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In late 2024 I entered into a licence with a commercial property developer which allowed them to temporarily place a scaffold at the rear of my house, at that time being used for holiday lets. This licence had to be extended twice until August 2025. The licence provided a fee and overstay penalties.
In January 2025 I accepted an offer to buy my house. Despite my best efforts to assign the licence the buyer insisted that exchange/completion could not take place until the scaffold was removed. In January the licence then was set to expire and the scaffold removed in June 2025
When the agreed final August date arrived I had previously arranged for my surveyor to sign off removal and for my house clearance to start.
The scaffold was not removed by the agreed date.
On advice from RICS I served a trespass notice. A short time later the scaffold was removed. However I had had to cancel the clearance contractor and rearrange the sign off (which was actually eventually done by my buyers solicitor!)
Because it was a holiday weekend I lost a whole week before my sale could complete
On advice I submitted a claim for damages and consequential losses. Unfortunately these included a very large amount of bridging loan payments that I had to make and can evidence.
The claim is £9800 and I submitted it by invoice in November 2025. Despite three follow up letters and emails and an offer to mediate through the RICS, I have not had a response from the property developer
My problem is what to do next? Court claim? Statutory Demand? I would like to formally appoint a solicitor experienced in these matters and one frankly said it’s probably not worth the expense. Fees being about £450/hr and not necessarily recoverable.
Any advice would be much appreciated, This whole experience and subsequent delays and abuse (starting with squatters in their building in early 2024) has caused me a great deal of stress.
In January 2025 I accepted an offer to buy my house. Despite my best efforts to assign the licence the buyer insisted that exchange/completion could not take place until the scaffold was removed. In January the licence then was set to expire and the scaffold removed in June 2025
When the agreed final August date arrived I had previously arranged for my surveyor to sign off removal and for my house clearance to start.
The scaffold was not removed by the agreed date.
On advice from RICS I served a trespass notice. A short time later the scaffold was removed. However I had had to cancel the clearance contractor and rearrange the sign off (which was actually eventually done by my buyers solicitor!)
Because it was a holiday weekend I lost a whole week before my sale could complete
On advice I submitted a claim for damages and consequential losses. Unfortunately these included a very large amount of bridging loan payments that I had to make and can evidence.
The claim is £9800 and I submitted it by invoice in November 2025. Despite three follow up letters and emails and an offer to mediate through the RICS, I have not had a response from the property developer
My problem is what to do next? Court claim? Statutory Demand? I would like to formally appoint a solicitor experienced in these matters and one frankly said it’s probably not worth the expense. Fees being about £450/hr and not necessarily recoverable.
Any advice would be much appreciated, This whole experience and subsequent delays and abuse (starting with squatters in their building in early 2024) has caused me a great deal of stress.
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