I don't have to. That's the job of my solicitor.

I keep reading it back in different voices.

I'll try Malcolms now.

Fuzzy going on to prove why no one likes estate agents. Will never forget the time we were selling our house. Our agent was trying to convince us to accept a low offer because "it was a buyer's market". Then we started chatting to his mate 2 minutes later about buying a place. He warned us "it's a seller's market, so be prepared to pay a premium"…Couldn't make it up.

I agree with this. I expect most have had varying experiences with agents, but I def recognise the value of a good one and have heard of the problems of a bad one.

Hope it runs smoothly for smith!

Not disagreeing what he said, just the way he said. I can only handle so many 'mates' in one paragraph.

Good estate agents are a necessary evil.

entirely agree

Just received a quote for a "simple" dropped kerb (width 4.8m) to later have a driveway sorted. No trees or obstacles…

£3k seems alot.

We recently refurbed a top-floor flat. Ripped up floors, insulated, new LVT, knocked a wall down, new kitchen, redocoration etc.

The downstairs landlord complained about damages through a dodgy report from his mate (MD of the local Your Move agents), caused by our works. No real proof of damages given there were no 'before' photos. At the same time they raised this, they owed us 4k for a new roof that we handled, so had us by the balls.

I got chatting to the tenants and they basically said the landlords drag their feet for everything and have done for 8 years… I went in for a cuppa and noticed the place is just generally old/tired and the majority of the 'damage' claimed by the landlord was general wear and tear (stated by tenants). Together we identified 4-5 hairline cracks that were likely caused by our works.

They've paid the outstanding 4k invoice. We said we'd fix said hairline cracks but didn't really admit on paper we caused them.

Our builder remarked that the quick fix is decorators caulk and could be done in hours, but obviously repainting would be obvious due to how old the general decoration is (not been painted in 7-8 years, it's an old Victorian place so moving cracks are fairly common in general).

We want to keep good relationship with them, but equally it just feels like the landlords are trying to get an entire redecoration done for free.. they've emailed earlier with the below. Agree with him, but equally, the fact the place has 8 year old paint isn't really my problem. Also don't really agree that it'd take 3 days to (even if I agreed to it) repaint 2 ceilings and 1 wall.

Do I just stand my ground and fill the cracks and be done with it? Get my builder to quote for 2-3d decoration work?

"My brother-in-law, has just been to inspect the property, together with our agent. As you know Joe Bloggs runs a local builders' merchants and has good knowledge of the building trade. His view is that it will need at least 3 or 4 days to do the work necessary to make good the various cracks caused by your building work - one will need to paint the whole ceiling of each damaged room, not just individual patches because, as you say, otherwise there will be patches of paint in different shades. This will require each room to be emptied, or full masking to protect the contents. So we don't think it practical to do this in a single day and not at such short notice. We don't think it will be satisfactory to patch up only the parts of the ceilings affected by the damage.

Please can you consider this and let me know what you think."

"…don't think it will be satisfactory to patch up only the parts of the ceilings affected by the damage."

This sentence is jokes.

But it atleast confirms that you're only responsible for "the damage"; they are trying their luck with the other bit - but that's not your problem. If they want to paint the rest to match the new colour, they can contact you or your builder for the Dulux name.

My buyers have just pulled out days away from exchanging contracts after 4 months! gutted…