House sold over a year ago, now about to recieve a CCJ

nthUK

My wife and I sold our house just over a year ago before we relocated abroad for work.

The sale went through absolutely fine. Until later when we recieved a letter stating we misrepresented on some additional questions asked by the buyers solicitors, to cut a very long story short... there is a shared driveway that I had had meetings about with the neighbours about fixing it up. It never really went anywhere other than a few letters sent between neighbours with quotes from firms and the neighbours saying we should meet up to discuss...

we answered the questions honeslty in the conveyencing docs, we stated that we are responsible for part of the shared driveway... we were asked if we had made any financial costs towards the driveway... we had not made any financial contribution so we answered "no" it turns out that our solicitor at the time had changed our answer to "we have not been asked to make any financial contribution towards the driveway" which is obviously untrue as we were talking about the driveway repairs previously to selling the place to relocate abroad.

I spoke with the solicitors and it turns out that they admit they are perplexed as to why they changed are answer from a straight no... there are no notes or recorded convestations of us asking them to do so and they have said we can make a formal complaint if we want. But they have now gone silent...

in the mean time the people that bought our house are saying that we should have mentioned the costs of repairing the shared driveway, they are about to take out a CCJ against us for the entire amount, we have offered to meet them somewhere in the middle as I dont feel they needed to resurface the whole driveway, all the work has been done now so we have no say as to what is nessessary in regards to work being done.

Q. Should we have mentioned the discussions and cost mentioned in the conveyenceing docs regarding the shared driveway, we were told by our estate agent there is no need unless they ask?

Q. If they take out a CCJ against us and the decision goes their way does anyone have an idea of the addtional costs we would be liable to pay on top of the amount they are asking which is around £2400?

Many Thanks for any advise.

HappyMJ

The fee to go to court is only £80 or as detailed in this document http://hmctscourtfinder.justice.gov.uk/courtfinder/forms/ex50_e.pdf

They will not be able to ask for interest only a share of the costs....but that's only if they win. You will be defending it and putting your case forward. If they lose they are the ones paying the £80.

If they win in court you have 14 days to pay the claim and it will not appear on your credit report.

googler

If they win the judgement against you, your solicitor of the time should be paying it for you, since they changed the meaning of your answer without your specific instruction.

nthUK

googler wrote: »

If they win the judgement against you, your solicitor of the time should be paying it for you, since they changed the meaning of your answer without your specific instruction.

I agree, but I think the costs with legal fees etc will be too much to consider

HappyMJ

nthUK wrote: »

I agree, but I think the costs with legal fees etc will be too much to consider

The solicitor has insurance to cover millions of pounds. This will be small in comparison.

chappers

sorry I dont see why your buyers are taking you to court.
How are they claiming you mis represented to cause them loss.
Has your ex neighbour now asked them for half of the repairs?
If so I would tell them go whistle, you never had any agreement to share the costs with the neighbour.
Dont give them any money wait for the court claim and then go and see your solicitor.
From the limited information you hadn't entered into any agreement with your neighbour and if you had answered a plain no to the question how would that have changed the outcome.
They bought the house knowing there was a shared driveway.
A little more info would be helpful

DVardysShadow

nthUK wrote: »

in the mean time the people that bought our house are saying that we should have mentioned the costs of repairing the shared driveway, they are about to take out a CCJ against us for the entire amount, we have offered to meet them somewhere in the middle as I dont feel they needed to resurface the whole driveway, all the work has been done now so we have no say as to what is nessessary in regards to work being done.

Q. Should we have mentioned the discussions and cost mentioned in the conveyenceing docs regarding the shared driveway, we were told by our estate agent there is no need unless they ask?

Q. If they take out a CCJ against us and the decision goes their way does anyone have an idea of the addtional costs we would be liable to pay on top of the amount they are asking which is around £2400?

Many Thanks for any advise.

First point. No one ever takes out a CCJ on anyone. A court issues a CCJ if they consider that the plaintiff has won the argument

Second point. Have you made your offers to settle in writing? If you did, did you make the offers 'without prejudice and without admission of liability"? Because if you did not, you reduce the room for your former solicitor to resolve the case, which in turn means that you will shoulder a lot of the liability

Have you engaged another solicitor to handle this? You conveyancing solicitor has probably gone silent on this as they are referring it to their insurance - and one of the conditions of that insurance will be that their contact with you is henceforth minimal.

societys_child

they are about to take out a CCJ against us

Don't think it works like that.

a) "They" could take you to court, maybe.
b) The judge would have to find in their favour.
c) that judge could order you pay compensation.
d) you don't pay within 28 days.

A CCJ could then be issued.

But I agree with chappers, can't see it happening .

Edit: DVShadow beat me to it.

DVardysShadow

A few more minutes thought.

The buyer's case will be that

• an amount of money was due for a drive repair
• OP had agreed this with the neighbour
• OP represented to buyer that no money had been asked for
• Buyer was obliged to pay the money
• and incurred loss by paying it

The conveyancing solicitor has made the claim more difficult to defend by representing that no money had been asked for when all that was claimed to the solicitor was that no money had been paid

OP's defence is that

• Drive repair had been discussed and quotes obtained
• OP had agreed nothing with neighbours
• OP advised conveyancing solicitor that no money had been paid but admits that conveyancing solicitor stated to buyer that no money had been asked for
• Buyer was not obliged to pay money
• Buyer could and should have sought advice from OP before undertaking to pay [muddied slightly by OP being abroad]
• Buyer's loss is buyer's responsibility

Essentially, it seems to me that the solicitor's error, while unhelpful is not central to defending this.

I hope that OP did not offer to pay half without qualifying the offer as 'without prejudice and without admission of liability'

societys_child

Whichever way you look at it, no money had been asked for.

Who sent the letter? Is it just the buyer on a phishing expedition?

Edit: has the neighbour been a bit naughty and claimed it had been agreed?

nthUK

Im going to post some correspondence between us and the buyers, i hope this gives a little more explantion and foresight into the best/right thing for us to do?


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