Misrepresentation on property information form

[Sweepiecat]

Hello. Help needed with misrepresentation on property information form please.

[des8]

Good evening and welcome.

If you care to post more detail some kind soul(s) will be along to help (tomorrow a.m. possibly!)

[Sweepiecat]

Hello. Thank you. Here goes... My ex and I sold a property in August 2010. On the PIF we filled out that we on 2.1 and 2.2 of the form never had a dispute or knew of anything that could cause a dispute which was true.
The buyers of the property then took to court a model airplane flying club that flew model aircraft in a few fields away from the property. They won their case on a technicality and got the model airplane club closed down. My ex helped them to get the club closed down, by writing an email saying that he had complained to the club on 4 occasions, which is a complete lie. He or I never complained to the club, and we have witness statements from the club stating that they had never received a complaint from us, and we had never even met them in the 8 years we owned the property. The owners of the property have turned my ex's email around saying that we must have had a dispute with them as his emails states, but as explained he wrote the email not knowing that they would ever use it in this way. So far we have spent £20k in legal fees and are due to go to court soon. It seems that his email is what the case rests on. Any help or advice would be appreciated.

[des8]

This seems utter madness to me.

I don't understand why your ex would help the purchasers, who presumably are strangers?

Also making a complaint to someone doesn't automatically mean there is a dispute.

What are the purchaser's seeking?
As the alleged nuisance has now ceased they aren't surely seeking to reverse their purchase?
Looking for their costs in closing down the club, and a little compensation, but not as much as your legal costs?

tagging Peridot

[jaguarsuk]

My ex helped them to get the club closed down, by writing an email saying that he had complained to the club on 4 occasions, which is a complete lie. He or I never complained to the club, and we have witness statements from the club stating that they had never received a complaint from us, and we had never even met them in the 8 years we owned the property.

Well that was stupid!!

If they'll sue the model air plane club they are clearly litigious, so your ex should have been very careful in dealing with them.

He's in a right mess, because if he comes out in court and says the email wasn't true he's committed perjury by lying in the first court case to close the club. It's going to be really hard to overcome that email. If you have spent £20K on legal costs what are your representatives saying?

[Amethyst]

Do you have any idea why he decided to assist the new owners of the property to have the model plane club ( which hadn't been any cause of dispute to him previously ) closed down ? He'll need to show why he sent that email to assist the new owner of the property in his ( pretty mean ) attempt to have the club shut down. Were the new owners threatening to pull out of the sale ? sue over a dispute ( which never existed ?) I think he is at the end of the line lies wise, hole is dug, and he needs to be truthful from here on in.

However likely he will need to consider the consequence of having lied to assist in getting the club shut down worse than the consequence of having to pay compensation to the new property owners for the PIF being found to be wrong ? Lies do have a habit of coming back to bite you on the ass, and this seems to be case in point. Your solicitors must have advised one way or the other - do they even know it was a lie about the previous dispute ?

[paulajayne]

How was the help requested for the false Email? -- Do you have any records of that request?

[Peridot]

One way or the other an untruth has been told, either on the PIF in stating there were no disputes known about and in fact there had been complaints made to the model flying club, or a document has been created after the sale to try and support the purchaser in their complaint about the flying club. I'm not sure what your husband hoped to achieve in assisting the purchaser in this way or what he thought they would try and do with the information he provided?

In any event it has happened and whichever way it happened it seems to me there is nothing that can be done other than to come clean for which there will be consequences, most likely financial ones. As the model flying club have no record of a complaint ever having been received it would seem the e-mail is the issue. As mentioned by others this has been used in the case that resulted in the flying club being shut down/moved. In doing so costs have been incurred in respect of the 'shut down' and court fees for the process that appears to have happened, to achieve this. If the e-mail had never been created the purchaser would have been on their own so to speak and any costs incurred in getting the result they desired would be of their own making with no 'help' from anyone else supporting their case.

You mention £20k in legal costs to date so this would appear to have been going on for a while.

Do you have legal representation? You need to discuss your options with your solicitor/barrister as to what damage limitation options you potentially have. They may suggest an offer to settle the matter which IMO you have to seriously consider now. Please see your solicitor or obtain some face to face advice on the limited options you now have.

[des8]

I think it might be useful to know what the claimant is alleging and what they are seeking.

[Sweepiecat]

Thank you for your replies. The case is going to the high court in the summer. The case has been going on for 18 months so far. The claimants are seeking around £65k. This is because they didn't get the their full claim back from the flying club. They got paid around £170k. They bought the property in 2010. The flying club was closed down in 2014. The email was sent in 2013. The claimants asked my ex how many times he had complained, 1,2,3 by email. So he told a lie and said 4 times. I have no idea why he lied and why he said he would help them when we and the club didn't ever cross paths. The flying club has nothing against us as they know that we never complained. They got closed down on a technicality, and due to noise, so not on the strength of the email. We have have had legal representation, but have decided due to costs that if this goes any further we will have to represent ourselves. We have made 3 offers to settle, the top being £25k, which they have declined. The claimant is saying that we lied on the PIF as he has an email from my ex stating that he had complained 4 times. That is what they are basing the claim on. Thank you for reading this.

[Amethyst]

If this was by email is there prior discussion before he said he'd complained 4 times ? Anything that shows it wasn't true and he was trying to help the claimant ?

The actual case case didn't rely on prior neighbour complaints but on increase in noise etc after 2010 ? ( ie after the new owner had moved in) and the email wasn't used in the case as evidence ? ( did it result in closure due to a planning technicality ? )

[Sweepiecat]

There is absolutely no prior discussion with anyone about the flying club. The new buyers wanted to even stop the fishermen fishing. They will not be happy until they are the only family on the earth. The noise increased after 2010. The email was not used as evidence in the case. The flying club have said In their witness statements that we NEVER complained to them. We didn't. We have told the other sides solicitor and the buyers that the email was sent to help you and you've turned it around and used it against us. The flying club lost the case due to a planning technicality. They couldn't prove 10 years continual flying. The case rests according to counsel on the email.

[Amethyst]

How did he come to send the email at all if there was no prior discussion ? His witness statement in defending the misrep claim will need to say why he sent the email and that it was a lie.

[jaguarsuk]

There is absolutely no prior discussion with anyone about the flying club. The new buyers wanted to even stop the fishermen fishing. They will not be happy until they are the only family on the earth. The noise increased after 2010. The email was not used as evidence in the case. The flying club have said In their witness statements that we NEVER complained to them. We didn't. We have told the other sides solicitor and the buyers that the email was sent to help you and you've turned it around and used it against us. The flying club lost the case due to a planning technicality. They couldn't prove 10 years continual flying. The case rests according to counsel on the email.

Were the buyers strangers? I'm just wondering why he felt obligated to send that email. If someone who'd bought a house off me asked me for information I'd just ignore them as I don't owe them anything and if they have an issue it's for them to sort not me. It's all a little strange to me.

[Phaeton]

I'm also wondering why the airplane club had to pay £170K which was £65K less than the buyer wanted, seems an awful lot of money