Buyer wants built in bed removed after exchange...

NaughtiusMaximus

Blakey74 wrote: »

Your wife probably needs to remember what was said. I suspect that buyers could argue a verbal contract was agreed

Based on what the OP has posted it's just one person's word against another's. The buyer would need a lot more than that to prove the existence of a verbal contract.

Blakey74_2

NaughtiusMaximus wrote: »

Based on what the OP has posted it's just one person's word against another's. The buyer would need a lot more than that to prove the existence of a verbal contract.

Verbal contract are binding as far as I'm aware. If his wife is saying she cannot remember then I suspect a court would side with the buyers. If she is saying that she is certain she did not agree to the suggestion then thats a different matter.

Red-Squirrel_2

kaycastle wrote: »

Yes I'm alright with that,Just stick the mattress on the floor - it will be like a fun camping thing and only for a few days. The Karma will come straight back!

Yes its a relief we've had time to clean their actual poo off all the toilet. Cleaning isn't the only thing we're having to do. I think someone mentioned I should be relieved cleaning is the only thing I have to do....its not. And its the level of cleaning I've minded- the kitchen sides are coming up black, the toilet was covered in poo. I mean...come on. I'm paying a fortune and spent years saving a fortune as its in the south east and they can't even clean the toilet before they leave. Well I don't think they did ever clean it..but still.

Just kind of wanted to offer the people of this thread a different perspective. Have a little empathy with the buyers, you don't know what went on in their life that they forgot, and people do forget things, we're not perfect. Everyone seems to be painting these people as monsters because they asked for a built in bed to be removed? Yeh, how awful of them. Just saying you simply reply with your answer and move on,communicate with them about your child's bed situation and just say, sorry but can't. This is not an awful thing they're asking.

Sorry but, house buying in this country is very much 'buyer beware' and also 'what you see is what you get'.

Sellers should leave the house clean, and most do, but they have absolutely no responsibility to do work on the house or do DIY or other jobs for the benefit of the sellers! If they did then the sellers of my current place would have had to spend about £25,000 for my benefit!

When FTBs have always rented, this can come as a bit of a shock as they are used to it being the landlord's responsibility to have the property nice and ready for them. Not the case at all when buying.

Its character building.

NaughtiusMaximus

Blakey74 wrote: »

Verbal contract are binding as far as I'm aware. If his wife is saying she cannot remember then I suspect a court would side with the buyers. If she is saying that she is certain she did not agree to the suggestion then thats a different matter.

Yes they are binding if you can prove such a contract exists. Examples of proof could be an independent witness or the other party acting in such a way as to infer they believed a contract existed.

If the OPs wife is saying she doesn't remember having the conversation and the buyer can provide no supporting evidence of any agreement I would hope/expect the court to rule in favour of the seller, I'm not a lawyer though so can't be sure.

Tygermoth

On an aside - a large part of my job is listening to calls where customers are 'adamant' they were told something and raised a formal complaint.

9 times out of 10 either the conversation never happened or the customer has 'moved' how something was said to a whole different outcome. Its surprisingly common for people to rewrite conversations in their head into their favor. I have even have people deny that they are wrong when the transcript or recording of the call is provided to them. The dreaded 'customer is always right' argument.

The split is even between the sexes.

m0bov

NaughtiusMaximus wrote: »

Yes they are binding if you can prove such a contract exists. Examples of proof could be an independent witness or the other party acting in such a way as to infer they believed a contract existed.

If the OPs wife is saying she doesn't remember having the conversation and the buyer can provide no supporting evidence of any agreement I would hope/expect the court to rule in favour of the seller, I'm not a lawyer though so can't be sure.

What would be the point in using a solicitor or even exchanging with a contract, if someone arrives at your viewing, I'll pay £400k will you sell..yes. Done..?

Blakey74_2

NaughtiusMaximus wrote: »

Yes they are binding if you can prove such a contract exists. Examples of proof could be an independent witness or the other party acting in such a way as to infer they believed a contract existed.

If the OPs wife is saying she doesn't remember having the conversation and the buyer can provide no supporting evidence of any agreement I would hope/expect the court to rule in favour of the seller, I'm not a lawyer though so can't be sure.

Civil Courts work on the balance on probability. If one witness turns up and says they are adamant that a verbal contact was made and the other says they cannot remember then its pretty likely the court will award in the favour of the one who is certain of their fact unless the other can convince the courts that complainant is lying.

hazyjo

It's hardly going to end up in court anyway, is it.


I've seen far worse tales on here and the general advice is 'let it go, move on'.


Can you imagine if someone came on this board saying 'my seller told me during a viewing they would remove a built-in bed, but it's still there - I had asked again after we exchanged'. What would we say? I certainly know what I'd be telling them!


Even the most pigheaded or cut-their-nose-off-to-spite-their-face sort of buyer isn't going to court over this.

TBagpuss

Verbal contracts are binding, but contracts for the sale of property have to be in writing.

Also,in buying and selling a house there are very specific processes. A buyer claiming that there was a verbal contract, where they didn't raise it at any time in the requisitions or via conveyancers before exchange is going to have an extremely difficult job satisfying anyone that there was a contract.

OP, if you wanted, you could go back via your solicitor to say that you are willing to remove the bed but in the basis that you will not be responsible for making good any damage / filling holes or redecorating, or you could simply say that this was not previously requested and wan't raised pre-exchange so the bed will remain, as per the property information forms.

Make sure this goes through your solicitor and check with them first!

Cardinal-Red

IANAL but...

On the basis that one of the items needed for a contract is consideration, and we can assume the only consideration that exists is that payable under the written contract for the house purchase, there is no enforceable contract in place for anything that was agreed verbally was there?