Buyer asking for money after Sale last year

[strangerInStrangeLand]

we sold our property last year to a very problematic person who is now trying to get some money from us
He has managed to get a no win no fee lawyer to send us a letter of claim for around 750£
He was previously trying to get 3000£ from us, but we refused to pay and had offered him 300£. He refused that and has now has come up with a claim of 750£. I think he will make slightly more than 300£ out of this after paying the no win no fee guys 25% and I suspect his main intention is to harass us and waste time.
His claims are

1. Failed to provide information about central heating system -270£ for the service he got done in the mean time. ( we installed a new boiler about an year before sale) Am I obliged to provide my free service contract under TA6? I haven't mentioned anything about free service or that I will provide it. I tried to go to his house and give him the documents once but he spoke to me rudely thru the window and asked me to contact his previous lawyer. By the time he came back with clarifications it was 6 months and we provided him with the free service information ( which is for 5 years! )
2. Leak under the sink - This is a newly installed kitchen one year before sale and was not leaking when we sold the house. he is demanding £75
3. Broken cistern, This was broken and we agreed under good will to pay him for this as part of previous negotiation. I dont think I m obligated under the contract to pay for this. I dont want to pay him anymore . He is demanding 100£
4. Rubbish in garden and attic. I had cleaned out the house but an old carpet was left in the attic and some pots and compost bags were in the garden. This would probably be a van full and not a skip full. We agreed to pay for this as well under last negotiation to avoid this nuisance. We also have a picture of him using the skip for disposing off his plant waste ( He cut down 2 of our beautiful trees 🙄He is that kind of person ) There is a cleanliness clause in TA6 which can be used for this at a stretch. he is demanding 345£

Only point 4 is breach of contract TA6 form none of the others are.

Is there a way to end this nuisance permanently 😉legally. I want to spend 300£ or less for this.
Can I find a no win no fee lawyer to counter his lawyer? Is there a arbitration service which would give a neutral and fair decision? I m ok to bear the costs. He is threatening to go to court and I m aware that he has to enter some alternative dispute resolution before he can go to court.
Also can he go to bigger court for such small claims? or is he obliged to go to citizen court? I am very busy working woman while he is retired so I dont want to spend long time in court.

Please advise.

He hasn’t got a keg to stand on here. Send him a letter telling him that you aren’t intending to pay for maintenance on someone else’s house and that this will be your last communication on the matter.

Why did you agree to pay anything? You should be careful in case that is admitting liability. I would get back in touch with the solicitor that handled the sale and get them to write a v stern letter. You don't owe him anything - the transaction is done.

As a former civil litigation solicitor I can promise you, it's not no-win no-fee. No solicitor in their right mind would take that on. It's a small claim with fixed costs that won't even cover his initial consultation.

Tell him to fuck off
simple 😂😂

Why do you have to pay anything? Surely due diligence on boiler/property condition etc was done as part of the sale?
Chancer..

Just say you'll wait to hear from his solicitor. Do not pay anything.

Caveat Emptor OP.

He won't win but why did you leave a load of rubbish in the back garden and a carpet in the loft. It's really rude to abandon your crap to the buyer if your house.

Caveat emptor right? Don't pay anything, it's his house, he bought it after viewing it. Done.

Not your house so why would you spend money on it? If he’d wanted a perfect house he should have bought a new build. You should have taken all your crap with you though.

Don't pay anything. Don't entertain anything. If you get involved he'll keep coming back.
Ignore or go back to your solicitor, write a letter then ignore.

Just ignore him

Once you've sold that's it everything is his responsibility.

We moved recently and within a month spent £2k on various issues the previous people left (not things picked up In the survey). But we know we can't ask the previous people to pay for it and just have to suck it up and sort it.

Don't pay them anything. Otherwise they'll keep coming back with any 'issues'

I would pay him £100 for the broken cistern as you did agree to do this.

Tell him it's in "full and final settlement".

If he keeps pestering you take the advice of a solicitor.

However, I agree that leaving the equivalent of a van-full of rubbish in the back garden is not nice.

The fact that you left your crap in the house (a van full?! That’s awful) doesn’t convince me that you’re going to be entirely in the right on this. I’d be very interested to hear his version of events tbh. You call him problematic - honestly you sound like our ‘problematic’ vendor who moved out and left her gross crap for us to dispose of. What comes over people to think it’s in any way an acceptable thing, to leave your manky rubbish for someone else to deal with because you can’t be bothered? Hard to take you word for it on the other points after reading that part!

You moved out leaving a vanload of crap in the gardem? That’s not on OP. The rest of it doesn’t sound reasonable though.

Tell him to piss off and that's your final word , well 2 words 😉

Leaving your rubbish was awful.

I reckon there’s more to this.

Go to citizens advice and get them to write it for you

… however you should pay for the broken cistern if you previously agreed to (you can’t just change your mind).

There’s no point getting into the rubbish now, but you shouldn’t have left it. And since you did you should have paid for a van to move it.

He is also entitled to cut down trees if he wants, it doesn’t make him any type of person.

you do sound as bad as each other, so pay up for the cistern, and get CAB to help with a letter to see off the rest of it.

irwinMitchell has taken his case and sent me a letter actually. He tried to use his solicitor for the sale before but she refused publicly to do it for free for him after a couple of emails, in a shared email she cc ed us. Now after one year he has gone to these guys.

I think it is a small claims court case if at all too but I wonder if he hopes to get the court to reimburse his lawyer costs thru us. But there is a clause of proportionality, so he wont be able to try to make us pay 1000s of £ for 300£ claim I hope.
I m planning to talk to citizens advise tomorrow.

OP,
As far as I know, if it is a Small Claims Court case litigants can use a solicitor but they can't claim back their fees.

Irwin Mitchell tend to specialise in Personal Injury claims.

So I think taking advice is eminently sensible.

Itwin Mitchell do 'free advice' through a lot of company employment schemes. So they'd do the letter for minimal cost. I know people who have used them to send a letter. If he uses them going forward it will cost him a lot (fees quite high). I'd call his bluff and say go away.

My solicitor at that point replied to him that his issues were de minimus, too negligible to be considered seriously and his threat to take us to court as not respecting proportionality. I m using his words to deal with the lawyer as again they have come back with issues without mentioning which clause of the contract they think we have broken.
I have clearly mentioned that we were making the offer as a matter of good will, can I not retract my offer as I dont have that good will any more? Do I have to atleast pay as much as I accepted last time?

Thanks @Womblingforfree I will call his bluff .