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!

@BMW6 i told her she should have checked the weather forecast as there had been warnings of a bad storm. She came back again 6 months later to say there was big hole in the back garden and that I should have told her. When questioning her politely at first m, apparently she had pulled up the water companies drain cover (yeah the metal ones) and obviously found a big hole as we most have in our rear gardens. I said are you serious before I told her to fuck off. I seriously thought the way that she was going on that this massive sink hole had appeared in the rear garden. But it was the sewage pipes that are laid by water companies that runs the length of everyone’s rear garden

Me too! I think this is so lovely!

I know, how thoughtful, it would have me crying into my Yorkshire tea.

I bought my place without a survey but I think I know enough of what to look out for when looking at a place.

I got the place for around 30% cheaper than it should have been because surveyors had seen the slanted flooring and smelt the musty damp smell and declared the place to have settlement and damp and every potential buyer had run away.
I went in and realised straight away that it didn’t have settlement. It also didn’t have damp. It was just badly laid flooring and condensation because of no air flow through the house

Surveyors have cost me so much money in the past and I refuse to use them any more unless I have to.

Most of the time the survey doesn’t say anything definite

Its just a list of faults you could get with a house and the rhetoric is it might have this or could have that.

My last surveyor cost me so much money when they valued a house I really wanted at £0 because there was a sapling growing in the front garden and they thought that it would cause heave and the house would fall down. Wouldn’t remove the valuation even when I said I would remove the tree as I couldn’t remove the tree before I bought.

I had one surveyor’s report that stated

There could be woodworm. The surveyor hadn’t spotted any signs but it could still be there.

Equally there could be damp but they didn’t have any readings of damp but they hadn’t put their meter on every single bit if wall

It’s these type of reports that make me wonder why sirveyors went to university to get a job which anyone could do as they don’t actually offer a definitive opinion

Comedy gold! 😂

My daughter had problems in her new home. I can't believe for a minute the vendors didn't know .A few were breach of contract and were settled , but the major one a leaking bathroom which came through the ceiling into the lounge wasn't. ( this was the day after they moved in )The emergency plumber said by the condition of the pipe work and damage beneath the bath it had been leaking for months. However the solicitor quoted 'buyer beware' and the only option was to take the vendors to the small claims court.

There are circumstances where contact is justified - this is not one of them

When we purchased our house, it didn't have a kitchen, bathroom, or heating! And I don't mean it had an old one; it just didn't have it at all. It had one toilet and a wash basin.

We didn't get as far as a mortgage, but looked at a re-possessed house. The previous owners had totally stripped it-all that was left was the toilet. How could you get a mortgage on that? (A builder bought it, to re-fit and flip)

Standard High Street bank mortgage, we went in with all the correct information, 3-month plan of required works and said I was happy for a condition to be placed on the mortgage that specific key build dates would be met.

In the end, none of that was applied to the mortgage; it was a bog-standard application.

Now threatening court proceedings after we responded for the second time saying we will not be compensating!! Its laughable.

Good luck to them with that one. They sound very inexperienced.

That’s ridiculous. Bankruptcy checks cost £2 each. I do this all the time for both conveyancing and probate stuff.

Whatever checks they were, bankruptcy was mentioned to me by solicitor. The 3 months had ran out on them so I had to pay £100 again. I have it on my bill. Maybe the paperwork involved means its £100.

What does your solicitor say about this? Let them take you to court. It's their money they're wasting.

Totally laughable, and I bet they won’t be going through with it.

Solicitor saying we are not compensating.

I'd let them, then go to court and enjoy seeing how it goes!

When did you last buy oil? I imagine there would be a requirement for them to somehow prove that you knew the tank had a crack (notwithstanding they bought it sold as seen).

I'd be saying "well I paid £500 for fuel on X day - I never asked them for a penny towards the oil I left and why would I spend £500 of my own money if I knew there was a crack in the tank that it would leak straight out of?"

FTB by any chance??

@Sandals12 How annoying for you as I was hoping they would go away and realise it is not your problem but sadly not.

Edited to add, having just read your first post again, the tank isn't even leaking, just cracked. They do realise the majority of oil tanks are double skinned so unlikely to leak.

If a major crack it may require a new tank at some point - but if it is full, which the first post implies as there are costs for emptying the tank in order to replace it, all they need to do is replace the tank once it is empty and the cost will be considerably lower. Not that is any of your concern of course!

Funny. Can you imagine the litigation this would cause if viable.

We bought our house with out houses at bottom of the garden for storage. We made mistake of not looking inside, when we moved in there was 2 skips worth of rubbish inside. We didn't invoice the seller. We had a reduction in the price so we were ahead anyhow. It did however teach me to double check everything when looking around a potential new home.

Like others say, ignore.

We had the same thing when we sold our house. A 6 months after we sold owner complained that our carpets were ‘hiding mould’. The solicitor quoted buyer beware and we didn’t hear from them again but our old neighbour did tell us they never seemed to open their windows so they were probably trying their luck anyway.

Yes, they sent a quote which included emptying of full tank into temporary tank while new tank was installed. Totally 2500.

The last oil I bought was in April, around the time the house went up for sale/ was sold. An oil supplier will not put oil in a tank they deem unsuitable apparently. Hand on heart I did not ever see that crack. I'm not worried, let them take me to court. Chances are they won't. Yes, FTB.

@Sandals12 you are correct about oil suppliers refusing to put oil into a damaged tank. We had the tiniest seep from a washer on the sight-tube when we ordered 600 litres in September and they only delivered 38. We needed to get the tank checked and a certificate. Someone came yesterday (note to self: do not delegate to DH because it won't get done) and our tank is single-skin and has too many hazards around it. We need to get a new tank, a new concrete base and remove some shrubs. Just waiting for the quote, and I'm cold.