Buyers threatening small claims court 14 months after completion

[KentishMama]

We sold a house last year. This week, our conveyancing firm received a letter from the buyer's solicitors threatening to take us to court to recover cost for replacing the (oil) boiler for around £6k. Apparently, they've had trouble with the boiler, and their boiler engineer told them that it could only be this bad because we never serviced it. So the letter accuses us of lying on the forms we completed during the sale.

Boiler was new in 2016. Serviced annually. Five-year warranty expired a month after we sold. We passed all paperwork and service records over to the buyers when we sold, although I would guess that our conveyancer has digital copies.

Has anyone had this happen to them? What is this even about? And what should we do?

Tell them to fuck off

Is this the first notification from them?

Ignore.

Let them do it. Provide your evidence in the form of receipts and the warranty. Sit back and let the court rule in your favour, leaving them to pick up the costs.

Yes, we haven't heard from them at all since moving.

What absolute arsehole chancers. If you said on the forms that boiler was x age and serviced annually, presumably by the manufacturer, the manufacturer themselves will have records of this even if you conveyancer doesn't. They are on a hiding to nothing.

If it were me I’d firstly be ascertaining what proof I had now (bearing in mind you’ve said you passed everything to them when you sold)

If I could prove purchase and servicing? Let them take you to small claims

if not? Trickier.

Tell them to piss off. Nothing will come about

Ask the solicitor if they kept copies, does the person/company who serviced it keep copies? Not sure how that works.

I wouldn’t worry too much about it though because you know you’re in the right and they’re being idiots.

Have you still got copies of the documents showing that it was serviced annually? If so, I would ignore the letter and present the papers in court.

I've called the boiler engineer we used, and they'll send through the records they have. I've got a record of the installation itself, and can see the 2019 and 2020 service cost in my bank statements. I feel like that's enough, right?

Besides, shouldn't it be enough that the boiler worked perfectly when we completed? How can it be our fault if it then broke a year later? Who knows what they did to it in that time...

So the letter accuses us of lying on the forms we completed during the sale.

you can prove you weren’t lying, you gave them proof at point of sale and can now prove with bank statements and the boilers engineer records you were truthful

id write back stating that you gave them proof at time of sale if regular serving and have back up records along with proof of payment.

send the letter to be signed for so you can prove they received it

should they then take you to court - you’ve done all you can to avoid this and shown you’re truthful

You have done nothing wrong the boiler is 5 yrs old you had it serviced nothing wrong with any of that.
What is wrong is, a new boiler does not cost £6k, the boiler for a normal house is around £1k add fitting say £1k at most.
Either a lot more work was done or the engineer ripped them off.

Call their bluff, if they do go to court, make sure your respond fully, if you don’t judgement will automatically go to them.

@Crazykatie
It’s an oil boiler. My understanding is these are more expensive. And we don’t know the size of the house.

In addition you might need to get an independant plumber to inspect the system to see just what was done for £6k, after all the plumber and householder may be mates trying a scam.

It's an oil boiler - I think we paid about £2.5k six years ago, and I remember that there was one very high quote (maybe £4k?) when we shopped around then.

I just can't believe the cheek! We had a bunch of plumbing disasters in our first few weeks in our new house, and it never even crossed my mind to go after the previous owners for that...

Don't just ignore. Write back (you don't need to pay for a solicitor). You keep it simple. You deny the claim, you did not lie on the forms and they were sent proof of the service at the time of purchase.

They may chance it and issue a claim (it costs very little), but you just defend.
In fairness to them, they possibly have an unscrupulous tradesperson who has got them to put a new boiler in and then blamed you.

If they do put a lcicm in you will probably want to get your conveyancing file from your solicitors. They should have kept copies of everything.

Not a mansion, that's for sure! Four bed dormer bungalow.

I think in auk law , 'you buy as is' and paperwork states that no appliances have been tested.

Brief word with your solicitor to verify and ignore them

This will just be a letter before action. it's designed to scare you into acquiescing. I wouldn't even reply. Do nothing unless you actually receive court summons.

If their claim is that you did not service the boiler then all you need to do is provide proof that you did. Paperwork from your plumber/ service engine is sufficient.
6k to sort out a boiler is a bit steep, blaming a previous engineer is a classic ploy, usually if they are not qualified to do the work. They have probably used someone who can install boilers but not fix them and rather than admit he knows nothing about boilers has sold them a new boiler which is basically an easy fix particularly if it’s a like for like job. Modern boilers are complex and not all plumbers have done the relevant courses to be able to service and repair them, but are able to plumb them in.

Sounds like the new engineer is after a sale -they usually say oh it hant been serviced for years to get you to buy a new one

idiot new buyers have fallen for it but decided your paying for it

Ok firstly, ignoring them is absolutely terrible advice. They have solicitors acting which is good news for you, they will properly advise them on whether they have prospects of success and from what you’ve said - they don’t. They’ve either forgotten they received/saw proof of servicing or they are trying it on, I have to say it sounds like the former if they’ve gone to the trouble of getting solicitor involved which won’t be cheap, especially considering it’s a £6k claim.

Send them the proof of service and say their letter is factually incorrect, you assume that this will bring the matter to a close. Then leave it. They can’t just issue proceedings against you without corresponding first but you should also respond.

This, this, and this, and more this. Fuck off.

Waste their time and rack up their legal bill by sending a number of illegible responses