Sold House, Purchaser claiming for a new boiler

[Glasgoj]

Hi,

I have received notification of a default judgement. Lots has happened but I will try and summarise:

• I sold property in 2014
• received letter via my solicitors around a month after completion asking for funds to cover cost of replacement boiler as an engineer had serviced it and due to excess CO had condemmed boiler.
• I instructed my solicitors to respond explaining boiler was working at completion and in the nicest way its not my problem. (My solicitors are rubbish and it would appear didn't respond!)
• Revived letter, to a property I own but rent out, for attachment of earnings.
• After investigating it would appear she made a claim online to cover the cost of the boiler but provided the court with a very old address for me. I received no info until the letter passed on to be by my tenant.
• I applied to have judgement set aside straight away (before even having details of the claim at the county court did not have them)
• Judge has scheduled a hearing re application to set aside for December.

The claim essentially states that I put on the fixtures and fitting form that boiler was in good working order (which it was) she had someone come out over a month after completion to check the boiler and there was an issue with it meaning it had to be declared unsafe. She has a letter from the engineer explaining the issues ( 1 of which was dead batteries in the thermostat and the other was incomplete combustion when settings were high all of which could be fixed at a minor cost)
I have spoken to the gas engineer and he confirmed over the phone that she refused to let him investigate but rather demanded a new boiler

Does she actually have a case?

The attachment of earnings are still being pursued even though we have the hearing date to set aside.

I am in the process of trying to buy a house and clearly I cant get my mortgage until this is set aside

Is there anything I can do to speed this all up?

thanks for your help I am pulling my hair out!!!

[stevemLS]

Re: Sold House, Purchaser claiming for a new boiler

As I understand it, purchase of property is one of the few transactions where it is genuinely a case of caveat emptor and it is up to the purchaser to make any enquiries they consider necessary and to take whatever professional advice they see fit in order to satisfy themselves as to the condition of the property.

There was an offence of property misdescription but it relates only to "prescribed matters", the misleading statement had to be made by an estate agent and it has, in any event, been repealed.

I think you have a good chance of having the judgment set aside and successfully defending the substantive claim.

Afraid I don't know of any mechanism to expedite the hearing.

[judgemental24]

Re: Sold House, Purchaser claiming for a new boiler

I have to agree on the above

As long as you had a gas ticket when the house was sold you will be fine

[Crazy council]

Re: Sold House, Purchaser claiming for a new boiler

Hi

I dont think the purchaser can do this,

The sale pack gets you to list everything ( fixtures and fitting ) , and to make a statement of the current state of the services ect. ( usualy, you would say workong but unchecked ), in the pack. As long as you wasn't purposefully misleading, she would not have a claim i dont think

Unless the boiler had a none legal alteration that could not be seen when the buyer viewed, i cant see were they could claim afterwards, things like this are usually sorted out as part of the sale. otherwise, a buyer could say what they wanted.

regardless, the buyer can not just demand something, but, not responding was a mistake. You lost this because you did not answer them, but you have a good reason for that. the wording of the sales pack and completion contracts would be important here

[Glasgoj]

Re: Sold House, Purchaser claiming for a new boiler

Thanks all,

Does anyone have any idea what I can do about the attachment of earnings in the meantime?

Also anyone have any idea if there is anyway I can get this trough any quicker?

Thanks so much!

[judgemental24]

Re: Sold House, Purchaser claiming for a new boiler

If you have a set aside application going through the court all previous contemplated enforcement matters should be put on hold. You need to make the court where the attachment of earnings is being handled aware of your set aside application so it can be stayed pending the outcome

[Glasgoj]

Re: Sold House, Purchaser claiming for a new boiler

Thanks for your help Judgemental. I am still looking for a way to try and get the judgement set aside rather than having to wait for the hearing does anyone know of a way to do this?

[judgemental24]

Re: Sold House, Purchaser claiming for a new boiler

There is a stickie on this process

I will let the site team post it up

[Kati]

Re: Sold House, Purchaser claiming for a new boiler

There is a stickie on this process

I will let the site team post it up

I can't find it ( [MENTION=6]Amethyst[/MENTION] will know where it is) but there's this from national debtline - https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/...t/Default.aspx

[meellis]

Re: Sold House, Purchaser claiming for a new boiler

I've always wondered if something like this would happen and how it will pan out. I am a gas engineer and the amount of times I have had estate agents or solicitors need certificates for boilers on houses for sale is incredible. What is more incredible is they don't want you to spend any time on it even though you are signing a document that potentially leaves you liable for a number of things. People should keep records of safety checks, services and repairs of these things but at the end of the day the whole point of all the legal costs when buying and selling property is to highlight exactly what it is you are buying. Is the problem that peoples don't take note of the paperwork or is it that the paperwork you pay a lot of money for doesn't actually get completed properly? One thing I do know is it is very hard to make the people responsible for the paperwork actually accountable for any of the omissions.