Hi there. I'm new to the forum so hope I'm posting in the correct place.
We have been contacted by the lawyer of the purchaser of a house we sold in 2015 who claims that we are in breach of the Vendor's warranties in a clause of the Sales and Purchase agreement. We carried out alterations to the house (removal of back door and two internal walls which were recessed into house area, framed up and closed in, removal of laundry window, framed up and installed new bifold door) and were advised by our builder that no council consent was required, however, the purchaser believes it was. They did not get a builder's report when they bought the house from us, but are now trying to sell the house and claim they cannot due to the work we completed (I assume potential buyers are getting builder's reports and seeing evidence of the work completed). We have gained a letter from our builder stating that the work was carried out to the building code and to that of a LBP builder, and he has verbally reassured us that the work did not require consent. We have not yet provided this to their lawyer.
The purchaser's lawyer has emailed saying that their client will be carrying out work to rectify the work done in Feb/March 2018 and will take this to district court to obtain the costs if necessary. Our stance so far has been that we acted in good faith based on what our builder told us at the time and believe they should contact the builder directly. They maintain the issue is with us and not the builder.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
We have been contacted by the lawyer of the purchaser of a house we sold in 2015 who claims that we are in breach of the Vendor's warranties in a clause of the Sales and Purchase agreement. We carried out alterations to the house (removal of back door and two internal walls which were recessed into house area, framed up and closed in, removal of laundry window, framed up and installed new bifold door) and were advised by our builder that no council consent was required, however, the purchaser believes it was. They did not get a builder's report when they bought the house from us, but are now trying to sell the house and claim they cannot due to the work we completed (I assume potential buyers are getting builder's reports and seeing evidence of the work completed). We have gained a letter from our builder stating that the work was carried out to the building code and to that of a LBP builder, and he has verbally reassured us that the work did not require consent. We have not yet provided this to their lawyer.
The purchaser's lawyer has emailed saying that their client will be carrying out work to rectify the work done in Feb/March 2018 and will take this to district court to obtain the costs if necessary. Our stance so far has been that we acted in good faith based on what our builder told us at the time and believe they should contact the builder directly. They maintain the issue is with us and not the builder.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
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