Contacting the sellers directly

Annie1960

What did the EA's particulars say about the greenhouse and wood burner?

Florida10

We specifically asked about the fire and were told that it was staying, for the greenhouse the mrs was talking to the EA about it when we were viewing and the EA was asking if she had green fingers and that the greenhouse would be nice to grow plants in in the summer etc, so to us that implies the greenhouse was staying.

We are going to contact the solicitor first thing tomorrow. After reading all the replies it does make 100% to get everything official instead of verbal agreements etc.

CLAPTON

Florida10 wrote: »

We specifically asked about the fire and were told that it was staying, for the greenhouse the mrs was talking to the EA about it when we were viewing and the EA was asking if she had green fingers and that the greenhouse would be nice to grow plants in in the summer etc, so to us that implies the greenhouse was staying.

We are going to contact the solicitor first thing tomorrow. After reading all the replies it does make 100% to get everything official instead of verbal agreements etc.

it's very important to establish what 'shared' services there are : normally there are none but any may be very expensive

macman

It doesn't matter what was 'implied' by the agent. Both items are permanent fixtures, and can therefore reasonably be assumed to be included in the sale unless the vendor told you otherwise. Your offer was based on your viewing and the property description, so if they are now withdrawing those items then your offer must be revised. You are taking far too laid back an approach to this.
If you don't want the items then fine, but don't pay for something you are not getting.

King_Slayer

Definitely take your misses advice. The last thing you want is to cut out the middleman and do things by word of mouth.

densol_2

If it was me, I would speak to the vendor in the first instance and say you are confused with -

Greenhouse
Log burner
Services

And ask them to clarify. Then contact solicitor to get him to confirm the agreement exactly as understood on the papers so it's exactly clear.

robatwork

So- what happened?

SplanK

We are going through this and I *DID* go direct to our seller to discuss things. Once done, I then fired across an email to our solicitor stating what had been discussed, and also asked the seller to do the same. I would not move forward until anything that was discussed was documented via the solicitors, but I found it easier and quicker to deal direct with the seller than having to bounce it through others first!


It helps that our sellers are really nice and easy to get on with though!

matttye

See case of Taylor v Hamer [2002] - buyer made an offer for property which had a number of flagstones in the garden. They were fittings as they were attached only by their own weight so the seller should have been entitled to remove them, but he gave misleading replies about whether they would be staying or not and tried to disguise their removal with grassland. Prior to purchase they were removed. The Court of Appeal held that for reasons of decency and common sense, the buyer was entitled to receive what he had been shown on inspection and what he believed he would be receiving.

Bears some resemblance to this dont you think? The removed items were there at the time you inspected and made your offer and you were lead to believe they would be staying.

Definitely only communicate via your solicitors.

matttye

macman wrote: »

It doesn't matter what was 'implied' by the agent. Both items are permanent fixtures, and can therefore reasonably be assumed to be included in the sale unless the vendor told you otherwise. Your offer was based on your viewing and the property description, so if they are now withdrawing those items then your offer must be revised. You are taking far too laid back an approach to this.
If you don't want the items then fine, but don't pay for something you are not getting.

H E Dibble v Moore [1970] – a greenhouse was held not to be a fixture.

(sorry about quoting cases - I'm doing a Land Law A level at the minute )