My wife and I sold a townhouse within an HOA a few years back. The family who purchased the home from us, just sold it and they are now coming after us for checking no on altering or modifying anything without applicable permits. We remodeled the master bathroom, but honestly wasn’t aware permits were needed. (We hired a plumber and contractor and I paid them for their work and the bathroom was done).

We found out that you can retro permits for a very low cost and usually only takes a couple days.

The family that’s seeking a reimbursement shared with us their buyers credit form where their buyers are questioning if the bathroom had a permit. So the buyers requested the bathroom to get permitted before close of escrow OR they would take the financial burden for a financial credit.

They now want to charge us for giving the buyers a credit for us not knowing the bathroom required a permit.

They are trying to aggressively get us to reimburse them without legal action, but we found out the new owners got the permits and it cost what a normal permit would have costed, so we are trying to wrap our heads on how we are responsible for a credit that was given without any of our knowledge to try to rectify in a more reasonable and affordable method.

We can’t afford the requested reimbursement, nor can we afford a lawyer if they decide to pursue legal action. Is this a shakedown or do I need to be more prepared?