can anyone here help?? NEED ADVISE URGENT

LEELEE

here is a link to my thread on another sub-forum - but really think it should maybe have been here too??

please can anyone help??

Hi ,

Very new on here but looking for advice :

I recently moved out of a flat with a shared garden (Sold this property) this year and moved onto a house .

4 months later i recieve a letter from the person who bought my flat solicitors.
Initially it stated that we misold this flat and hadnt given enough infomation on the HIPS. Her solicitors are a no WIN no Fee outfit .

We had ticked the box's for YES & NO and stated there were communications with a certain neighbour of ours which we had the odd dispute concerning the shared (Communal garden) . As far as we were concerned the matter had gone away .

Anyway the buyer had moved in and within 6 weeks she had an argument with our old neighbour about the shared garden, now the buyer is suing us for miss selling the flat??

The buyer initailly tried to blame the Estate agent but he told the buyer where to go. We know from conversations with him that the buyer was very very pushy and a difficult customer to deal with.

Its gone as far as offering some monies as a Without Prejudice offer just to solve this matter but the buyer wants a lot more than we can offer .

Any advise would be beneficial on this and if anyone else has been contacted by solictors about neighbours after moving??

Also our Solicitors have recently give us a bill for quite alot of monies die to fighting this issue: Below are some prices of their services , are these the average or are these over inflated ??

Price to write a letter £23
price to recieve a letter £23
price for a phone call £23

Price for looking at out docmentation £208 per hour !!

Please help , have lots more details if needed but we are not sure what to do ? Should we speak to a BARRISTER?

Thanks

New person on here

hazyjo

What is it they're actually disputing? If you ticked a box saying there was a dispute and explained it was over the garden, I don't get what they're accusing you of...

Do you have a copy of the form you gave that information on?

Jx

G_M

Fairly standard prices, but a barrister will cost a lot more.

What does your solicitor say?
Either there was an on-going dispute and you misrepresented the facts by stating there was no dispute or there was no dispute, or there was a dispute but you declared it.

Of course, definition of 'dispute' is relevant here. For any serious comment from us you'll need to tell us
* more detail of the incident with the neighbours
* what the buyers asked you and what you replied or
* what statement you made in the HIP

etc

At the end of the day, either you think you're liable in which case you can choose whether to settle, or go to court, or
you think you're not liable in which case you'll have to wait till (if) they take you to court so you can defend

Doozergirl

What was the dispute you had with the neighbour? What exactly did you reveal in the HIP?

What exactly is the buyer the trying to sue you for?

If you can pull together the exact details of what the issues are with the neighbour, it would be a good diea to post of the forums at http://www.gardenlaw.co.uk/ as well.

pinkshoes

And to add to the above, why on earth are you offering money?? If you told them there was a minor dispute (which was...?) which then got sorted, then there's not much more you can tell them, and what on earth are they suing for?

Can you be a little more specific?

satchmeister

pinkshoes wrote: »

And to add to the above, why on earth are you offering money?? If you told them there was a minor dispute (which was...?) which then got sorted, then there's not much more you can tell them, and what on earth are they suing for?

Can you be a little more specific?

Offering money is tantamount to admitting the OP lied, no wonder a no win no fee solicitor can smell blood.

LEELEE

Hi ,

In a nutshell we lived in our Flat for about 2 years , we had one issue with a neighbour of ours but on a whole she kept her self to herself. Everyone has a funny neighbour right?

Because she lived in her flat for 15 years plus she was the only one who had looked after/improved upon the back garden which was communal. Various owners had come in and out of the other 3 flats over these years and not helped out.

We, inclusive of another 2 owners in the past 2 years had come in and wanted to make the communal garden better and help out with the general upkeep . We thought this would help our neighbour and be a happier neighbourhood all round but this sort of pushed her away for some reason.

On a personal note we didnt really have much of a problem with her but the issues arised once 3 out of the 4 flats bought the freehold. SHe politely declined the offer for some reason. ??
The issues we had were as a freeholder point of view and NOT a personal level. I own another flat and if i were to sell this would teh freeholder be contacted to declare issues with other neighbours in our block??

Sorry i think im getting side tracked here ..Just me and my partner are very worried about this whole affair.

We ticked yes and no on the form where you declare issues with neighbours ect and just put down there was correspondance between us and her solictors purely from a freeholders point of view/not personal.

Her solictors picked this up but never followed this up either? Admittedly there were 6-7 letters back and forth concerning the communal gardens but that was basically the crux of it and the obvious improvements required which would be shared between the 4 of us. She was just confused how things work as in what a FREEHOLDER is and what a Lessee is . It happens right?

What else do you need to know ?

thanks for all your help with this guys...

PS: Our latest letter from her solictors has nothing in there stating a timescale to get back to them and i think we will just ignore it.

Also she has actually got the flat in question on the market again using our original photographs which she cant do right ? Surely this is misrepresentation from her ? The same as shes trying to accuse us of ?

Thanks

WestonDave

Ignore it - a no win no fee outfit can't afford to push a case very far because they have no funding for their work - if it looks like you aren't going to be a mug about it and make an offer, they will have to consider whether they want to be on risk for court costs.

If you disclosed that there was a dispute then its up to the buyers solicitors to clarify the exact nature of the dispute so if the buyer has a problem with what they've been left with, it should be with their solicitors - however its likely that they have told her where to get off, so the buyer is now trying it on with you. There is no point clocking up a lot of costs for solicitors to exchange hot air.

goldbyron

It might be a coincidence but you moved after only 2 years and the new owner is already moving...this neighbour is the only issue?? Are there other problems too (it may be difficult to declare it here as you don't want to say) as I can't believe that someone being a bit tricky about a garden would make someone want to move. I think your old buyers are obviously very unhappy about their purchase (probably for the same reason you moved) and are taking it out on you by trying their luck. To be honest if you stated it on the form it was up to their sol to follow it up at the time. I really don't think the issue you are portraying would be any solid grounds for misselling and my bet is they are peeved they are having to move so soon...thus wanting to re-coup some of their costs. A bit risky but I reckon they won't pursue this as they will incur court costs. If you can, ignore this or just take a very very long time to respond. My guess if they get a buyer anyway is that they won't want to pursue action as they will also then have to declare this. I hope that they just go away after they have calmed down....

pinkshoes

I still don't see why you offered money, as surely this is a sign of guilt?? Withdraw the offer!

You should just write back stating that as all information was declared upon selling, and there was and is no further information to declare, it was up to their own solicitor at the time of buying to flag this up as an issue if they felt there was anything else that they wanted to know. Wish them luck in their new home, and that you can be of no further help to them.

LEELEE

We disclosed that there was correspondance but this could be seen as a grey area as someone else stated previously. This is why we also ticked the YES & NO boxes as there were issues but gave a box the size to fit in 2 sentances at MAX. We thought that because she has solictors who were talking to our solictors they would pick this up and ask for any more info. They didnt.

The only reason we moved was because of a pet and to move closer to both workplaces. The person moved in with a young child, used the communal garden with toys and the likes everywhere (we were told this by our previous neighbours) ad this is where the problems have arisen. Now this neighbour has had personal contact with this neighbour (unlike us as we had freeholder communication) via solictors because of personal disputes unlike ours.

At the end of the day i think we should just leave the solictors well alone and ignore all correspondance and retract any offer we made without predjudice via our solictors to hers. What do you think ?

I think the conversation the new owner had with this neighbour was pretty heated and nothing like we encountered ever.

Thanks

Lee