Civil dispute

[Smehmood]

Hi, i sold my shop to someone for 60k and asked them to pay 45k as deposit and rest when lease is signed. This was verbal agreement and money was paid in my account in 3 instalments in 6 months despite original agreement was to pay in 2 weeks.

during this time buyer took over shop and start running the business through my business account.
After all negotiations with landlord, landlord’s solicitor found that buyer didn’t have leave to remain in UK. So landlord refused the license to lease.

so i asked the buyer to vacate shop but he refused after that i asked the landlord and he changed the locks and handover the shop to me.

Then buyer send me a pre action letter which I didn’t respond as it was sent to wrong address. But its about 3 months no action has been taken.

now after 3 months they have sent letter to my previous address and business address (business is sold now) .

my question is
should I respond to letters which has been sent to wrong address.
what is your opinion about the 1 st pre action letter?
what is your opinion on “ in both letters different amouts has been claimed, 1st lettwr 63k, 2nd letter different solicitor 45k.

no written contract is in place then how court will work out what is truth ? What was verbal contract?

thanks for your reply in advance

[Sam101]

You should seek legal advice. Most solicitors will allow a short time to discuss this without charge, so see what they have to say about it.

[des8]

If you now have possession of the shop did you not return the would be buyer his money (less your expenses)?

You may not have had a written contractin position, but I suspect if solicitors were involved in the purchase negotiations there will be sufficient evidence for a court to find in favur of the would be purchaser.
In any event in such a civil claim a court finds "on the balance of probabilities" i.e. who is more believable!

If this should go to court, due to the amount in question, it will probably be allocated to the fast track, and this has costs implication for the loser.

[atticus]

This is a mess, precisely because you had nothing in writing. Asking the landlord to arrange to hand the shop back to you does not help your position..

The outcome may be as Des8 suggests, or the Court may rule that you are entitled to keep the money.

However, litigation over this is going to be a lottery. As Des8 hints, in all likelihood, the loser will have to pay the winner's legal costs - which could even exceed the sums in dispute.

Best advice: negotiate a settlement. This will mean returning some of the money.