Moved in but seller breached extra terms

[mondray]

We have finally managed to move in to our new property two days before the end of the stamp duty holiday. This in itself was a major struggle to get them to agree to, as they kept delaying the completion date. But we got there in the end.

We had as a term of purchase added that we would like the decking (which is completely rotten and a health and safety hazard, with plenty of holes) to be removed. Also one side of the fence to be repaired/replaced as it is leaning on our side and is held up by sticks.

This was agreed to both at the time we made our offer and also in the purchase contract written up by the solicitor.

We have obviously moved in today and none of the requested things have been done.

Does anyone have experience with this sort of breach of terms? Is it worth chasing this up or would it be more hassle than it's worth? We are going to speak to our solicitor tomorrow abs possibly look into small claims court for it.

It would be great if we could get some other suggestions we're unaware of.

Thanks

If it was agreed and part of the contract your solicitor should chase this for you.

I would be getting quotes for putting it right.

Raise it ASAP, as i would expect financial recompense

Your solicitor should have retained funds for this - do you know if they did?
I bought a flat decades ago that had a damaged ceiling from a leak, which seller agreed to fix and redecorate. My solicitor said he'd retain £250 in case this wasn't done. Well, of course he hadn't and when I told him the work wasn't done he said it wasn't worth pursuing (and I was then too naive and timid to then suggest that perhaps the solicitor should pay for it)!

Get quotes for the work and then the solicitor can go for that amount reasonably.

I had similar issues once, solicitor advice was not worth pursuing in small claims.

When I bought a flat years ago, I got someone to check the ancient boiler the first week I'd moved in and it was switched off by the gas engineer as it was illegal for him to relight it as there was no ventilation in the flat. I tried to get the vendor to pay for someone to put a vent in but he said no and my solicitor advised it was going to cost me more in fees to chase it.

Tell your solicitor straight away, our home was left full of crap when we moved in the garage was packed with junk, lumps of concrete etc we contacted our solicitor and the vendors and sent photos. The vendor offered to collect “a bit each day if we left garage open” we said no and they were made to hire a clearance company at their expense. It took 2 days to resolve

As PP mentioned, ideally a retention should have been held that you could have used to cover the cost of the works had they not been done.
You are entitled to claim under the contract but the costs of the claim are unlikely to be economic.
However do tell your solicitor asap and ask them to contact the seller’s solicitor to ask the seller put things right immediately. They may refuse, but they may not. Ask your solicitor to be persistent and hopefully it will pay off.

Did you do a pre exchange viewing to make sure that the house was as it should be at completion? My solicitors told us to visit the property and check it was in the condition we expected, including turning the oven on, hot water taps, flushing the loo, integrated appliances working etc etc.

I’d get quotes quickly to find out how much it will be to undertake those jobs and get advice from your solicitors.

You can get your solicitor to do a letter but is it worth the expense and hassle pursuing it further? If you felt that strongly about it, you should have checked this point before exchange/completion so your Solicitor could have retained some money.

I guess put out some feelers, but TBH these things are seldom worth the expense and stress of following up, it's very hard to force people to do stuff like this.

Absolutely pursue this through your solicitor. Your sellers are in breach of contract and you will be able to get it sorted at their expense.

Go through solicitor and try fo get it sorted but it may not happen. Tbh it's not hard to take up decking and you can do it free yourself. Same with a whole in the fence. I realise that isn't the point but better than missing the stamp duty deadline!

You can ask them to put right and send them the quotes for hiring someone to do it if they don't wish to.

Give them X days to respond and X time to sort.

Inform them if not sorted you will pay for it yourself and seek costs through small claims.

It's a small fee to take to court and you will recoup your fees for court as well as work done.

If everyone were to hold people to account for contracts they signed then this kind of behaviour would happen less.

Was it written into the contract? If not, there's no compulsion on them to do anything.
If it was, you've already completed, and taken up occupation, which could be taken to mean you've accepted the breach.
If there was a retention agreed as part of the contract, then you might have a leg to stand on. Your solicitor should not release the retention monies unless the terms are complied with.
However, it may be that it's not worth pursuing - bearing in mind you may have to pay your solicitors costs for letter writing, if the work outstanding is worth less than about 500 pounds, I wouldn't bother chasing this if there was no retention.
If a retention was agreed but the solicitor didn't in fact hold it back, you may have grounds for complaint. What was the actual wording of the contractual clause?

I would ask your solicitor to sort this out. However, my last vendor left three skips of rubbish at the property and denied it despite evidence. I didn't go ahead with small claims.