Sold House...now they want to sue me

[Amiga500]

Send the boys round?

[pzz76077]

Sold my house 4 weeks ago and have now received a letter from Solicitors from buyers claiming for a number of things

1) They say the electrics in our garage conversion are faulty. They've had someone check them and they say the certificate we were given by the electrician is flawed. The electrician used was appointed by the builder - in fact we never saw the electrician as the work was done whilst we were on hols. Also the builder is nowhere to be seen now.
In the questionaire for the house sale we stated that the electrics hadn't been tested. They're claiming £550 + vat
2) When buying they asked via their solicitor - Do the sinks, baths and showers drain efficiently. We said yes. They now say that there is a problem with the waste of toilet coming up through the bath due to the way the plumbing is installed. Now we never touched it in the 8 years we were there and never had any problems. They say they're going to get the work done and have photos to prove plumbing is wrong. They're claiming £650 + vat
3) They claim we promised to leave a kids wardrobe in one of the rooms. In the room in question we ticked the box to highlight we're leaving fitted units ( defined as for example: fitted cupboards, fitted shelves and fitted wardrobes). We did leave the fitted shelves. We took our freestanding 4 year old kids wardrobe - which incidentally retails at £75 in Argos. They're claiming £700

Now I've responded already saying we accept no responsibility and they've come back saying they're going to pursue us in the courts. My question is do they have a leg to stand on?
I'm no lawyer and my conveyancing lawyer isn't much help....but isn't it a case of buyer beware when you buy a house - thats why you have a survey.

Any advice, much appreciated.

Ask them for a copy of the survey that they got done prior to them buying the property. It they didnt get one done or the survey missed these points then not your problem.

Ask them for a copy of the reports that they have commissioned after exchanging contracts that were competed by qualified engineers that proves that the electrics and plumbing are not fit for use.

If they dont have these then I would not bother wasting time in any further communication.

PZZ

[bekarovka]

I've done a fair bit of wiring in my place over the years & don't have a certificate. I guess it'd only cost 100 quid or so to get a sparkie to come round and issue a certificate. Just worried about getting one who is on the make though. Perhaps when it comes to selling up I'll just say that all the wiring was done by the previous owners - i.e. pre 2005 & I guess you don't need a certificate for that

[Zippy]

I've done a fair bit of wiring in my place over the years & don't have a certificate. I guess it'd only cost 100 quid or so to get a sparkie to come round and issue a certificate. Just worried about getting one who is on the make though. Perhaps when it comes to selling up I'll just say that all the wiring was done by the previous owners - i.e. pre 2005 & I guess you don't need a certificate for that

Dangerous ...

[bekarovka]

Dangerous ...

My wiring's pretty damned good I'll have you know!

[ASB]

I've done a fair bit of wiring in my place over the years & don't have a certificate. I guess it'd only cost 100 quid or so to get a sparkie to come round and issue a certificate. Just worried about getting one who is on the make though. Perhaps when it comes to selling up I'll just say that all the wiring was done by the previous owners - i.e. pre 2005 & I guess you don't need a certificate for that

Well you might get away with it but it's pretty easy to date the installation due to components used amongst other things. I don't think you can simply get a certificate issued now, part P doesn't work quite that way.

[xoggoth]

What is required after 2005 shouldn't be relevant if they complied with the law by having a proper electrician to certify it. From electrician work we have had recently £550 sounds excessive for rectifying some garage wiring. Surely they have to make a claim based on actual costs not estimates of costs?

Solicitors always make all sorts of threats, it's what they are paid for, doesn't mean they have a case. If you're telling us the truth than clearly their costs and their claims are ridiculous. I assume you have the receipts etc for the work?

I'd be inclined to just string em out, first politely and concisely refute claims as you have done here and if they continue, ignore letters, say you are passing the claim on to the electrician but haven't heard etc. The buyer's legals costs just go up and up. Solicitors charge £120+ an hour for routine work. You could always capitulate when/if the actual court time is booked and it won't cost you anything AFAIK. I bet it won't be.

PS berekova. If you shop around I reckon that £100 should be about right.

[minestrone]

Tell them to **** off by not responding, or just tell them to **** off which is what I might do, if they actually do want to proceed with this wait till they deposit the productions at the court house then take them to a solicitor.

No point in hiring someone to look at possibilities of what might happen.

In Scotland you have 7 days to do this stuff, but then we have a proper conveyancing system.

[BolshieBastard]

The solicitor says I should be ok on the plumbing and the wardrobe, but says the electrics could be dodgy. Apparently since 2005 everything you do in your house has to be done by a certified electrician otherwise you're breaking the law. Now i wasn't aware of this...until now. thing is I took the cert I was given in good faith - I wasn't aware I was potentially breaking the law due to my builder appointing a dodgy electrician.

This is not totally correct. The Part P regulations allow the householder or a non certified electrician, to add additional sockets and extensions etc to an existing circuit.

Part P does not allow the householder or non certified electrician to add a new ring circuit (where a cable is run from the consumer unit to a couple of sockets and back to the consumer unit) and therefore new sockets.

If you have run an extension to the garage workshop or shed that does not form a new ring circuit, (even if previously there were no sockets in that location), you do not need to have a Part P certificate for the work so you can tell them to **** off.

Hope this helps.

[PRC1964]

Refer their solicitor to the case of Arkell v. Pressdram.