Will try and explain although am still shaking with anger:
My Nanna is 82 she came to live with my mum about 5 years ago. She lived about 2 hours away from mum and after a nasty incident with her son became very ill so mum brought her here to look after her. Nan is not a well woman and hasn't been for some time, she's had a few strokes and has recently been diagnosed with vascular dimentia. Mum put nans house on the market but after a long time and lots of being messed about she dropped the price dramatically.
Mum and stepdad we're friends with a couple who offered 70K for the house. They asked if they could pay 30K at sale but use the other 40K to do it up and pay it back after a year. Mum agreed but insisted they went to a solicitor and had it all done legally. Not long after said friends stopped answering mums calls and terminated friendship. Mum's solicitor told her not to worry they could not get away with not paying.
They should have paid money back 2 years ago and we still haven't seen a penny. Mums solicitors have been telling her not to worry, we can make him bankrupt, you will get you money etc etc
Yesterday we drove 2 hours to solicitor to be told by the Head Man that we should just walk away.
He said to make them bankrupt will cost in region of 5,000 and we are not guaranteed we will get it all back. Once he realised we were not going to let it go he suddenly remembered another way, putting a charge on the house which is cheaper and can pretty much guarantee the money. Its still about 3,000 which is something we just haven't got.
I rang the police and although the woman was gobsmacked there is nothing they can do as this is a civil matter.
So unless we can raise £3,000 these bastards are just going to walk away with 40k !!!!!!
Any advice on what to do (within legal limits as I know what I would REALLY like to do)???
Also I think the solicitors have behaved unprofessionally and have now landed mum with a £1500 bill.