I'm back for an update and some more advice! Sorry, it's a bit long.
Before we moved, I posted here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/1848527-Awkward-proposal-from-vendor-WWYD?pg=1 about an issue we were having with our seller. In short, he wanted paid for any heating oil left in the tank on the entry day. My solicitor basically advised that if the oil hadn't been included in the missives (this is Scotland) then they couldn't expect paid. However I was planning to give them a reasonable amount for it, since that seemed fair but I wanted to wait until we were in.
But when we arrived we found they had taken a bunch of stuff which we think should have been included in the sale. For example- they unscrewed the post box from the fence, leaving a big mark where it had been (and no way for us to receive any post, as the door has no letter box). They unscrewed and took down the laundry clothing ceiling pulley thing. They took the whirligig from the garden, leaving a big hole in the ground. And they took the washing machine.
Our understanding is all these things were supposed to be included, according to the standard conditions of the sale, which were used.
They also revealed they had "lost the key" to the locks for both upstairs bedroom windows. We had to replace these immediately as it was a major hazard- the way the windows are built means my two year old child could otherwise climb up onto the window ledge, open the window and fall out of the top of the house. So the day after we moved in we had to make a two hour round trip to the nearest hardware store to get new locks, which then took my husband more time to replace.
There were other issues too but I won't bore you with the endless detail. Suffice to say, other things were broken/not working.
I had our solicitors send a letter setting all this out and there has been a bit of to-ing and for-ing. Long story short, the sellers are basically saying that they don't agree the washing machine was included- and they are saying we still owe them money for the heating oil (and for the canisters with the gas for the cooker).
In our view, if you tot up all the stuff they took/required fixing then we're just about even. But it means getting into a tedious debate about whether the washing machine should have or should have not been included. I'd now have to start paying our solicitor now to do any further work on our behalf, which would cost more than whatever might be owed. I'd be inclined to just pay them something to make it go away but DH is incensed and I am not all that happy about it myelf.
What to do?