To think previous owners of our new house were being unreasonable?

Of course they knew. A time will have be arranged beforehand that they need to leave the house. Once the funds are in their bank back the house no longer belongs to them.

I’ve also helped a friend move out before… christ they were a pain…. They hadn’t packed a single thing! We were losing the van with furniture that still had clothes in, we’re having to pack boxes as we were putting them in the van… she’d had months to pack as they had a date they had to be out! (Rented)

When I bought my first house and moved in, it looked like they had moved out weeks ago, the grass was waste height and I had to get my dad round with a strimmer and petrol mower as we hadn’t yet purchased one…. And the cooker was disgusting! I spent the moving in day scrubbing the bathroom, replaced toilet seat and cleaning the cooker. I’d be embarrassed to leave a house like that!!
when I moved a second time our solicitor was awful, I was meant to be moving and we hadn’t even exchanged! My rented place was ending and I complained about the poor communication… the people I was buying from thought I was holding it up and I thought it was them!! Anyway I was at work when I received a text saying ‘congratulations you are now the owner of x street house and you can collect your keys at midday! I called solicitors to be told we had exchanged and completed at the same time and the house was now mine!
I was at work, working till 6pm, on my own, so had to call my dad to hire a van and he and my mum just went to my rented place and threw everything into the van for me. Then came and collected me from work… it was so stressful having no warning!
Got to the the house and the couple had taken all the blinds that they had said they’d leave, so I had no curtains or anything and they’d left their skanky old cat… they popped back to collect the money we’d agreed on for blinds and other furniture and we towed on the doorstep about them taking the blinds… I told them they could come and get all the other stuff as it was mainly the blinds I’d wanted left (wasn’t bothered about the flat pack cheapo wardrobes !! Anyway they returned the next day with the blinds and collected their cat and money!
no idea what they thinking as I’m sure the blinds wouldn’t have fitted the windows they moved to

@Didimum I can’t work out what you mean. So if something happened and your purchase failed to complete, you would expect to continue to stay in the house you no longer own?

or do you mean the completion call for your sale (in which case, the sellers had had this since they’d handed in the keys)

can anyone link to the thread from the poster who didn’t move out and was complaining about the buyer dismantling the kitchen?

This happened when i moved.

the money came through from our buyers around 11am

our money went through to our sellers around 11:30am

we weren’t quite ready to leave / get keys until around 12:30. You cant clean fully until furniture is removed.

the EA asked us for an estimated time when we would leave. We said 1pm. They said fine. We were gone sooner. There has to be some flexibility from all parties. Its a stressful event.

you were lucky to have been out of your house as quickly as you were.

But the money moves up the chain

@Didimum I’m an estate agent and you’re incorrect on both points. Once you have completed and receive monies, you have to leave and wait for your onward to complete shortly after. Also, chains work bottom up, not top down. First time I’ve ever heard that one!

I find this response weird! Buying and selling houses is notoriously one the most stressful things people can do! I moved last year and although the house we sold was a nice semi in a nice enough area, there was a snicket and a busy road that made it a tougher sell and we were relieved to sell it. Our buyers were a mother & son wanting to get out of rented accommodation and the people we were buying from were a pain because 2 months went past and completion was approaching and they'd not put an offer in on anything! They were wavering on whether to break the chain or not and go in rented accommodation. I had to threaten to pull out and look at a chain free property to protect my sale!

So by moving day, it's been months of stress to get to this point! On our moving day we had to shut our cats in upstairs room whilst furniture vans were loaded, everything was completed, we were officially trespassers in our old property and owners of the new one only to find out that our sellers were faffing about and we couldn't have the key yet! The people that had the luxury to move ahead time of to their rented accommodation, decided not to do that! So at this point we are sat on the stairs of an empty property we no longer own, with two crying cats wanting to come out of the room, the furniture trucks have gone and are sat waiting at the new house and we don't know if our buyers are going to turn up at any second to move in! If the removal truck is with us past a certain time there's an hourly charge! 2.30 we finally were allowed to pick up the keys. It's not relaxed happy or normal when everyone is suddenly homeless and displaced and somebody like you sees it as acceptable to take your time. You can't just go for a coffee and chill when you've got distressed cats in a cat box in the car!

Well you would be completely wrong! The house you used to own belongs to someone else if there paid for it.

If you’ve not managed to pay for your new home, but you’ve received bed the money for your old home, you have to move out of your old home because that is now owned by someone else.

It doesn’t reverse the whole chain.

You would be classed as a squatter then and could cause a lot of problems for the house owner …

People who move their own stuff are the worst as they usually underestimate how much stuff they have, and hire a van too small to pack everything in one go and wait for new place.

I don’t understand how people don’t conceive they’ll be in limbo for a few hours between selling and getting keys to next place. We’ve had some nice lazy lunches whilst waiting on keys.

We’ve also got to one house to find old owners still clearing out the garage, but it was nice to have them there as we moved in as they could show us how things worked.

Thankfully the last 2 homes were vacant ones to move into so no worries about people being in them. We’re on the move again but have gone into a rental as 120mile relocation. Looking forward to taking our time when we move into the next place (hopefully our last as done this waaaay to many times!)

Exactly, they are asking, no - demanding without giving a choice - that a stranger accomodate them in their home.

Whether you have someone to go or not, you can't just sit in someone's living room without their invitation or consent. It's their house and you've no business being there.

The absolute cheek of not dropping off keys for a house that doesn't belong to you any more and thinking that a stranger should just put you up in their home.

But the funds had been transferred for that house so the previous owners no longer owned it. OP owned that that point as she had paid. Their onward move is not OP’s problem it is their problem!

I had similar. Completion at 11am. We got call from our solicitors that we could collect key from EA at 11.30am. We arrived at EA and no keys had been dropped off. We said we'd go for a quick lunch then back to collect keys at 12.30. Arrived back still no keys. Phoned our solicitors who rang sellers solicitors and told sellers new house was not completed on yet so they couldn't move out. They only had a small van and had to do 3 trips to empty their stuff. We had to sit outside house in boiling heat in car waiting for them to move out. No apologies at all from sellers. We finally got the keys at 6.30pm.

What do you mean by "chilling" in the house? Sat on the floor? Or feet up on the sofa, watching TV? Furniture all there and not moved?

Either way, they are dicks but I just really need that mental picture clarified 😆

OP, I am completely with you on this one. The house was legally YOURS and they were trespassing and very much out of order. Anyone saying the money exchange works from top to bottom is an absolute halfwit and Anyone saying you are silly for not having a backup plan is a complete idiot. The ones sitting in YOUR house are the ones who should have had a backup plan. And anyone saying you are making a mountain out of a molehill doesnt know what they are talking about. After taking the day off work and then finding you cant get into your house to start unpacking then yes it is a big deal that you may not get the beds assembled in time and essentials unpacked because the previous owners are too thick to understand the rules.

That happened to our ex next-door neighbours. The guy hadn't moved out, only half packed when they arrived to move in. They couldn't move in properly until next day, and his stuff was all over their lawn for a day.

Yes, I went into moving day excited to get in but I fully expected it to be hard work and stressful. Which it was. That didn't stop it being a special day.

You would have to leave, just like the people in the OP. The sale of their house had gone through and they were trespassing,

But in the chain the money moves from the bottom up. As soon as the seller has received your money they should be out.

No once the money come though for the house being sold it no longer belongs to the prior owner and prior owner really shouldn't be there.

Though most people are okay or understanding as long as they seem to be getting moving - or nearly out the door ie shit happens and they aren't piss taking.

My Mum stuggled to understand this - she bought an empty new build and has never moved. She thought it was bad planning a school mum was going to be driving round/parked up with loaded up house for several hours - kids in school - and explaining house being sold needs to be empty when sale goes though and they have to wait for the buy of their next place to go through and in that time there's nowhere to be - Dmum couldn't grasp it.

IL esate agent neighbur said it's not uncommon - she said worst she has was a sale going though that day 3 bed house and her seller was oh DH will rent a van after work and pack up - she was like no you have to be out by midday or contract say you'll get fined- and it will take hours way longer than you think to pack a house. Woman had to ring her bloke at work get him home and drag in every one they knew and they were still really late - and in end the buyer movers were literally chucking their stuff in the street - estate agent said they were in tears on phone with her and she was well yea it's not your house now.

We ended up de-copuping last sale/buying - not our first choice and it dragged on way longer than initally planned- so didn't have same lack of access and stuff coming - but came with other problems and costs and stress.

Bur it would no longer be your house once funds have been transferred from the buyer buying your house. Technically you would be trespassing on the property.

When we moved here, we were told that everything completed at 1pm. The agent didn’t have the keys. They rang and got no reply. We went to the house 1:30 and could see them sitting in the lounge. They wouldn’t open the door. Solicitors involved, estate agents got hold of them. They dropped the keys to agent at 3pm (we had gone back to rented house which we thankfully had for another 3 days).

We picked up the keys at 4pm, with a van full of the first load of stuff we were Moving in, expecting house to be empty but they were having a takeaway! They said they were moving slowly as they were told we still had our rental house for a couple days.

Their own solicitor ended up reading them the riot act ans told them they were breaking the law and to get out now. They were finally out at 10pm, leaving half their stuff on the neighbours drive as their solicitor told them not to leave anything on the property or we could dispose of it, and the house was left in a complete state. Never seen anything like it.

I posted about it on here at the time and loads of people told me I was being unreadable as I still had a rented house for a few days! They didn’t own the bloody house anymore, I did!

I think you were lucky with a 2 hour delay - my move to my previous house was terrible. I was all packed up and removal men all loaded but no money came through from my buyer at 1. Phoned her but she said ‘don’t worry’. Got to 3 and no word from the buyers solicitor and my removal men said I’d have to decide if they unload or I go into storage as time was running out. Went into storage, son booked me into a hotel with nothing - had to buy toiletries etc. my buyer couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t hand over the keys. Finally completed the following day but removal men couldn’t do that day as they were booked so got my stuff in 2 days later. Extra cost was £1000 which my buyer refused to cover - small claims sorted that out - it was terribly stressful. I moved again in March and both my buyer and the man I was buying were absolutely fabulous - my buyer was happy for bits to be left in the garage (I didn’t need to) and the man I bought from let me move all my plant pots into the new garden the week before completion. My post redirection has been a joke and the new owner of my previous house is happy to meet up for lunch and hand over post. The man I bought from popped around the day after I moved to explain how everything works and has been happy to answer any questions I have since - a pure moving joy!!