Buying a house (and renting)

Moggy wrote:...I'll be polite and calm tomorrow but I won't be agreeing to anything and I'll want any offer (if they make one!) in writing.

Nice one, Moggy - this bit is critical; although you're stressed and frustrated by the long-running situation, remaining calm and not abusive is important. It feels like you could be gaining the upper hand and it'll be key to continue being considered but firm at this point.

jawa2 wrote:

Moggy wrote:...I'll be polite and calm tomorrow but I won't be agreeing to anything and I'll want any offer (if they make one!) in writing.

Nice one, Moggy - this bit is critical; although you're stressed and frustrated by the long-running situation, remaining calm and not abusive is important. It feels like you could be gaining the upper hand and it'll be key to continue being considered but firm at this point.

Yeah I'll stay calm. I'm far more confident and abrasive in writing than I am in person/on the phone.

I'll listen to what he has to say. If I like it, I'll ask for it in writing. If I don't like it, I'll tell him so and continue with the tribunal legal action.

What a bunch of bellends they are.

Had a reasonable call, he's much nicer than the twat that usually writes to me. He said he understands where the confusion lies (he didn't admit anything though!) and said he wants a good relationship with leaseholders. I let him waffle on, he said he's been to the tribunal lots of times (I wonder why! ) and it's always dicey, sometimes a judge will rule in unexpected ways. He's been 200% sure of winning before only to lose.

Basically it was a lot of talking just to say tribunals don't always go the way people expect, there's a lot of time and money involved and he'd like to settle things before they get that far.

He's offered to return the interest element (£1500ish) plus a payment of £500.

I then had my say. I referenced (with exact dates) the letters that formed the settlement negotiation, I pointed out that the agreement meant things should have been settled, that I'd paid £6k under protest and so £2kish back isn't good enough. I also picked him up on a false statement he made that at one point I wasn't paying the quarterly service charges (he apologised).

We left it that he'll talk to the freeholder and his colleagues and put an offer in writing to me. I'm not expecting it to be great though! His phone offer was nowhere close to my biting point!

Basically trying to get you nervous that that the hearing wont go your way, then lowballed you. Quelle surprise.

£500 for all this agro and hassle

Mad isn't it!

There's obviously a point where I'd bite to end this, but the interest plus £500 isn't close.

I'm still laughing at how he kept saying how often he goes to the tribunals. If I was constantly in court because of my job, I might start to think that my employers were banana splits.

I just asked if my neighbour wanted to contribute to the cost of having the shared chimney down as it is awful condition and neither of us need it. Given that it isn't causing any issues for his house, he wasn't particularly interested.

Anyone here ever had to deal with this sort of thing before?

I'm taking that chimney down regardless and had already consigned myself to paying the full cost. In fact until it was pointed out to me, I hadn't even considered whether it was a shared chimney. I've got work been done to the flat roof and some of the woodwork is completely strawberry floated underneath so the chimney is the least of my worries. I have to hand it to the vendor. Fantastic work covering up these issues. Solicitor was not enthused with the idea that I could take the vendor to court for lying during the purchase of the property that there had never been any water leakage issues. Had enough of dealing with banana splits during the purchase so I don't think it is worth the hassle of taking that further, or pushing the chimney issue with my neighbour.

andretmzt wrote:I just asked if my neighbour wanted to contribute to the cost of having the shared chimney down as it is awful condition and neither of us need it. Given that it isn't causing any issues for his house, he wasn't particularly interested.

Anyone here ever had to deal with this sort of thing before?

I'm taking that chimney down regardless and had already consigned myself to paying the full cost. In fact until it was pointed out to me, I hadn't even considered whether it was a shared chimney. I've got work been done to the flat roof and some of the woodwork is completely strawberry floated underneath so the chimney is the least of my worries. I have to hand it to the vendor. Fantastic work covering up these issues. Solicitor was not enthused with the idea that I could take the vendor to court for lying during the purchase of the property that there had never been any water leakage issues. Had enough of dealing with banana splits during the purchase so I don't think it is worth the hassle of taking that further, or pushing the chimney issue with my neighbour.

Would be easier to have it repointed and reflashed than full removal which is a structural job that will also involve you taking out a party wall agreement with your neighbour.

Three weeks tomorrow since we moved house and I'm wondering where my three weeks off work got to. Our notice on our old house doesn't run out until the end of this month, but the landlord has already said that he's never had a house left so clean and tidy, which is nice and the deposit would be a huge chunk of the sofas we are hoping to purchase. As far as the new place goes, we've redecorated two rooms, but that still leaves a large chunk of the house to do, which is far behind the position I pictured us in at this point, though having had a reality check now, I can see that we've done well to do that already and have a house set up which is clean and tidy throughout. Other than a few minor holes in the walls needing filling, you would really not know that we've only recently moved in, so that's good.

I also know several Ikea parts by their product numbers now, which is rather sad.

As far as problems go since we moved in, we had a gas leak from the boiler. This was easily fixed, a nut was simply loose and needed to be tightened. Worryingly, the water softener was plugged in under the sink on an extension cable and there was a leak which was dripping onto the extension cable, meaning it was sparking. And yes, the boiler was just above that very same sink. Only cost a few hundred quid to get fixed, but it could have been a lethal combo. The garage door also came off the runners, which was a bit frustrating and set us back a couple of hundred quid again to get fixed. Overall though, we are very happy with the house. I'm almost looking forward to work tomorrow to give my arms and back a rest.

Dickheads have now emailed me to confirm their offer of a return of the interest plus £500. He obviously didn't listen when I rejected that on 31 December.

I'm torn on whether to go back with a counter offer or whether to (politely!) tell them to strawberry float off.

Lawyer up and set up a CrowdJustice page! Kick some freeholder arse.

No need to lawyer up yet, the property Tribunal shouldn't be overly complex.

Moggy wrote:What a bunch of bellends they are.

Had a reasonable call, he's much nicer than the twat that usually writes to me. He said he understands where the confusion lies (he didn't admit anything though!) and said he wants a good relationship with leaseholders. I let him waffle on, he said he's been to the tribunal lots of times (I wonder why! ) and it's always dicey, sometimes a judge will rule in unexpected ways. He's been 200% sure of winning before only to lose.

Basically it was a lot of talking just to say tribunals don't always go the way people expect, there's a lot of time and money involved and he'd like to settle things before they get that far.

He's offered to return the interest element (£1500ish) plus a payment of £500.

I then had my say. I referenced (with exact dates) the letters that formed the settlement negotiation, I pointed out that the agreement meant things should have been settled, that I'd paid £6k under protest and so £2kish back isn't good enough. I also picked him up on a false statement he made that at one point I wasn't paying the quarterly service charges (he apologised).

We left it that he'll talk to the freeholder and his colleagues and put an offer in writing to me. I'm not expecting it to be great though! His phone offer was nowhere close to my biting point!

You got them by the plums here. Nice!

Clearly theyve been bullying people under the understanding that most wouldnt fight back. Not this time!

However, you have to be careful with these kinds of offers....if they offer you pretty close to your claim amount, then it might affect how the tribunal awards costs/legal fees etc. Still, it'd have to be 75%+ of your claim figure to be considered a reasonable offer.

Anyway, i think you've won this case.

Moggy wrote:Dickheads have now emailed me to confirm their offer of a return of the interest plus £500. He obviously didn't listen when I rejected that on 31 December.

I'm torn on whether to go back with a counter offer or whether to (politely!) tell them to strawberry float off.

Decline the offer. Plus, you're in the driving seat now. Perhaps say that for this to be resolved without further legal expenses i want 75%+ of the claim amount. It's not reasonable to entertain anything less.

What the total cost? Something like £12k isn't it?

Original amount paid was £5k, and the additional £5k + "interest" was paid under protest, so £11.5k? Then plus damages for the stress and anxiety this situation has caused...

Drumstick wrote:What the total cost? Something like £12k isn't it?

Original amount paid was £5k, and the additional £5k + "interest" was paid under protest, so £11.5k? Then plus damages for the stress and anxiety this situation has caused...

Yeah it's roughly £11k.

£5k full and final settlement
£6k to get them off my back and start legal action.

There's no way I'm accepting £1600 (interest plus the £500).

If they offered £4k then I'd be tempted to just end this gooseberry fool. It's £2k less than I'd likely get from the Tribunal but would be a guaranteed amount and would avoid the risk (however small!!) of losing.

I also thinking he's trying to pull a fast one here as his email refers to "crediting your account", not "payment to your bank account". I remember with the Ombudsman compensation they wanted to credit the service charge account, rather than pay me the money.

I can just imagine them crediting the service charge account and then a week later they mysteriously find some charges that were "owed" that zeroes the balance.

The cooker in the house we're buying is basically brand new. Will we still have claim on the warranty if it breaks despite it being (by some measure) second hand?

OrangeRKN wrote:The cooker in the house we're buying is basically brand new. Will we still have claim on the warranty if it breaks despite it being (by some measure) second hand?

When I bought my place the previous owners gave me a folder full of manuals and warranty details of all the installed appliances and such. Can you ask for something similar?