Move-in date keeps changing. What to do?

[kettleoffish]

DH viewed a house on his own in late November last year. He was told the move in date would be mid December and that he liked the house. Then we arranged a second viewing a week later, in early December, so I could view it as well. I liked the house too but this time the agent said the landlord had changed the move in date to the new year in 2015. We said okay to that. So now new move in date is in 15 January 2015. Then we paid the deposit, fees, etc. Last week I called the agent to make sure that this is still valid. She said yes, don't worry. The landlord of the property contacted her around Christmas to say everything should be as planned.

Yesterday DH called into her office to check everything is as planned. He had to make a booking for a large van to do the move. She wasn't there but her assistant was. Assistant looked on the PC and said yeah it says the move in date is 15 January. But just to double check, she called the landlord on the spot. Landlord didn't pick up, so she said she will send our agent an email to let her know first thing this morning that she tried calling the landlord of the house to double check move in date but landlord didn't pick up. DH then said he would call the agent himself today to see if there's any news.

He tried calling the agent again today at 3.45 pm only to be told by agent's assistant that the agent went home early so isn't there to answer the phone. But she checked the computer system again for him and said the move in date is now listed as the 19th of January instead. DH said he will ring again tomorrow to try and reach the agent to see what's going on.

Hmm... I feel like we're being messed around on moving in dates. But the agent did explain to us before that the landlord was in the process of buying a new house to move into and the buying process caused all the date changes and delays.

If the move in date has indeed changed to January 19, it's not the end of the world as our last day at our current property is January 19. Just that we have originally planned on moving over 4 days to make it easier. But if moving in on the 19th Jan, then that means we have to move everything in 1 day by ourselves and that's going to be much harder work. Also, what if the move in date changes again and goes beyond Jan 19? Then we'd be truly stuffed. Will have to live in hotel and have all our things put in temporary storage.

I'm getting a little worried now as our current agent has already arranged with us to do a viewing with a prospective renter in 2 days' time. If we get delayed in our moving date again, it could cause problems with anyone who is going to rent and move into our current property too. And I don't wish to trouble our current agent and landlord by asking for a later move out date. They may not agree to it anyway.

Is there anything we can do about this situation? I'm concerned about the additional expenses we may incur if our move in date for the new property goes over Jan 19. No tenancy contract has been drawn up yet so they could potentially change dates without breaching any contracts?

[PigletJohn]

you say you have paid money with no contract?

Say you want the money back unless you get a signed contract with a fixed start date.

Meanwhile look at other homes.

[kettleoffish]

We signed the agent's Terms and conditions when we paid the deposit and admin fees though. Says there they will not refund if property is re let. Letting agents we've dealt with usually only get us to sign the contract a week before moving in. It's now 10 days before we were supposed to move in so I suppose the agent will be contacting us soon for the contract signing. Then and only then... I doubt they will change moving in dates again once contract is signed because if they do then will be a breach of contract. But now it seems they can as long as contract not yet signed.

[roneik]

That's why I rant about landlords

In 1967 the council house we lived in was £1 and 17 shillings a week rent
Thats £1.70 decimal .I was earning with a bit of overtime nearly 30 quid less tax, that was not even one tenth of my wage.There were two other wage earners in the house too
That was a stones throw from tooting
You could buy a house on one wage, something needs changing
We are slowly moving towards the renters becoming the majority, that will be when they have to listen. How the f@ck did we get here

[kettleoffish]

Just called the agent and she indeed confirmed move in date has changed again. I told her I'm really disappointed this has been happening and that I'd like to sign the contract now. She says that she will "see what she can do about this." DH going to go to her office this Friday to try to get her to let us sign the contract.

[wowfudge]

Ask them what else they've got on their books too. Have you spoken to your current landlord and asked whether there is any flexibility with them? I know you don't want to mess them about, but what else can you do? They might be prepared to let you stay on a bit longer, especially if you've had a good relationship and they know you are being messed around. It's not always the case that new tenants move in seamlessly after the old ones move out - there are often at least a few days in between. Someone who is just viewing now may have a month's notice to serve in their current place.

[kettleoffish]

wowfudge, I'm sorry I don't understand what you mean by "what else they've got on their books too". But yes if the worse comes to worst, I will have to ask my current landlord to allow flexibility. It might be that the move will turn out fine eventually bar a lot of inconvenience to my family as a result.

I did call the agent to express my disappointment at the state of events and she said she's sorry but it's not the agent's fault, it's because the landlord is part of a chain in her house purchase, and that is why she is delayed. I said that I understand, but it will cost us extra to stay in hotel and have our things in storage and to hire a van again if the move-in date changes and we cannot stay in our current place for longer. She was nice about it but insists it is nobody's fault - not the agent and not the landlord.

So I said well if you had stated in the beginning that the move-in date is not certain because the landlord is involved in a house buying chain etc. etc. then we would not have chosen to take up the property anyway, even if we liked the property. The problem is that right from the beginning, they agreed on a move-in date, but then changed, and then changed again. So it does affect us and I told her if the move-in date changes again, I will have to ask them for a copy of their complaints procedure and start formal complaints to try and get our money back. I didn't mention I would actually be taking it to the Ombudsman if it did come to that, but yes I have a view to doing that if it is not resolved.

She did sound nice about it all but I'm afraid business is business and she would of course not want to incur any charges for this, but neither do I. Plus I have to sort out my kids' change of schooling, call the utilities, rearrange van hire, etc. etc. because of all these changes in move-in dates. It is all so troublesome to keep changing move-in dates and that's why I am so annoyed by all of this. I would be really pissed if it came down to the fact that it is "nobody's fault" this happened, but I'll take it all the way to the Ombudsman and have them tell me that and take it as another lesson learnt.

[kettleoffish]

She's agreed to have us go into the office to sign the tenancy end of week so hopefully that will be that and no more changes to the move-in date. Surely they wouldn't want to be in breach of contract.

[PigletJohn]

will the landlord or their agent also sign it?

[kettleoffish]

Well the agent will be signing it I suppose, if the landlord is c/o the agent like our current one is. But you have prompted me to think more about this now..

[wowfudge]

I mean is there another property available to let that they have on their books instead of this one?

The LL should be moving out temporarily imo or they risk losing the letting. Perhaps put that to the agents?

[kettleoffish]

Oh I see. Yes that's a good point. I'll see what happens and put that to her.

[Chewy1314]

Same thing is happening to us. Bought a house beginning of Feb, sellers indicated a quick sale for a potential move date of 16 March (failed to tell us they were moving into a new build)

16th march came and went, got a letter stating move in date as 7th April, so my wife and I along with our young 3yr old, packed up the house ready to go (wanted out of flat ASAP, so had everything not essential packed and ready to go) got a phone call on the Friday before the 7th saying it's getting shifted to 22nd April. Very annoyed but agreed regardless as it was easier this way with the bills and direct debits etc.
So the week before we move, I started to pack away more stuff, leaving work clothes out for the remaining time only...
Week before the 22nd we get a phone call saying it's being moved till 4th May, a full 3 months after buying the house for a quick sale (house wasn't cheap either)

The sellers part exchanged with a house building company... House not ready...
Told to like it or lump it due to nothing being signed. Asked for them to move on the 28th instead as our landlord wanted to charge us full rent for May regardless if 1hr in house or 1 month... (We had to go back twice to landlord explaining the situation)
So far our lawyers haven't been in contact, their lawyers hasn't been in contact, and our lawyers told us he would contact us within a couple of days and it's now been 12 days since our lawyer (who seemingly is on another call every time we phone??) we don't know if we're moving in a couple of days, or if indeed the 4th May will change.

Personally as a first time buyer, I'm extremely annoyed by the lacklustre approach from a lawyers firm who are charging over £1,000 for their services while we paid a further £500 for agency fee's. Bearing in mind we were working towards the 16th March, as a move in date, and with the small flat we stay in all boxed up we as a family are on top of each other, we explained everything to lawyers and agents about moving before start of May, and that the company persimmons have completely ignored us with all aspects, they bought house from sellers as part exchange, they hadn't sent us required documents and paperwork for building parts that were not part of original house, they aren't telling us if they plan to put the current occupiers into temp accommodation (as its their problem not ours)
We ensured all paper work, all monies, everything on our side was done efficiently and on time, yet we had 2 separate letters we had to sign, wi various move in dates....

I genuinely want to withdraw offer from house, as a total disgrace of a way to do business and due to us being first timers, I feel they are playing on that motion, rather than trying to solve a problem that they themselves created. (End of day if we were told May then we would have worked towards that.) i would retract offer but fear I would need to pay our lawyer for his pathetic work (bearing in mind he hasn't contacted us, and indeed ignored us for over 12 days now, we don't know literally if we're coming or going, yet as the buyers were the one's that are getting shafted???

I stay in Scotland, but wonder if anyone knows if there is anything we can do to claim compensation, or to get things moving?
At my wits end, with a 3year old boy running riot in a pokey flat isn't a great thing to be part of. We're all frustrated, we're all getting on each other's nerves, all the time the sellers are sitting pretty 3 months after their move out date, and all we get is a shrug of the shoulders and a "tough"
Do we have a case for legal action? Or is this just the norm.
And does anyone know if we withdraw the offer if we still pay for lawyers fee's etc???

[specialsubject]

Thread wasabout renting. You are buying. I thought the wonderful Scottish system didn't allow this kind of thing?