Dispute over heating repairs after sale

Kris101

Advice sought?

We recently moved house on the 24th of April and on the 7th of May we heard from the solicitor who did the conveyancing that the couple who bought our old house were making a claim against us for heating and plumbing repairs.
On finding out about this I visited the old property to find nobody living there. As I understood any claims have to be heard in five working days. When I asked my solicitor about this she said the first fax she received was dated the 28th of April. I then asked why she hadn't passed this on? She couldn't tell me!
As we hadn't heard about this until the 7th it didn't give us a chance to to get in to inspect before any work had been carried out.
Me and my partner had lived at the property for 8 years. We have a three year old daughter. If we had any problems with heating we would have had repairs done.
They have made a claim for £800 for repairs to the cistern, taps, electric emerser, new thermostat, radiators, main water pipe( which they say is blocked due to a build up of ?) and boiler parts.
They have said they will go to court and we feel threatened but we suspect they have bought the house to let it out and are trying to get it in tip top condition before they put it on the market.

Please advise

mrginge

Did you explicitly state to the buyers that the heating was in working order?

They are trying it on.
Reply with a short note telling them to foxtrot oscar

davidmcn

Kris101 wrote: »

When I asked my solicitor about this she said the first fax she received was dated the 28th of April. I then asked why she hadn't passed this on? She couldn't tell me!

I'm assuming the house you sold was in Scotland? If you sold using the Scottish standard missive clauses then yes, you ought to have had a further five working days to get your own quotes for the work. By all means deny that there is any work needing done (even £800 isn't worth taking someone to court about if they make clear that it will be defended), but I think you should be looking to your solicitor to bear some of the liability, if there is any. They should in any event be giving you advice about what to do.

Kris101

We feel compromised when using this solicitor as we do feel that they should bear some responsibility for not informing us. We also feel that it is unfair now that intrusive works have been carried out on the heating system that we were not party to that somehow now we can still be held responsible. We should have been able to witness the boiler not working before any of this work had taken place.

G_M

Please confirm if this IS Scotland: th law is different.

Whether the buyer "bought the house to let it out" is surely irrelevant. Their reasons don't matter, what matters is
a) the contract under which it was sold and
b) the condition of the heating system, and whether it breached the contract.

Your solicitor should be advising you about your liability, if any.

If your solicitor is responsible for that liability through negligence, you can pass the liability on to them.