Hello
Any conveyancing legal eagles out there? Your advice would be soooo appreciated.
Before completing on a buy-to-let property recently, I raised a query about a gate lock that I wanted changing as I felt it was faulty but the vendor replied saying it would not be changed as it worked perfectly. I let it slide as I didn;t want to hold up the completion.
After completion, the vendor asked to stay on and rent from me for a month or two - so we signed a short-term tenancy contract and he became my tenant. Since then, I have visited the property and the gate lock is still jammed. I have had a handyman take it out and look at it and I have had to replace it as the mechanism was in fact jammed.
From your experience, would I be able to go back to the vendor ( who is now the tenant about it? ). He is moving out very soon and I was wondering whether I would have any grounds to deduct the fee of changing the lock from his deposit ? Or would I have any right to even ask him to share the cost of replacing the lock as he insisted it worked perfectly before completion?
Or as I now legally own the property and have only since completing had the chance to check the gate lock myself, do I have no right to go back to him at all?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.