get a lawyer on us because we've been hiding stuff from them.

We responded with an email with the full paper trail of the application and asked them to please be patient until the office reopened on Tuesday so I could go ask.

They replied telling us that we were immature, unreliable and frankly our personal circumstances (ie having a baby) are of no interest to them, they just want the planning permission granted.

I've a feeling that permission will be granted this time so WIBU to go to the council and withdraw the application, and tell the new owners to do it themselves, as we've no legal obligation to help them and they are being bloody awful? DH thinks we should just see it through so we can get them off our backs.

I am astounded! Why on earth would you complete a garage conversion without planning permission?! Just why?!!!. I'd sue you as well.

@Omfgareyouforreal - how would that go down? Hey Judge, I bought a house knowing full well the garage conversion had no planning permission but the owners said they'd help get it. I didn't get that written into the contract and they are still helping but not quick enough for me so I now want to sue the previous owners for not obtaining planning permission? Good luck.

OP you are a more patient woman than I. I would have told the entitled fucks to do one (if I was definitely sure there was no legal repercussions in my location). If the planning permission does come through tomorrow, please send it to them in an email starting: Dear Fuckers. You are immature after all

@TitusP erm I just had a similar situation when buying a property with retrospective planning permission and my solicitor did his job not allowing the sale to go through until it was sorted. As, if he allowed me to buy it at that stage then he explained he would be failing in his duty to me as his client. This is Scotland and if there is no planning bg permission then the sale doesn't go ahead so we don't get into all that crap. I guess England rules aren't as stringent.

Omfgareyouforreal - Read the op

(new law brought in in our country, not the UK FWIW)

Such a shame the planning officer wasn’t in!

Which country is it and is the law so very different?

@Omfgareyouforreal - your scenario bears no resemblance to the OPs where the new buyers have chosen (one assumes against legal advice) to purchase the house with no planning permission on the garage. The house is already sold. I am not sure what relevance your situation has or what the new owners are meant to be suing for?!

And @Omfgareyouforreal just because the English and Welsh system (neither of which apply to the OP) is different to Scotland doesn't mean it's completely the Wild West. We also have solicitors who would definitely strong discourage exchanging contracts on a house with this issue. But again that is not relevant here!

Considering you are doing them a favour, they are sure being rude! I get you have an agreement, that is completely unenforceable, however being rude arseholes never gets you anywhere. Yes, you did get delayed by almost a month in responding to council, you also had a baby! That’s a big event! Some understanding on their part would go a long way.

If they had come to you stating that they had called the council and they were told that an application had been shelved, what is going on?!? You could have explained that it was your own personal application that was shelved due to working on theirs and your personal lives. End off.

I hope you get rid of all of this quickly with an answer in the next day or two!

OP isn't "doing them a favour". She agreed to do something to avoid the sale of her house falling through.

This is Scotland

So, completely irrelevant and dissimilar to the OP who is not in the U.K.

@TitusP who shat in your cornflakes! 🤔

The same person who shat in yours maybe?

Well, this has escalated quickly.

@SoupDragon I had toast this morning.

Speculating and it's entirely up to the OP whether or not she confirms, but she might be in Australia because we had a public holiday on Monday for the Queen's Birthday (we don't have May Day). Don't know which other countries have that.

@BreakfastAtSquiffanys I honestly don’t understand why you can’t won’t understand that this is not EXACTLY the same situation . Yes there was the matter of retrospective planning permission for a garage but the OP offered her buyers an out straightaway and didn’t actually lie to the buyers like in your situation. So not ‘exactly’ the same at all

I know @Doidoit19, a few posters on here are seemingly failing to understand this fundamental point.

@Doidoit19
The initial scenario was the same.
Someone wanted to sell a house when they hadn't bothered to apply for the proper planning permission.
We wanted to buy it.

What differed is that we didn't accept the lack of planning permission, we insisted it was obtained with a financial penalty if it wasn't.
I was pointing out how the buyers SHOULD have handled it but they naively thought that the vendors (the OP) would sort it out.
The vendors haven't prioritised getting the PP because let's be honest, there is no real incentive for them to do it.
'
And since people can't won't understand that, I'll happily sod off

None of that helps the OP at all though. It's not even what she hypothetically should have done...

@Breakfastatsquiffany's, I agree with you. In the UK the law is that once you exchange that's it, caveat emptor. Sorting out any problems thereafter are the buyers responsibility. Very remiss of their solicitor not to make all this clear to them.
The OP's buyers have really crossed a line, can't believe how rude they are, specially if she's just had a baby.
But then again, this may somewhere like Australia where property law is different. Without knowing this it's impossible to make an informed view.
If it was me, I'd pass any paperwork onto the buyers and say you are so shaken by their rudeness, especially after just having a baby, that you are unable to continue. Then block everywhere.

The initial scenario was the same.

Ah so we’ve gone from ‘I had this same exact situation’ to ‘the initial scenario was the same’ 😂

Please never become a lawyer Squiffany. The scenarios are not the same.

@Antigon
I offered to sod off yesterday.
I suggest that you do the same.
You are being unnecessarily antagonistic.

How has it gone @ohnonotagainagain?

It's been rejected as the new owners didn't submit a required document (we can't create the document as we don't own the property). They have recommended that the new owners start the process again and leave us out of it, though they said we can still be in charge of the application, with the new owners' permission.

There is a bit of an issue as it turns out that in this area every property must have covered parking, and it's the lack of this that is halting the retrospective pp. The buyers said even before they bought the house that they would build a carport, but now it's become a sticking point we're worried that they'll try to turn it against us.