To ignore house buyer complaints a month after completion

[Sandals12]

My buyer has complained through our conveyancing solicitors about a crack in oil tank. Surely they are BU and completely deluded. They've sent a picture and quotes for new oil tank, removal of oil and old one etc amounting to £2500.

My solicitor has responded more or less saying about 'buyer beware', a decent survey would've shown this etc.

Btw The crack was definitely not there when we sold..its v noticeable!

You should have known that from a survey though, or commissioned a heating engineer/plumber to inspect the heating, irrespective if whether you went through small claims.

Just out of interest, how out of interest did you prove the seller knew on the balance of probabilities about the leak?

Our heating system also leaked but we got that fixed well before selling. Also should have boiler serviced prior to selling.

A month later will be hard to prove. When we moved out our old house, we left a bucket with mostly unopened cleaning supplies in the utility cupboard. 2 weeks after we moved out, they sent photos to our solicitor of the empty bucket in a different cupboard saying we had deliberately placed it there due to a leak and had quotes for 3k to completely replace the utility room due to damage. There was a leak prior to us moving in that had stained the cupboard and the utility room was the only room in the whole house we hadn't completely replaced. They mentioned wanting it done when they looked round, it was clearly a way to claw cash back from the sale. We ignored. They went away

Lol! Good luck to them with that. Just ignore OP.

Only person they could possibly take issue with is their surveyor.

For those wondering why DH turned off the boiler, we moved more than 20 years ago so I can't remember. Suspect he was just being over-thorough and it was simple to light (tho clearly wasn't for the new owner.) The boiler was off in the house we moved to, too, so some people do turn them off. 🤷‍♀️

Either it was there in front of their eyes before completion and they didn't bother saying anything or caring/get a proper survey, or it appeared after completion.
Both of those scenarios are none of your concern. So yeah, totally ignore and block if necessary.

This thread reminded me to look up a recent one, which either hasn’t been updated, or likely still unresolved.

They sold a late relatives property, agreed to leave some items including a sofa bed (for free) - and the buyers are now taking them to the small claims court as it doesn’t work!

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/legal_matters/5137823-help-being-taken-to-small-claims-court?page=1

Tbf I can understand why they would come after you. 2.5k is worth pursuing

Who are these types of ppl?! I’d never even think previous owners should be responsible because either
a. It happened after purchase = my property, my problem
b. It was there before and I had noticed and still purchased the property = my property, my problem
c. It was there before and I hadn’t bothered to do my due diligence and decided to buy the property anyway, happy not to check = my mistake, still my problem!
what is option d that they’re thinking of that I’m not getting???

I don't know for certain if it is true, but I think there can be legal ecourse to the seller if they failed to disclose serious defects during the process of selling, though if the buyer had failed to take reasonable steps to find problems - ie., if they didn't have a survey- they would be on sticky ground.

Wrong D Potter, Home insurance is for a specific event in the policy, it does not cover general wear and tear or the lifespan of an oil tank.

Sandals also thinks you have to service heating before selling. Where on earth did that come from?
At least two on this post today happy to post they do not have the knowledge. Don’t wish to be rude, but there is a danger some will believe this

@Sandals12, why don't you write a polite letter, saying you no longer own the house, and suggesting they contact the new owner.

That should really piss them off.

We had similar, we sold a 300 year old converted stable, the requests we had after completion
-asked for a new boiler to be fitted as the pilot light was out, yeah you’ll have to buy oil and just turn it on…
-the cooker door ‘came off’ so they attempted to bill us for the new gas cooker they had ordered, the property didn’t have a gas supply
-the entire flooring needed to be removed so the floor could be made perfectly level and we should pay for this, you’ve bought a 300 year old stable with original flooring…
-tried to bill us for pest control due to the vermin problem, yes as you’re on the edge of both a farm and a woodland if you choose to be dirty fuckers you will get mice

You do not have to service the heating prior to selling - but a standard basic survey will say the prospective buyer should satisfy the heating is working, in good order etc.

For many sellers it is easy to provide copies of annual services or to have the heating serviced prior to sale.

Tough shit. I had a similar situation with a buyer they didn't get anywhere. They should have had a proper survey.

Some people are just chancers who want other people to be responsible for doing things they don't like. Ignore them.

when we bought the current home the oven never worked. We just replaced it lol
since then have been replacing whatever we needed replacing

I don’t think you have to prove anything. By completing they accepted the house. It is indeed buyer beware.

That would be a wrong reason to potentially "go soft" on them: they sound like people who wouldn't take the trouble to forward ex-owner's mail anyway, even if the house was in perfect order.

They didn’t do a survey before buying? That’s nuts. They’re trying it on. Completely ignore them.

If they had a survey then depending on the survey the surveyor might be at fault for not flagging it.

If they didn’t have a survey then that is on them.

Nothing to do with you

Blimey , we had a full survery done on our house and 4 months in spent £10k on a roof issue . It didn't occur to us that I should ask the seller for the money . It's our house now and our problem !

The electric oven in the house we bought was pretty grim. When removing it we found it was plugged into a socket behind with a 3 pin plug🤯🤯🤯