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Original poster

To think my house buyer is wrong?? Help!

81 replies

Namechange11122223333 · 02/09/2019 08:54

Name change for this as completely outing.

We moved house 7 months ago. Between accepting our buyers offer and actually completing the sale, our boiler packed in. We obviously had it fixed, all seemed well. Now 7 months down the line, the buyer has contacted me to say the boiler has broken again, this time it needs replaced and I will be hearing from her lawyer! According to her I didn't have it repaired properly.

She obviously thinks that there is liability on my part to pay for if she is going to involve her lawyer. Is she right? We have savings but obviously did not count on paying £2/3k for a boiler for a house we don't even own anymore!

We're in England if that helps.

OP posts:
GreenFingersWouldBeHandy · 02/09/2019 10:03

I would imagine her 'lawyer' would tell her to stop being ridiculous. And then charge her for the time it takes to tell her that.

Not your problem at all.

billy1966 · 02/09/2019 10:07

It was working when you closed, as per your Gas Engineers invoice.

Do not entertain this person. She hasn't a leg to stand on.

The legal system would grind to a halt if that was the case.

scittlescatter · 02/09/2019 10:10

This is why we arranged an inspection of our new build before completing. The boiler didn't work. If we had found the fault after completing it would have been our problem (no snagging period)

SchadenfreudePersonified · 02/09/2019 10:11

She's trying to frighten you with bold talk of The Law.

Ignore.

OMGshefoundmeout · 02/09/2019 10:16

She’s a chancer. Ignore her and carry on with your life.

CoolcoolcoolcoolcoolNoDoubt · 02/09/2019 10:27

I had it repaired by a Gas Safe Engineer and passed a copy of the invoice on through my lawyer at the time.

Then there's absolutely nothing else you could have done. Absolutely not your problem. What a CF!!

If this was the case, I could reverse charge the cost of a skip to our vendors who left our garden full of crap! I wish!! Grin

Apolloanddaphne · 02/09/2019 10:31

She is a CF. Just ignore her message.

StarlingsInSummer · 02/09/2019 10:33

Email back: LOL caveat emptor biotch.

Seriously, though, I can't imagine that her solicitor will say anything other than the above in a more professional way.

DearTeddyRobinson · 02/09/2019 10:33

Pfft. Our boiler broke the day after we moved in. We just got it repaired. Didn't even occur to us to blame the seller! Mind you she was dead as we bought from her estate so wouldn't have been much good Grin

scoobydoo1971 · 02/09/2019 10:35

Whenever I buy a property, I always get the gas checked. I bought a flat in London years ago where the idiot-seller had taken the gas cooker with him, without capping off the pipework...just as well no-one smoked or switched the lights on when we went in. I called the emergency gas engineers to sort it out as the smell was overpowering. The responsibility for the boiler rests with the buyer in this case. She may threaten legal action but it won't get her anywhere, and you can counter-claim for harassment and time off work defending the case. You presumably left the property in good order. If it takes 7 months to find the fault then some new issue has developed . Lets face it, all boilers have a life expectancy and it is sometimes cheaper to get a new one, than to keep fixing an old one.

userxx · 02/09/2019 10:35

Within a week of moving in the boiler started playing up, there's no way I would have contacted the previous owners. I knew the boiler was old when purchasing and would need to be replaced, just not that quickly!

DippyAvocado · 02/09/2019 10:39

We moved into our house (in January!) to discover the boiler wasn't working. We had a full structural survey but no boiler inspection so the onus was on us - buyer beware. We had to fork out for a new one ASAP.

Cath2907 · 02/09/2019 10:48

This is cf behaviour. Ignore! The boiler worked fine for 7 months. she is just trying it on!

JuniperOakPark · 02/09/2019 10:49

Just completely ignore her. Do not respond. You are not liable and makes me wonder if they are first time buyers.

We bought this house, they said the boiler was serviced regularly but couldn't produce any paperwork to that effect. We arranged for the boiler to be serviced at our own cost because it was important to us with young children to have the boiler and gas fire certified as safe.

Your boiler was working the day you had the repair done. As the new house owner she is liable for any works that need doing on the house. She sounds like a petulant child.

LightTripper · 02/09/2019 10:54

Our boiler broke down only about a month after we moved in. Our engineer said it's very common just due to new owners using the boiler in a different way, putting different stresses and strains on it, etc. Didn't occur to us to try to pursue the seller! In fact she randomly turned up to drop off some bits on the morning it broke down and I had to awkwardly not invite her in as she would have seen a flood across the kitchen floor and a stone cold house in January and I thought it might make her feel bad!

I agree with the others, try not to worry. Just point out it was in working order when you left and you don't believe you're liable.

LillianGish · 02/09/2019 10:57

Two words - caveat emptor.

EllesBells123 · 02/09/2019 11:03

Any lawyer worth their salt will tell her to jog on. Don't worry.

seeleym · 02/09/2019 11:13

That's crazy! She's talking rubbish.

IceQueenCometh · 02/09/2019 11:17

Do you have a legal helpline on your house insurance policy? Give them a call, won't cost you a penny

Penners99 · 02/09/2019 11:27

Ignore, ignore, ignore. Do not reply. Your buyer is a CF.

PrincessHoneysuckle · 02/09/2019 11:31

How weird on her part,shes treating you like a landlord.She owns the house it's her problem.

ControversialFerret · 02/09/2019 11:35

Ignore. Our boiler packed up two weeks after we moved in last year. We had it replaced - it's what you do when something goes wrong. It's been 7 months since she bought it so she's trying her luck.

I'd send her one message back saying that the boiler was repaired by a qualified plumber, as evidenced to her solicitor when she bought the property. The fact that the boiler has gone wrong 7 months later is nothing to do with you, and that you won't be responding to any further messages from her. Then block.

Malbecfan · 02/09/2019 11:38

You're not liable, so just ignore it.

If your batshit buyers somehow manage to get a "lawyer" to write to you, come back to us.

We sold MiL's flat a couple of years ago. Although we owned it, we never lived in it. The buyer was a total nightmare, including being completely unaware that she was meant to pay a deposit on exchange. Our solicitor was fab and suggested exchanging & completing on the same day (I would only ever repeat this if I was selling & not buying) with the proviso that if it didn't happen, it went back on the market. Amazingly it all went through, but too late in the day for our solicitor to transfer the funds to us - she did so the next day. 3 days later she rang and asked me to sit down. She had received a letter from the buyer's inept solicitor threatening legal action as the window keys were missing. None of the windows was locked and replacements are available online for approximately £1.50 each. There were 2 windows...! Our solicitor was very embarrassed at phoning but said whatever we wanted to do was on her as she had been so frustrated with the whole process. She said legally it was the buyer's problem as she should have noticed there were no keys.

I asked her to write back in lawyer-speak quoting the response from the case of Arkell vs Pressdram. She said she wasn't familiar with it, so I suggested she google it and let me know if it was ok. Definitely worth a read but the upshot is to tell the complainant to F* off. I received a text a little later with a big grin and thumbs up. I don't know if she sent a letter. She certainly didn't charge us for it. Never heard a peep out of the moron buyer or her equally twatish lawyer since.

Tonnerre · 02/09/2019 11:53

Buyer's lawyer may not have been a twat, @Malbecfan. S/he may have advised against but the client insisted. Lawyer may have figured it was no skin off their nose and they could bill the client an extra couple of hundred quid, so win-win.

SciFiScream · 02/09/2019 11:53

We live in Scotland, there's a period of 7 days here where if something isn't working that was included in the schedule, you can claim for it.

On the day the old owners moved out (and they were still in the house after the transfer of funds!) the gas oven was leaking. We had to call a gas engineer out who condemned the oven and made it safe.

We tried to claim for that (never mind the fact the old owners had left the kitchen in a mess, items in the attic, items in the three sheds, their sofa in the living room etc, etc) and still didn't get anywhere because apparently a gas leak was to be expected in an oven of that age!