To exchange or not?

zeddy_2

Sorry to pester...

anyone any ideas on whether we would be liable for this dispute if we went ahead and completed??

was thinking of getting a second legal opinion, but only have a couple of hundred quid left now...

TBeckett100

citizens advice?

zeddy_2

good idea.

do you think they'll be able to advise??

TBeckett100

they can advise on most things. I reckon most people have gone to citizens advice when the young unemployed family next door lets their "staffie bull terrier" !!!!!! on their lawn.

Nenen

zeddy wrote: »

The estate agent likened it to the neighbour murdering someone in the house and then selling the property and the murder case still being attached to the new owners – personally I don’t see it being anything like this, because a murder has no association with the building whereas this dispute is over works carried out from our property to her property.

I would take whatever an EA told me with a ton of salt! Remember the EA has a vested interest in pushing this sale through. You won't see the EA for dust after completion and you won't have any come back if their verbal reassurances prove to be complete garbage! IMHO you would be far better off asking your conveyancer this question... especially as it was him/her that discovered the dispute in the first place. I wouldn't have thought that asking him/her to answer this question would cost you much but you could ask for a quote to help you clarify the legal position.

zeddy wrote: »

P.S. We are trying to arrange a meeting with the lady whose made the dispute (if she’s willing) and the neighbour on the other side has offered to meet with us as he knows the whole thing and everyone involved.

Who has told you the neighbour on the other side knows the whole thing and everyone involved? If it is your vendor that wants the other neighbour involved then personally I'd find that rather strange! The other neighbour could be a mate of the vendor and may not be unbiased. Have you talked to the neighbour with the dispute yet?

Richard_Webster

You must talk to the neighbour with the dispute. She may either have a legitimate grievance about a builder's couldn't care less attitude to a neighbour's property, or she may be a complete stresspole who is magnifying the importance of the whole thing. You can only gauge this if you talk to her. If she turns out to be stresspole, do you want to live next to her? She might find some reason to complain something trivial that you do in the future.

zeddy_2

Hi Nenan,

Thanks for the reply - Yes I think you may be right that the neighbour could be a mate or something - why does he want to get involved otherwise? We don't know him or anything. We've decided not to meet up with him for the time being.

I think what we need to know is if we would be liable for the dispute if we purchase the property? The CAB wouldn't help us today because we don't live locally (2 miles away)! Richard - do you know this??

Doozergirl

Speak to your solcitor! They will know for certain and it's what you pay them for!!

I can imagine a developer runnning roughshod over other people's property Especially when if they've employed contractors, they might just do as they're told without checking with the neighbours. It would be your vendor's respsonsibility to talk properly to the neighbours - it's managing the development properly at the end of the day. But sometimes they take the attitude that as they won't be around for long, it doesn't matter. Whether she's a busybody or not, he's obviously hoping that it would just go away and that is the wrong attitude to take as well. If you are a developer you have the resources to put damage right at a smaller expense than the average person.

It's so important to keep the neighbours happy when you're a developer. For quite obvious reasons, your developer is discovering!

It sounds better for the lady than it would if he'd lived next door for years, iyswim.

When you speak to her, if she isn't crazy, ask what needs to be put right and see if you can negotiate for the developer to fix whatever is wrong, if he isn't prepared to pay the full whack. It does sound a bit steep for a small area of garden and a fence panel

zeddy_2

Thanks for your sound advice Doozergirl. I agree with you about what you were saying a lot of property developers are like. That's part of what is making us angry - that he wants to do this for a living (this is his 2nd house he's done up) but yet he is trying to sherk his responsibilities.

The vendor rang us up this morning, just before we could ring up our conveyancer to say that we are going to pull out of the deal unless he resolves the dspute, so we got to tell him straight then. He said he'd ring his solicitor up to arrange a document to be written that stated that we had no liablity etc for this. When our conveyancor saw it he said he didn't think it was enough so now he wants a retention(?) of £2k for 2 years to be in place as well. I have no idea what this actually means, except that I think we would still be inheriting the dispute but this £2k from the vendor (being held by his solicitor) would cover anything should the dispute continue. Anyone any idea if I'm on the right track?!

Thinking about it, it'd probably be cheaper for him to just settle with the neighbour and pay her £1500 to resove the dispute and then we complete. Et voila!!