I completed on the sale of my flat 2 months ago. I was happy to swap contact details with my buyer - it is nice to remain on friendly terms as I know how trepidatious it can be to move somewhere new and I was happy to answer any (reasonable) questions. Also the odd bit of mail might slip through the redirection so it’s helpful if they can forward anything.
All was quiet until a received a flurry of questions from the extremely irritating estate agent saying their boiler had broken down and asking me for information about who had installed it and where was the warranty etc. I explained that I had responded to their solicitor’s queries to their satisfaction at time of exchange, as it was a new build I had passed on a final completion certificate and gas safety certificate but hadn’t activated a warranty on the new boiler - something that had never occurred to me until that call, submerged as I was in all the other red tape selling a property involves.
I can see getting a boiler warranty would have been a good idea but really it was the job of the buyer’s solicitor to obtain all the necessary paperwork and if they’d asked then I would have done it. Anyway, the boiler had been installed for a few years and was in perfect working order when I left.
I gave the estate agent the contact details of my builder who I said might be able to shed some light on why the boiler had broken and emphasised that while I was sorry to hear about this, in the spirit of caveat emptor, their boiler problems were no longer mine to deal with.
A few days later I receive a very prickly missive from my buyer asking me to activate the warranty `as a matter of courtesy’ as apparently only I can do this. I said I had no objection to doing it but as the refurb was project managed by an architect (who ripped me off so badly that I’d rather pull out my teeth than have any further dealings with him), he was the only person who had access to required myriad details such as date of installation, name of installer and their CORGI ref and whether the moon was waxing or waning at the time.
She was also in a state of high dudgeon as the tricky neighbours had sent her a bill for redecoration agreed during my ownership which I’d clearly told them in writing to pass on to me after I moved but which they `mistakenly’ sent to her. I had made all this clear in the conveyancing forms to her and her solicitor but I told her I would settle the bill and not to worry as she had copied me in an email thread to them saying she was furious and trying to get hold of her solicitor for clarity.
I suspect if she had been a little more emollient and less entitled I might not have been so irritated. In her position I would have used charm and apology, realising I needed something from someone who really didn’t need to help me. I
I had to discount the property vastly to get a quick sale after years of tortuous building work and an architect who had nearly ruined me. I was so hugely relieved to sell, even at a vast loss, but to be plunged back into that terrible time after the amazing relief of being free from it has really rattled my cage.
To make things worse, I am dealing with a family bereavement so she hasn’t caught me at a good time.
I’ll be over it in a few days but just thought I’d have an anonymous vent on here. I mean, when does caveat emptor not mean caveat emptor?!
I wonder if anyone else has an interesting story about buyers staying in touch with sellers. My brother married the woman whose flat he bought so happier alliances than mine can be made.