Buyers asking for money post-completion

[Nenanena]

I know this is unreasonable really but I am so outraged I just wondered if anyone else had experienced this? A few weeks after completion our buyers had an issue with the heating and have asked us to foot the bill (a few hundred quid) as apparently they were told that the issue would have occurred while we still lived there (but we hadn’t had the heating on as it was summer so didn’t realise). Our solicitor told us of course we didn’t have to pay and we’ve refused but I can’t believe the cheek
of it!! Where would it end otherwise?! And why on earth did their solicitor not tell them they were being ridiculous?

LOL what cheeky feckers! Tell them to get bent @Nenanena

We sold a house some 20-21 years ago, and it had no fireplace. Nothing. Was a small-ish 2-bed, mid 1990s starter home. The buyers contacted us 4 or 5 weeks after completion - wrote a letter - saying they wanted £2,000 to put a fireplace in, as we had not disclosed the fact that there is no fireplace in the house. 😆

They viewed the property SEVEN TIMES during the sale/before completion. They would have seen there was no fireplace. Idiots. We told our solicitor to tell their solicitor that we class their contact as harassment, and they should go through the solicitors for anything else.

Also, like hell will we be giving them £2,000 so they can put a fireplace in. (This was 20-21 years ago, so is probably more like £3,000 to £3.500 now.) Absolute jokers! We never heard from them again!

It depends on whether there’s been anything misleading in what’s been said.

did they ever ask specifically about the boiler? If so were they told it was fine?

as long as you’ve not intentionally misled or lied to them then it’s tough.

Same here. We're up to about £30k now on fixing things missed by the survey but the sellers must have some inkling about, including leaking soil pipe, disintegrating bathroom, leaking roof, faulty boiler, faulty electrics, leaking gas pipe, blocked gas fire flue (!!!) and much, much more.

It has never occurred to me to ask the sellers for money.

However, I do hope that every biscuit they dunk in their tea drops into the cup forming a soggy mess at the bottom, and that it rains every time they plan a BBQ.

I'm always amazed by people who move house and DON'T expect to have to fix basic issues. If you don't have money to deal with upkeep of a house you aren't rich enough to own a house but its not other peoples fault.

Your survey should pick up major issues (like a rotten roof, rising damp etc...) that can be negotiated BEFORE completion if it doesn't your issue is with the survey company. Things like the boiler packing in not long after you move in though is just general wear and tear and part of ownership.

Is your buyer the woman who keeps posting on here FURIOUS about this from the other side? even after reading her posts I'm still on the sellers side.

Doesn't the buyer have a short period, maybe 7 days after closing, in which to bring up any issues which might require resolution? I remember being sweltering in our new house in August because we had to test the heating. It wouldn't be several weeks though.

TBH first seller left place dirty and pile of rubbish on drive, forgot to hand key over - and that was all we got one key they didn't know what had happened to others over the years- and sheer luck we'd plan to move from rented next day and tried to stick us for her energy consumption for last two weeks she owned the place - I wished her every ill luck going.

The endless list of expensive shit we had deal with next few years was just seen by everyone around us as bad luck - we heard many horror stories from others who bought different houses - but I don't think anyone tried to get compensation from previous owners.

Caveat emptor, people.

I bet the email from the buyers' solicitor to your solicitor started with "My clients have been in touch since completion and I have been instructed to ask that...".

Block. Ignore.

@nanodyne

you can't disclose what you don't know!

Take the example of my house. Last Thursday, as far as knew all the plumbing was in perfect working order and the kitchen was perfect having been recently decorated. If we had been completing on a house sale on Friday there would have been nothing to disclose.

on Saturday, out of the blue a valve in an upstairs loo broke causing the cistern to run continuously. Unbeknownst to us the ball valve in that loo had been fitted incorrectly (about 5 years ago) meaning the cistern overflowed for quite some time and eventually caused a big chunk of the kitchen ceiling to cave in.

if that had happened the day after we had completed a sale it would just be bad luck for the purchasers - just as it was bad luck for us. We couldn't foresee this happening anymore than the OP could predict the future of her old boiler.

Tough luck I am afraid. I wouldn’t give them a penny.

This isn't required in England or Wales although it might be in other places. Once you've completed the sale the responsibilities of the vendor end there.

The only exception would be if they had deliberately lied about an issue raised before completion which doesn't appear to be the case here.

As @SphincterSaysWhat says 'Caveat Emptor'. My DD recently bought a flat which had been standing empty for some time. We got permission from the previous owner to visit it and test the heating and plumbing before we exchanged. It was all working so DD went ahead. Sadly just about everything has leaked/broken since then but that's not the previous owners problem.

Send the reply "No."

We lived in our house 13 years and at about the 10 year point that happened to us.

Was there warning? maybe, however we had no idea what the warning mean.

The 'warning' was that our toilet started playing music when ever we had a shower. We found it a bizarre novelty, made a joke of it... even invited people to hear our magical musical toilet because no one believed us.

It played a clear as day 2 bar melody made of multiple notes on a loop. It would stop about 10 minutes after the shower ended. Google had no explanation for the tune.

Then getting out of the shower about 2-3 weeks after it started the whole toilet violently shakes (as if it was going to rip off that wall) and the cistern just started overflowing like a volcano. Apparently failed ball cock valve thing effected by the water pressure diversion when the shower switched on.

Plumber said it was common but I never met anyone else with a musical toilet. It genuinely was just not in our 'common knowledge' as a 'major issue'.

If they were told you would have known about it they could have an argument that you'd made misrepresentations when answering conveyancing questions

My boiler packed up three weeks after moving in, it was actually condemned as unsafe despite being serviced a year previously: In fact I’ve found all sorts of little problems that would have originated during the previous owners’ time! I sold a flat in a Victorian building and no doubt problems will emerge there that probably date back to the occupier before or even the original construction. It’s not a new house, you’re not a developer - if you didn’t knowingly fail to fix a completely broken boiler then this is not on you.

In Scotland you normally have 5 working days to claim against the seller

Hmm I would have got a boiler service before putting the house up for sale. I don’t think they’re being cheeky

The standard clauses in Scotland give you 5 working days to report any issues. The boiler in our new house packed in on day 6.

Sold as seen.

The buyers 🤣

I would ignore them. These things happen and a flavour of what owning property is like

The people we bought from hid a leaking sink and a broken toilet. We had a plumber out and had the costs exceeded £250 then the previous owners would have been liable as the issues appeared within the 14 day liability period.

The costs didn't exceed that amount and the previous owners didn't care. They knew they had hidden the problems, lied badly to my face about the toilet and claimed not to know about the sink even though the plumber uncovered something that would have taken years to create.

I'm in Scotland too and this is usually part of the contract when buying/selling a house -

'The Seller undertakes that any systems or appliances of a working nature (including central heating, water, drainage, electric and gas) forming part of the Property will be in working order commensurate with age as at the Date of Settlement.'

The buyer has 5 working days to report the defect and the seller will be responsible for the repair. They are not entitled to an upgrade though which is why our buyer did not get his top of the range power shower after reporting that the shower didn't work (it was working).

Ah, I've said 14 days but it must have been 7 says our solicitor said. Issues appeared within 2 days.

Buyer beware is there for a reason.
You're 100% right to tell them to get stuffed.

And why on earth did their solicitor not tell them they were being ridiculous?

Presumably the solicitor will be charging to send out letters with ridiculous demands so maybe there's the answer about Why/ !

As I wish we'd known when buying a flat where the boiler didn't work from Day 1!