Freedom of speech

GGBoom

We are deeply unsatisfied with our new build house and have had terrible customer service. In order to get some attention from the builders we hung a banner at the back of our house (which is in view of the show home) saying Do Not Buy, Ask Us Why.

The builders then said they would only discuss our problems if we took the banner down, so we did.

The builder then threatened legal action if we put the banner up again. As far as I'm aware they have no grounds for legal action since we are simply starting an opinion and asking people to talk to us. Are we just being bullied for voicing our opinion, the sign said nothing derogatory about the builder?

Any insight appreciated.

moneyistooshorttomention

Did you get it in writing - time/date/name of person concerned that would talk with you before taking the banner down?

da_rule

Are there any covenants on your property regarding hanging/displaying signs.

They could (a bit of a long shot) claim for defamation as it is clear that what you are saying is that there's something wrong with the estate/the company/the properties etc and they could suffer a loss from this. However, depending on the nature and scale of the problems vs the scale of your response you'd probably have the defence of 'truth' or 'honest opinion'.

davidmcn

They can threaten legal action if they like.

You only need to worry if they actually take legal action.

On what basis do they propose to take legal action?

MyOnlyPost

In order to get proper advice list what has gone wrong and why you feel the service was bad. Some teething problems are common with new houses and whilst infuriating (I know) in the cold light of day to an impartial bystander they may seem trivial, and that would be the measure of a deffamation case

I think if you hung a sign saying come see us before buying, nothing is implied and this couldn't be objected to

[Deleted User]

First - there's no freedom of speech in our country. If you've written it down (i.e. a sign) then it is considered libel if it is something untrue about a legal entity (person/company). It could always be a 'Malicious Falsehood'..

If the builders have broken any terms of a contract you might try getting a strongly worded letter from a solicitor to remedy it.

da_rule

MyOnlyPost wrote: »

I think if you hung a sign saying come see us before buying, nothing is implied and this couldn't be objected to

If I saw a sign on a new build estate (or any estate really) that said "Do Not Buy" I would infer that there were some issues which, depending on how serious they are might put me off of buying or even enquiring in the sales office. I may be in the minority though.

GGBoom

Thanks for the responses

Numerous issues but one of our main problems is that they let someone into our property without telling us, were advised of a leak to our toilet and neither informed us or fixed the issue. It was only when a contractor told us several weeks later that we found out.

The banner just says Do Not Buy, Ask Us Why so I'm not sure they have any grounds unless there is a covenant as mentioned. I will have to check on this with my solicitor

MyOnlyPost

da_rule wrote: »

If I saw a sign on a new build estate (or any estate really) that said "Do Not Buy" I would infer that there were some issues which, depending on how serious they are might put me off of buying or even enquiring in the sales office. I may be in the minority though.

My fictional banner says "come see us before buying" not "Do not buy" you may want to tell them how great it is. You can infer what you want but I personally don't think anything is implied

GGBoom

Forgot to mention they claim that our banner caused a loss of sale because it stopped someone from reserving a property.

In my mind this is not loss of sale since the person had not reserved, up until that point nothing is confirmed.

da_rule

GGBoom wrote: »

Forgot to mention they claim that our banner caused a loss of sale because it stopped someone from reserving a property.

In my mind this is not loss of sale since the person had not reserved, up until that point nothing is confirmed.

If they could produce evidence from someone saying that they would have put down the reservation fee if the banner hadn't been there then they could argue that at the least they've lost the value of the reservation fee. But this is hypothetical and the onus would be on them to prove it.