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!

I've bought four properties in my lifetime and each of them has needed a new boiler within months of moving. I've starting to think of it as standard!!

I've bought four properties in my lifetime and each of them has needed a new boiler within months of moving. I've starting to think of it as standard!!

We've not long moved into a place that is electric only so we're going to have to put a system in, and it's weirdly less stressful than worrying about an old one breaking.
I saw someone say they think people just put their house on the market when their boiler starts packing up.

No but ive been looking for a picture.

But that's not the point.

The pp said "I think you legally have to have a working heating/hot water system" which is not correct.

So, to answer your question, yes, I would expect a new build (or any) house to to work but, no, it is not a legal requirement that anything works.

However, it is a very different matter when it comes to getting a mortgage. Generally speaking, most mortgage providers will not lend on a property that does not have running water and a sink in the kitchen and hot and cold water in the bathroom and a toilet.

So, if you want a mortgage then there needs to be hot water in the bathroom but not elsewhere.

But that is not a legal requirement, just a requirement for getting a mortgage.

Totally caveat emptor & they should be getting in to their surveyor, not you.

Surely this would have been picked up in the survey and then they could negotiate, no survey then it’s not your problem. When we moved into our house the survey said the oil tank would need to be replaced soon, guy came out to service boiler and it and said it had to be replaced immediately… just one of those things.

When we have moved house in the past we have turned off all gas and electricity (water stopcock) to take a final meter reading for the purpose of accurate billing for final bills, that included taking time stamped photos several minutes apart to ensure there was no dispute in the future over meter readings.

if you leave appliances on you can find yourself in dispute over utility bills because new occupants can add on units to their first meter reading and try to bill the previous owners for it.

I have always left a note explaining how and where to switch them all on again and an explanation as to why we have done the disconnections.

It probably wouldn’t be needed if you have smart meters installed now.

I bought a house had a survey and a few points were mentioned, nothing major. House was empty as owner had passed away. Dealt with daughter who showed us round she made a point of showing me the annual service stickers on the boiler. Moved in & it didn’t work. Gas engineer confirmed it as unsafe. I owned house so my problem

Enjoying reading people’s experiences here. When I lived in my first flat I had organised an enfranchisement to remove a dodgy freeholder. Everyone in the block wanted it to happen but no one was willing to take the lead. It was a drawn out and stressful experience but I organised everything and did all the communication between us and our solicitor. I even set up a maintenance account after we bought the freehold, for tenants to pay in £50 per month for future work. This became active about a month before I moved out. Not long after I moved the buyer of my flat sent me a narky letter pointing out I hadn’t paid into the maintenance fund before I left and gave me a deadline by which to pay in £100! I was exasperated but ignored it. A few years later I got a desperate sounding email from him demanding I explain how the enfranchisement worked as he and his solicitor didn’t understand it! Suffice to say I ignored this too - but had the first letter not been sent I might have been more forthcoming. I’ve always found it important to try to remain on as good terms as possible with the people you’re buying from.

I would ignore they are trying it on. I had the buyer of our old home knock on my door a year after to say the fence had broken. My young single daughter just completed and the shit she discovered after moving in was shameful. But she had to suck it up and sort it. Best of luck to you. Ignore

Good grief JAT49 what on earth did you say to them?

Ignore, they’re just chancers.

That's why you insure the house from Exchange and not from Completion. Any damage that occurred during that time is then covered.

It's their problem and needed to be mentioned before Exchange unless they can prove you concealed it at time of purchase. We found an entire wall was rotten after we moved in. It was easier and cheaper to fix than to spend chasing Surveyors or the Vendors.

What are you talking about?

Leave it to your solicitor, surely their survey would have seen these issues before completion.

Absolutely don’t believe that to be true.

I fear we might have issues with our buyer who couldn’t be contacted today to give consent to exchange-completion allegedly on Wednesday. He asked if we’d repair a slipped couple of slates on the roof, we dithered because we’d repaired loose slates when we bought so thought he should do it. Then the very rude estate agent got involved and told us he was threatening to walk away from the sale! We’ve paid and I’m just dreading him finding something else once he takes possession. Apparently the back of the property’s roof is fine, to my non-professional eye it looks terrible! He’s bought for £30k under the going price for the street so has twice been told not to expect anything more from us.

Sorry this has happened to them but it’s not your problem. Similar issue happened to us when we bought our first house. We didn’t have any spare money but didn’t even cross our minds to go back to the vendor. It was our problem not theirs. Not yours either.

hi op,

noone likes this kind of surprise but then again it isn’t your fault and it is now their house. Ignore.

tough though 🌺

@Cherrysoup "He asked if we’d repair a slipped couple of slates on the roof, we dithered because we’d repaired loose slates when we bought so thought he should do it"

I mean, that is a pretty crappy reason to not make this minor repair. I do think asking you do get this repair seen to was very reasonable. So you'll only have yourself to blame if they pull out unfortunately.

Tell me about it! We’re selling a terrace with a communal alley to take out bins/garden rubbish. There’s a communal sewer running along the passageway. I was asked-3 times-to confirm that nothing had been built along the passageway. If anyone had been to look, it’s clear that nothing has been built there. I bloody hope the buyer had a survey, surely you have to for mortgage purposes?

• @Camenbertsmuggler "on moving day there were delays up the chain, we had finished loading but hadn’t received the keys to where we were moving to as they were still loading. HE CALLED THE POLICE, to evict us!"

Your buyer does sound a complete dick BUT once you'd received their funds for the house, it was no longer yours, and you needed to leave immediately. Not yet having keys to your new house is not the fault or the problem of your buyer, so you should not have delayed him in moving into HIS house.

In instances like this, it's normal for you and your removal van to wait outside of your new house, not linger at the house you no longer own. Doing so also helps put the pressure on the people to load up quicker!! It's also been known for the new owners to start unloading their own stuff to make a point that the others no longer own it and should have been out already.

It's just really disrespectful to new owners to not have been prepared enough to have packed in time for completion, it's not like people haven't had months notice that they're moving!

That sounds ridiculous, Cherrysoup, but last time I checked lenders were only looking at the size of the loan versus that of the property when it comes to surveys ... in other words providing they're assured of getting their money back if the worst happens the rest is the buyer's problem, and often it's down to just a drive-by "valuation"

In fairness it's bound to be thus and solicitors do warn buyers about this, but at what's an expensive time anyway folk all too often convince themselves it'll be enough, only to regret it later

Have you not read it properly? We paid to fix it. Equally, after putting in an offer, getting £30K off and his searches taking 6 weeks to come back, I think we were within our rights (as the decent estate agent said) to tell him to do it himself.

They are chancers! I'd ignore

We were promised half a tank of oil from our sellers. Come moving day the new house was cold and there was no hot water. Needless to say the oil tank was empty. After a very long and fraught day I sat amongst the boxes and cried that I wanted to go home. Took the kids and went to the in laws for a hot shower and had to emergency order a tank of oil the next day.

The cheeky fuckers also tried to charge us £300 for the old shed that they’d left behind. We said no thank you, feel free to come and get it. Funnily enough they never showed. Cheeky twats, it was knackered and eventually Dh chopped it up for kindling.

For years afterwards, we’d find random bodge-it jobs round the house. Mysterious bits of wiring that went nowhere, empty pipes, unconnected sockets, all sorts of little oddments. The neighbours told us the previous owner had been a bit of a DIY fan, except that he wasn’t actually any good at it. Fortunately my Dh is very good at it and was able to sort most of it.