Buyer is concerned about the garden…

Gycraig

I would tell my solicitor to tell them I don’t want to hear anything else about a house i don’t own anymore, and if they are unhappy they can take me to court. 

Devongardener

Your buyers do sound difficult but they do have a point about locating the water meter. You really needed to note the meter reading and advise the water company on the day you moved out.  Otherwise how do you know your final bill is correct?  If your buyers are that flaky they could easily run many litres of water off then give a really high opening reading, and a big bill for you.   Everyone should check their meter regularly to be sure there are no leaks

Slithery

Do we actually know that the OP had a water meter? If there is just a stopcock in the pavement then they could have still been unmetered...

Devongardener

Slithery said:

Do we actually know that the OP had a water meter? If there is just a stopcock in the pavement then they could have still been unmetered...

I did wonder that too, but they would have had to at least state which company supplied their water on the Property Information form they filled in as part of the sales process and should have informed the company of change of ownership.   I assume they must have had either a water bill if on a meter or a water rates statement if not, so they could easily have informed the buyer either way.

donutandbeer

Slithery said:

Do we actually know that the OP had a water meter? If there is just a stopcock in the pavement then they could have still been unmetered...

Just to clarify:

1. Water meter is in the pavement on the street outside of the house.
2. Water stopcock is in the house (I had shown the buyer during their last viewing).
 
 
I understand we really should have known where the meter is. Husband actually knew (but I didn’t know he knew because he literally does not know where anything else is). I certainly will find out where the meter is (if any) for the future house we are buying, honestly I think the only reason I did not know is because I was not involved (had not even met my husband yet) in the purchase of the house that we just sold. That plus I’ve only been in this country a few years and there are just a lot of things that are different. 

I suppose I think it shouldn’t be that difficult to find out where the water meter is, I just never tried to myself, but if I were to try I would certainly google first to see where the common places to put a meter are in the UK, especially after the vendor (us) told them we don’t know where it is. Or they can call the water company (I obviously had told them which one it is), or they can ask a plumber? I don’t know. Perhaps EA should have suggested some common places for them to look for? There are lots of things to try before harassing us. 

Devongardener said:

Your buyers do sound difficult but they do have a point about locating the water meter. You really needed to note the meter reading and advise the water company on the day you moved out.  Otherwise how do you know your final bill is correct?  If your buyers are that flaky they could easily run many litres of water off then give a really high opening reading, and a big bill for you.   Everyone should check their meter regularly to be sure there are no leaks

I understand we are both supposed to take the last reading on completion day. When we notified the water and gas & electricity company we are moving they have said we can take the reading on the last day to get the most accurate reading but it’s not necessary. It was not on the top of my to-do list, because I didn’t think the buyer would run lots of water off  in the off chance that we didn’t take the reading and they are able to give us a big water bill because the meter somehow registered their use of water a few days ahead. I assume they would be using water normally and if we are to pay a few days extra I don’t think it’s going to make a huge difference. I suppose they were probably worried that we have run lots of water off before completion and deliberately not tell them where the meter is so they will have to pay for our crazy water use because there might be some delays in registering the water use!?
 
 
I mean, hindsight is a great thing and in hindsight we would have taken a video on completion day to show how the patio door lock is NOT broken, if we had known they are going to either break it or at least accuse us of breaking it. 

donutandbeer

Gycraig said:

I would tell my solicitor to tell them I don’t want to hear anything else about a house i don’t own anymore, and if they are unhappy they can take me to court. 

This is basically what I think. If they come back trying again then I would imagine our solicitor will at some point have to start charging us money to reply to them, and we are definitely not paying a solicitor to reply to their crazy requests. I also imagine their solicitor will at some point have to charge them extra, and if they are asking for a £300 bill to be reimbursed then I guess they are less likely to pay extra to their solicitor, or so I hope. 

Bendy_House

donutandbeer said:

Slithery said:

Do we actually know that the OP had a water meter? If there is just a stopcock in the pavement then they could have still been unmetered...

Just to clarify:

1. Water meter is in the pavement on the street outside of the house.
2. Water stopcock is in the house (I had shown the buyer during their last viewing).
 
 
I understand we really should have known where the meter is. Husband actually knew (but I didn’t know he knew because he literally does not know where anything else is). I certainly will find out where the meter is (if any) for the future house we are buying, honestly I think the only reason I did not know is because I was not involved (had not even met my husband yet) in the purchase of the house that we just sold. That plus I’ve only been in this country a few years and there are just a lot of things that are different. 

I suppose I think it shouldn’t be that difficult to find out where the water meter is, I just never tried to myself, but if I were to try I would certainly google first to see where the common places to put a meter are in the UK, especially after the vendor (us) told them we don’t know where it is. Or they can call the water company (I obviously had told them which one it is), or they can ask a plumber? I don’t know. Perhaps EA should have suggested some common places for them to look for? There are lots of things to try before harassing us. 

Devongardener said:

Your buyers do sound difficult but they do have a point about locating the water meter. You really needed to note the meter reading and advise the water company on the day you moved out.  Otherwise how do you know your final bill is correct?  If your buyers are that flaky they could easily run many litres of water off then give a really high opening reading, and a big bill for you.   Everyone should check their meter regularly to be sure there are no leaks

I understand we are both supposed to take the last reading on completion day. When we notified the water and gas & electricity company we are moving they have said we can take the reading on the last day to get the most accurate reading but it’s not necessary. It was not on the top of my to-do list, because I didn’t think the buyer would run lots of water off  in the off chance that we didn’t take the reading and they are able to give us a big water bill because the meter somehow registered their use of water a few days ahead. I assume they would be using water normally and if we are to pay a few days extra I don’t think it’s going to make a huge difference. I suppose they were probably worried that we have run lots of water off before completion and deliberately not tell them where the meter is so they will have to pay for our crazy water use because there might be some delays in registering the water use!?
 
 
I mean, hindsight is a great thing and in hindsight we would have taken a video on completion day to show how the patio door lock is NOT broken, if we had known they are going to either break it or at least accuse us of breaking it. 

Relax. The location of the water meter is a very minor issue, easily resolved, and - no surprise - it turned out to be in the obvious place. 

The fact that they seemed a bit panicky about it suggests to me they are terrified at being landed with a single groat of 'your' bill. £300k for a house (or whatevs), not a problem. £1.26 of someone else's water bill? HELL, NO!

So, really best draw a line...

But, yes, next time a 3 hour Pannavision epic with voice-over and subtitles as you prove the integrity of every single lock, key, switch, and floorboard nail will be a cracking way of keeping future precious folk at bay. And don't forget the garden, proving 'life' in every one of your precious plants, delivered in your best Attenborough whisper.

Your poor, poor neighbours. I hope you feel bad :-) 

MrsBrush

Sounds like you are glad the transaction is over, and you can leave your buyers to their drama! Move on, and don't worry. Good luck with your onward purchase and plans for the future.

When we moved in October, we bought a house and garden that needed "attention" - which we knew at the time and made the offer accordingly. The best part was that other houses were selling like hot cakes and this one had been on the market for months - in a good area, its a nice sized house in a popular town, it had lots of viewings and no offers at all. Nothing structurally wrong at all, it just looked terrible and needed someone to see beyond the mess.

At no point did we decide to try to renegotiate the prices. We also knew that the previous owner made "some" effort to clear the junk, which saved us the cost of 2 skips! When we eventually moved in, hubby couldn't get his tools in the shed as it was filled with old furniture, several items were left in the house, the loft was filled to the brim with 50 year's worth of old (and used) carpets and lino, the place was filled to the brim with dust and dirt. The garden had been "landscaped" with raised wooden boxes for vegetables and flowers, a raised "pond" of manky and smelly insect filled dirty water, and about 5 tons of shingle! We could have made a complaint to the solicitor, but decided not to - because it was genuinely not any worse than when we viewed it (although with all his stuff it was hard to tell!), and it was one additional hassle that wasn't worth the effort. I totally agree with @gycraig - the old owner didn't own it any more, so why would he care?

Its taken 8 months so far, and I used the £500 it would have cost to pursue the old owner on a couple of skips and a ton of cleaning products. We now have a lawn starting to emerge out of the mess that called itself a garden, and I can walk through the house now without feeling the need to bleach everything in sight! And the Zoopla estimate on the house has shown an increase of around £50k over the price we paid. And we have only spent £1500 so far, we have not touched the ancient boiler and other planned works yet. We have spend most of the time and money so far sorting out the back garden so we can at least enjoy sunshine in the summer, and on cleaning it enough to feel it is now at an acceptable level of dirt and dust to live in! I can honestly say that I feel lucky that we are where we are now, and I wouldn't swap what we have at this stage for any of the other houses we looked at. Although, there have been moments...

Megaross

Don't pay them anything or pander to them, only way to deal with this brand of clown is ignore them.

They honestly sound like entitled, spoilt brats who never take any responsibility for themselves or their business. Let them wallow in a bubbling pool of anger and self pity - enjoy your new home.

TripleH

We never worked out our water meter in our last flat. We knew where the meters were for the building, just not ours.

That garden is nothing compared to the jungle slope we have.

Good luck in your new home.