Buyers complaining after completion

TripleH

It depends on exactly what the buyer was told AND how they chose to interpret it.

'You can sue the vendor' may well have been used and it is true BUT as has been stated on many threads on here, anyone dan sue anyone else for anything, it doesn't mean you'll win.

It's a no loose situation for the solicitor, they have taken action as per their client that has probably cost very little time for them to do. I suspect if they were serious a letter would have been sent. The vendor (Op) might ignore it and everyone moves on or panic and pay money over be aware a solicitor sent an email.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Triple H

Practicing Right !!!!!! Toerag (P.R.A.T)

stressedout45

What I find insane, is that although we received the email at the start of this week, you can see from the chain underneath that the original email was sent from the buyers solicitors to our solicitor on the afternoon of completion, we had only just gone and picked up our keys at that time!  Our buyers literally must’ve been standing in the house ranting down the phone to their solicitor, as soon as they entered the house! Our solicitor must have delayed sending it on to us, so as to not ruin our move day. Probably because they knew it was absolutely ridiculous.   On receiving email, I called our solicitor and he agreed it was all  crazy but he was just following a process and was obliged to pass it on to us.  

user1977

TripleH said:

I suspect if they were serious a letter would have been sent.

These days I don't think the mode of transmission is all that relevant (at least for the initial communication) - and letters are a pain to send and receive if the respective solicitors are still working from home.

TheJP

stressedout45 said:

What I find insane, is that although we received the email at the start of this week, you can see from the chain underneath that the original email was sent from the buyers solicitors to our solicitor on the afternoon of completion, we had only just gone and picked up our keys at that time!  Our buyers literally must’ve been standing in the house ranting down the phone to their solicitor, as soon as they entered the house! Our solicitor must have delayed sending it on to us, so as to not ruin our move day. Probably because they knew it was absolutely ridiculous.   On receiving email, I called our solicitor and he agreed it was all  crazy but he was just following a process and was obliged to pass it on to us.  

Some people have unrealistic expectations when they move into a house particularly some FTBs who expect a turnkey house. The first time I sold my house was to an FTB couple who had no idea of the process and were very naïve.  

stressedout45

TheJP said:

stressedout45 said:

What I find insane, is that although we received the email at the start of this week, you can see from the chain underneath that the original email was sent from the buyers solicitors to our solicitor on the afternoon of completion, we had only just gone and picked up our keys at that time!  Our buyers literally must’ve been standing in the house ranting down the phone to their solicitor, as soon as they entered the house! Our solicitor must have delayed sending it on to us, so as to not ruin our move day. Probably because they knew it was absolutely ridiculous.   On receiving email, I called our solicitor and he agreed it was all  crazy but he was just following a process and was obliged to pass it on to us.  

Some people have unrealistic expectations when they move into a house particularly some FTBs who expect a turnkey house. The first time I sold my house was to an FTB couple who had no idea of the process and were very naïve.  

Quite, although these are not FTB's.

   They have stressed us out right from the very start of the process.   They were pressuring us to break the chain literally a couple of days after making their offer.  We stood firm on this because we knew we were in no position to do so.  Despite them asking us to do this numerous times. 

Our estate agent was always phoning us, telling us that she had received long ranty emails from them, telling us we needed to move out so they could move in ASAP.  The estate agent told us that she’d never known anybody like it (the buyers, not us!) in fact I remember one time prior to exchange, the EA told me that she very rarely got stressed by things  , but that our buyers were even stressing her out.

The ironic thing was, in the end, it was our buyers that were holding up exchange!  We were very proactive regarding all our paperwork/any enquiries, etc,  and we personally were ready for weeks before exchange actually happened.  

Debt

Tell them you have a key to the property and that you will go back sometime over the next six months, when you have time to do a clean.

They will change the locks and you will never hear from them again.

Mac_70_

stressedout45 said:

We completed on our sale/purchase last week.  This week, our solicitor forwarded us a very strongly worded email from our buyers solicitor.  It transpires that our buyer is extremely unhappy with many things in our house.

These apparently relate to things like scuffs on the skirting boards and doors. The side bath panel being loose, the garden having some weeds in.  The bathroom is in the same state it was when we bought the house 5 years ago!  The only improvement we made to it was to paint the walls.  

They have also made allegations that we did no cleaning whatsoever before moving out.  This is completely untrue - after the removals team had packed up, we both did as much cleaning as we were able to, in fact until the hoover ran out of charge and we ran out of antibacterial wipes we used then that much! 

We had not done any gardening for a little while, that much is true.  

But everything else they mentioned was there when they viewed, and at exchange of contracts.  They viewed earlier this year. It took 3 months to get from offer to exchange, and they never came back for another look around prior to exchange, we'd have been more than happy to accommodate this.  

They also did not have a survey done - just a mortgage valuation.  

At the end of the email, their solicitor said that they expected compensation.  Our solicitor has quite rightly replied to say that no compensation will be forthcoming, and a reminder that the onus is on the buyer to make appropriate investigations prior to exchange of contracts. 

I've been quite upset by receiving this email.  We did our best to make the place homely and clean during the time we were there.  I hope that the solicitor is right and that they have no comeback?  It's really taken the shine off our first week in our new home.  

They maybe thought you needed a good laugh after the stress of selling/buying a house. Send them a thank you letter for cheering you up.

Exodi

Can not believe what I've just read.

The house wasn't cleaned to their standard and the garden has some weeds in it? Is this some sort of joke?

Who moves into a house not expecting to have to perform any maintenance whatsoever?! If they wanted that level of convenience they should have bought a new build.

Absolute madness.

pinkteapot

Either ignore it completely or let your solicitor send the "go away" response they have suggested. I'd do the latter so they don't keep bothering you for a reply. Reply once then ignore anything further. 

EDIT: Re-reading your post, it looks like your solicitor might have already replied? In which case definitely just ignore it!

firebubble

Ignore it, what awful bullying people. I hope you got a good price out of them!

There seem to be a lot of buyers who move in expecting a show home - is this a new thing, or just a reflection of the high purchase prices people are paying?  

There is no such thing as objectively 'clean' - one person's clean is another person's dirty. Everyone has different standards. Plus those moving out won't necessarily notice something that a fresh pair of eyes will see. 

I think a bit of buyer's remorse is normal - you pay a huge sum of money for something you've probably seen for about 15 minutes, you struggle to get the transaction done and then you move in and discover that everything has been stuck down or breaks or whatever.

Most people though have a modicum of grace, and just accept that's how it goes. They get out their rubber gloves, and paintbrushes and get on with setting the house to rights, which is the most enjoyable part of the process, making your new home yours.

These buyers sound awful, and instead of dealing with their own feelings are putting it all onto you. Ignore the letter. They can't do anything - the principle is 'caveat emptor' ie 'buyer beware'. The onus was on them to establish whether the house was as they wanted. As they had the chance to do that, they don't have any comeback.