Bloodsucking Bastards

Hello all,

You may or may not remember a court case I was involved with the previous owners of my house which I subsequently lost.

They had done some major "papering over the cracks", the Makler involved backed us, but later he mysteriously changed his story to exactly theirs. Sold As Seen, tough titty Englander.

So that left us with A. A shit house we can't sell, and B. Their legal costs.

We received a letter wanting the balance (circa 2500 Euros), and we said we couldn't pay that amount. We have 4 children, and because we cant sell the house, I have to finance working and living in Düsseldorf. They then said 250Euros per month, and we said no, we'll only pay 100Euros a month. This we did for 2 months without any word from them.

Yesterday I received a Court Order for the outstanding amount, with the order also sent to my employer. I'm at my wits end, I can't pay the full amount, and can't afford the court enforced payments taken directly from my wages. Coupled with that the embarrasment of the employers actually knowing.

Is this normal in Germany?

I hope the fother muckers are happy with their 2500 Euros they are so desperate to get their hands on.

well it isn't that unusual ...or as they say here in Germany

" Recht und Gerechtigkeit sind zwei paar Schuhe"

which I'm afraid is quite often the case

not that uncommon. In cases where f.e. a father won't pay the "alimente" for his kid it might be a good thing though actually.

I am sorry for you and wish you good luck that things work out soon and I can't really be a help but for the "record"
Your fault was, that when they "offered" the only 250 Euros per months and you did not agree with this, you should not have paid just only 100 before make it clear, that they agreed with it aswell

Yeah Hannah, I realise that now. I thought they accepted it, as they didn't reply, and lets be honest its not a *massive* amount. It's just so frustrating that we never tried not to pay, they never communicated with us, and of course the biggest frustration ia that we did nothing wrong in the first place!

Costs:-
To repair house 15.000 Euros
Our legal cost ca. 5.000 Euros
Now theirs ca 2.500

Over twenty grand for a problem that never would have happened in the UK, the surveyor would have seen it.

don't ever think like this again in Germany

Hi Richard
This is quite normal and often happens after court cases where somebody is directed to pay something.
I would not worry too much about what your employer thinks, they will be pretty much used to this kind of thing happening (happens a lot)
The only thing that I can think about is how they asked you for more money.
Cheers

Ben

What do you mean by a court order ? a mahnbescheid...or a pfändung(this can only happen after a mahnbescheid)
If you have four kids then if they do take anything out of your wages it wont be much as you have to pay for your kids welfare, make sure your employer knows that you have four kids.

You did the correct thing by paying the 100 euro's, if this is only a mahnbescheid you have i think a month to go against it and the fact that you paid what you said you would is good for you.

If you did employ a surveyor, then you must have a strong case to sue him, surely. If you didn't, then surely, " sold as seen " should have started your warning bells ringing.

Raffles.

Hi Richard
If it is a pfändung you have to earn more than 1980 euros net before any money can be taken out of your salary.

Cheers

Ben

bendus2 is that the amount for 4 kids? does not sound much oooops that is euros

Hi Bulldog
Yes it is. Fresh from the latest Pfändungstabelle

Cheers

Ben

nice to know not that i need it any more, them days are gone

I am really not sure about this
It's better than paying nothing though of course

Hello Richard. Sorry to read what happened to you, but you are not alone. I have lost any faith I hat in the german legal system too.
When I got divorced, I had to ask the Bank to take her name off the Mortgage. The Bank charged me 4500 EUR !!! Yep !! 4500 €
I tried to go against it, but the courts said:
You agreed to it, so thats good enough for us. Case closed.
If I didn't agree, the Bank would have taken the house away from me. I think Blackmale was the right word here, but the courts didn't want to hear that. It was ignored...

Life is full of bitter pills that you have to swallow in your life. Trust me I know what I am talking about. Things will get better.

I wish you all the best for you and your House.

Stephen

We've borrowed the money from family members now. I'd rather pay the scum off and then pay back our family in small amounts.

Richard, thats what I had to do in the end. Without Help from my folks I would not have been able to keep the house.

Good one on you !!!

Things will get better - Thats what I keep saying to myself anyway ...

Stephen

No we didn't employ a surveyor. A guy did turn up from the bank, but he was more interested in having a coffee with the makler. He was just an adviser, who didn't advise us, or in fact do anything apart from drinking his coffee.

The bank were simply not interested in the state of the house then or now.

Still hearbreaking we've got to borrow money off people who have retired, to pay two lying pieces of shit Oh, and they still live in the same village

a small tip, go round one night and put superglue in their car locks and look like this while you are doing it

I don't think they'd have much of a problem working out who had done it

Richard glad to hear that you have managed to sort things out.

Cheers
Ben

Cheers mate...just got to sell the house now

Your English get some revenge on these suckers!

Not strictly true, but I know what you mean

Latest news:

House is finally sold. Albeit with us losing an extra 25.000€.

But to get out of that hell hole its worth it.

We've a lovely new place, in a much better town (there's even other auslanders there, well one other )

Live and learn

Glad to hear you've got things sorted out

Glad to hear that things worked out. Good Luck and enjoy your new home.

Glad too hear it too. I bet your new house is alot better than the old one !

in that regard life sucks.

I´ve been lucky in that regard, usually its just a small amount of money. 100dm exchanged for worthless Bulgarian money in Prague.

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hi. reply to the court order (a.s.a.p) telling them that you have every intention of paying the outstanding amount, but unfortunately, you can only afford to pay 100 Euros per month ( in your case I would have offered them 25 Euros a month!) Send them a copy of your monthly wage. plus electric/gas/water/heating bills.a.s.o. ... Mention (at least once) that you have 4 children. And, mention.. that, as you have already willingly paid 100 Euros TWICE (attach copies).. you obviously took this as an accepted monthly payment! Don`t worry about your employer knowing about it... happens all the time.
---- When did you buy this house? "Sold as seen" = all well and good BUT.. what were these cracks in the wall ? Did the wallpaper become damp?..therefore causing Schimmelpilz ??? (therefore, ruining all the furniture/curtains/fittings around that area) So, did the previous owners sell you a house which they KNEW to be a Health Hazzard ??? Have you, or any of your family been ill since living in this house? It`s worth
finding out... !

think he`s sorted that with the court.

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ooops... Thanks jaygee, new to this, I just read the first post and didn`t see the rest!
Pleased to see he`s sorted it out now.

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The letter to your employer - was this a Pfaendung, i.e. a distress order ?
There is an earnings limit below which they may not apply their order.
It probably doesn't apply in your case but useful to know in case you have the opportunity to "re-arrange" your finances.

TG
<< Is this normal in Germany? >>

Where matters of this nature are concerned Germany is positively draconian.
All bow their heads to the great God Mammon.

TG

I tried all that mate, they got a court order delivered to my employers. No chance what so ever to negotiate, if we hadn't paid in full they would have taken it directly from my wages.

It's done and in the past; I just hope they both get back what they did to us. They are scum of the highest proportions.