Snag List Outstanding - Vendor retained funds

Bought a house last year. On closing, a number of snag items remained undone. Vendors solicitor witheld monies in escrow. Snag was never finished. Vendors solicitor claims that the snag is finished and will not return money. Vendors solicitor is asking me to complete the snag myself and furnish receipts to prove that the costs exist.

Obviously, leaving the money with the vendors solicitor was not the correct thing to do.

Regardless, I can prove that the snag was not finished but I don't see why I have to get everthing completed to prove ownership of the retained monies.

So legally, does the vendors solicitor have right to withhold?

Perhaps you can fill me in here.

- was there an agreed written snag list between the two solicitors
- was it agreed to rectify that the vendor was to do the work or you?
- was it costed?
- have you an engineer involved?
- how do you establish the work was done and what was paid for it?

Yes. Yes. No. The list was drafted by an engineer. Vendors foreman completed some of the list. He then stopped before completion and left the scene. As everything was being completed by the vendor, costs were not transparent to us.

Why don't you just do the work and that will solve the problem. How much money is it, what are the issues? It can't be anything much if the sale went through.

The money is to pay for the work so I don't really see the issue, though I could well understand why one would prefer to have the money and not bother to do minor things.

The work is not minor and will cost more than the money withheld. I don't see why I should pay to have the work done to 'entitle' me to the return of the withheld money. That means I have to pay twice first, before I can reclaim the withheld money.

Dave Byrne said:

The work is not minor and will cost more than the money withheld. I don't see why I should pay to have the work done to 'entitle' me to the return of the withheld money. That means I have to pay twice first, before I can reclaim the withheld money.

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If the work is not minor and will cost more than the amount withheld why did the sale go through?

Is the problem you don't have the money? Can you negotiate with the solicitor that you get a builder's quote, but becasue you are 'broke' you need the money upfront, and you'll supply receipts later (he won't follow up on this, of if he does I'd be amazed) most people are pretty reasonable to deal with.

Can you give us some figures and an idea of the work?

What does your solicitor have to say on the matter, and to Bronte's point, how did they allow the sale to close with the vendor's solicitor retaining that sum? The vendor's solicitor represents the vendor's interests, not yours.

The vendor could easily just furnish any old receipts to their own solicitor to the value of 5k and recoup the money. I'm guessing there was no consideration for the event of the work costing more than 5k? Without you or your solicitor overseeing or signing-off in any way, you lost any control over the process.

I don't think anyone can ultimately answer you question as to the legality of them retaining the money without seeing full details of the contract signed by both parties covering this sum. If the vendor's solicitor says the snag was completed, then it's likely they have passed on the money to the vendor already. Going after it now could involve a very expensive civil case that may go nowhere.

Addressing both replies
The sale went through because both sides wanted it and agreed that the remaining snags would be addressed in due course
Not retaining money with our solicitor was obviously a mistake
The quote or receipts seems to be the consensus approach
Cheers

Come back and let us know how you get on. Will be interesting to see if you are successful in getting all or any of this money, and what it might cost you to do so.