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Hi guys, my name is Steve and I run a small engineering business.
I am posting on here as I need legal advice and pointing in the right direction.
In the year 2000, I was made an offer by my father in law.
The offer was, that the father in law was getting a £60,000 mortgage to buy a building and land to start his own motorbike repair/sales business, and that if I gave him £8000 We would own the upstairs living accommodation and an old stable which is now my workshop.
A few years later on I gave £3000 more to the father in law.
Also part of the deal was that his daughter would work for free delivering picking stuff up, office/shop duties etc, and I for my part would undertake engineering work for free for the father in law in connection with his business.
So we all got a good deal and there was an element of the father in law helping his daughter out.
The upstairs living accommodation and the old stable were in a very dilapidated condition. Derelict is a word that springs to mind.
So since the year 2000, I have spent nearly £100,000 on what I considered our property.
I have the bank details confirming that I gave the father in law £8000.
I have all the receipts totaling nearly £100,000 for the improvements to the buildings.
Now, the father in law has had a stroke and a heart attack and wants to sell up.
The agreement was, that he would have the property and land valued but not the business as it is virtually worthless with old stock.
The father in law had it valued as a going concern and the valuation is £220,000 for the business, property and land.
The father in law offered it all to us for £200,000.
We actually found out from a friend before he told us about the the valuation that everything was for sale online.
As far as myself and my wife are concerned, we own the old stable and the upstairs living accommodation.
However, nothing is registered in our names.
I offered £160,000 to the father in law to buy him out of the property but he virtually spat in my face.
I think my offer of £160,000 was a very fair offer.
So now there is great animosity between us all and we have been locked out of his workshop so no toilet facilities are available to me and my three members of my staff.
In relation to the £8000 which my father in law knows I can prove existence of, he is now saying it was a loan, although since year 2000, no repayment has ever been made.
The reason he is saying it is a loan is because if it was not a loan, then it must have been for something else.
The something else, is me and my wife buying the old stable and upstairs living accommodation.
So now I want to be able to put something on the land registry to indicate that there is a dispute over the property and land.
No one would want purchase the property and land if they know there is a land/property dispute ongoing.
Since the year 2000, we have built up the business and spent not just money but a lot of time and energy on improving the accomodation and our business premises.
Negotiations have completely failed between us and father/father in law.
We are not prepared to be cheated out of the deal that we had, and the money we spent, the £8000, the £3000, and free labour for all these years and the £100,000 spent on the property and the labour in fixing it all up.
Basically, the father in law has had everything valued which includes our property and so he should take this in to account when he only knocked off £20,000 of the valuation price and he is trying to lumber us with a non existent business and old stock.
Therefore I think that our offer was a very fair offer.
If it came to it, I would rather lose all our property value in legal fees than be cheated out of it, but then I would make sure that the same applied to my father in law as well.
If we are going to crash and burn, we all burn together.
This is not a case of us trying to cash in on someone else's hard work/poor health.
We actually had this agreement and as detailed above it is all true.
In the middle of all this is 3 grandchildren.
In hindsight, yes, a written agreement would have been the really smart thing to do.
You live and learn.
In anticipation I thank you for all replies, good or bad.
Thank you.
Someone just pointed out something to me.
Because me and my family have lived in the accommodation since year 2000, I have been informed that we have the protection of the housing act whilst this dispute is sorted out. Can anybody confirm this?
I am posting on here as I need legal advice and pointing in the right direction.
In the year 2000, I was made an offer by my father in law.
The offer was, that the father in law was getting a £60,000 mortgage to buy a building and land to start his own motorbike repair/sales business, and that if I gave him £8000 We would own the upstairs living accommodation and an old stable which is now my workshop.
A few years later on I gave £3000 more to the father in law.
Also part of the deal was that his daughter would work for free delivering picking stuff up, office/shop duties etc, and I for my part would undertake engineering work for free for the father in law in connection with his business.
So we all got a good deal and there was an element of the father in law helping his daughter out.
The upstairs living accommodation and the old stable were in a very dilapidated condition. Derelict is a word that springs to mind.
So since the year 2000, I have spent nearly £100,000 on what I considered our property.
I have the bank details confirming that I gave the father in law £8000.
I have all the receipts totaling nearly £100,000 for the improvements to the buildings.
Now, the father in law has had a stroke and a heart attack and wants to sell up.
The agreement was, that he would have the property and land valued but not the business as it is virtually worthless with old stock.
The father in law had it valued as a going concern and the valuation is £220,000 for the business, property and land.
The father in law offered it all to us for £200,000.
We actually found out from a friend before he told us about the the valuation that everything was for sale online.
As far as myself and my wife are concerned, we own the old stable and the upstairs living accommodation.
However, nothing is registered in our names.
I offered £160,000 to the father in law to buy him out of the property but he virtually spat in my face.
I think my offer of £160,000 was a very fair offer.
So now there is great animosity between us all and we have been locked out of his workshop so no toilet facilities are available to me and my three members of my staff.
In relation to the £8000 which my father in law knows I can prove existence of, he is now saying it was a loan, although since year 2000, no repayment has ever been made.
The reason he is saying it is a loan is because if it was not a loan, then it must have been for something else.
The something else, is me and my wife buying the old stable and upstairs living accommodation.
So now I want to be able to put something on the land registry to indicate that there is a dispute over the property and land.
No one would want purchase the property and land if they know there is a land/property dispute ongoing.
Since the year 2000, we have built up the business and spent not just money but a lot of time and energy on improving the accomodation and our business premises.
Negotiations have completely failed between us and father/father in law.
We are not prepared to be cheated out of the deal that we had, and the money we spent, the £8000, the £3000, and free labour for all these years and the £100,000 spent on the property and the labour in fixing it all up.
Basically, the father in law has had everything valued which includes our property and so he should take this in to account when he only knocked off £20,000 of the valuation price and he is trying to lumber us with a non existent business and old stock.
Therefore I think that our offer was a very fair offer.
If it came to it, I would rather lose all our property value in legal fees than be cheated out of it, but then I would make sure that the same applied to my father in law as well.
If we are going to crash and burn, we all burn together.
This is not a case of us trying to cash in on someone else's hard work/poor health.
We actually had this agreement and as detailed above it is all true.
In the middle of all this is 3 grandchildren.
In hindsight, yes, a written agreement would have been the really smart thing to do.
You live and learn.
In anticipation I thank you for all replies, good or bad.
Thank you.
Someone just pointed out something to me.
Because me and my family have lived in the accommodation since year 2000, I have been informed that we have the protection of the housing act whilst this dispute is sorted out. Can anybody confirm this?
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