House bought with faulty boiler

Nives

Hi guys, hope this is the right place to post my question.

My partner and I bought recently a house in Scotland.
In the sale contract there was a clause about repairs after sale: in case of huge repairs (over £400) the cost is on the seller.
Well, we noticed immediately after purchase that the boiler doesn't work because of fan and thermostat malfunction, so we informed our solicitor.
It is necessary to replace both fan and thermostat and we was quoted £430 by the plumber (£220 for the new pieces and the rest for labor).
The boiler is out of warranty (the previous owner never did annual check since 2006...), so we are not covered.
The problem now is that the seller is vanished. Our solicitor is trying to contact him, but without results.
Should we prepare ourselves to lose this money?
Or can we proceed legally against the seller?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers!

jaybeetoo

Could the seller insist on you getting 3 quotes for the work?

Could the seller get a quote from someone else that comes in under £400?

How are you going to legally proceed against the seller if you don't know where they live?

AdrianC

Nives wrote: »

The problem now is that the seller is vanished. Our solicitor is trying to contact him, but without results.
Should we prepare ourselves to lose this money?
Or can we proceed legally against the seller?

There's two questions here.

First is whether the vendor is liable to pay. That's one for those who understand the Scottish system far better than me.

The second is, assuming they are liable, whether it's worth your time/effort/money/blood pressure to take them to small claim court if you have no idea where they are. Let's say you do, and you win because they don't defend... How much good time/effort/money/blood pressure are you willing to throw after bad to try to locate them to enforce the debt?

It's four hundred quid. In the grand scheme of bills your central heating boiler (let alone the rest of a house) can throw at you, it's relatively minor. Nobody's dead.

davidmcn

AdrianC wrote: »

First is whether the vendor is liable to pay. That's one for those who understand the Scottish system far better than me.

Yes they are (assuming the contract was in fairly standard terms), and if they weren't then I'm sure the OP's solicitor will already have pointed that out.

The practicalities of extracting funds from the seller are much the same as anywhere else though - especially if you need to spend more money just to track them down in the first place.

Nives

Exactly, they are, otherwise would be useless to include a clause for that in the contract.
I know that is more expensive to reach the seller than pay directly for the repair, but is one of principle. It's scandalous that a seller can simply vanish after selling a house with a faulty boiler, we paid for that as well when we bought the house.
I was simply wondering if there is a supervisor body that can protect us against this things without pay a fortune for a solicitor.

AdrianC

Nives wrote: »

I know that is more expensive to reach the seller than pay directly for the repair, but is one of principle.

Principle has broken a lot of good people.

I was simply wondering if there is a supervisor body that can protect us against this things without pay a fortune for a solicitor.

You don't need a solicitor. It's just a small claim.

m0bov

Your buyers solicitor must have done ID checks so must have an address for him.

davidmcn

Nives wrote: »

I was simply wondering if there is a supervisor body that can protect us against this things without pay a fortune for a solicitor.

Not sure what you mean by a "supervisor body". As above, you can pursue a small claim without a solicitor, but that doesn't avoid the need to find the defender (or if you get a judgement against them, the potential further costs in forcing them to pay up). You might be able to recover some of those costs from the debtor, but otherwise nobody else is going to subsidise the costs for you.

Nives

Thanks guys, I didn't know this issue involves just a small claim.
Thanks David, I think you're right, we will proceed as you said

RelievedSheff

If you are quibbling over a £400 repair bill now what are you going to be like when the house throws up a proper repair bill into the thousands?

Is it really worth all the time, effort and expense of tracking this person down and then claiming against them for £400?

Just pay the bill and get on with your life.

Nives

As I said it's not a matter of money. We will pay all the repairs that will be necessary in future, because it's on us, but I won't to pay what other people have to pay. There is a contract that we signed and the seller as well, and this contract protect us against this kind of inconvenience. I don't undertstand why we shouldn't enforce our rights.

Thanks anyway