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

Could claim squatters rights though

They could not. This isn't Spain. Squatting in a residential property is an offence.

Of course it is. OP has handed over hundreds of thousands of pounds for an asset which she now legally owns. CF is illegally preventing OP and her family from using their new home.

Its easy to sanctimoniously say "be kind'' when you're not the one standing there with a lorry full of furniture, kids and pets. I bet if it was actually happening to you you wouldnt be quite so laid back about it all.

Incidentally, what do you class as "for a bit"? How can you possibly know how long they will stay? You'd rather "be kind" to a family of CFs than your own children?

I’m in Scotland. Didn’t bridging loans use to avoid this problem in Scotland? It’s decades since we moved, bit it certainly kept things easier even if an extra expense.

Haha wonder if your seller was the same one we bought our house from?! Funds transferred & call from solicitors to confirm house was ours at 11am-ish.

Husband goes to collect keys; not been handed to agent yet. Goes to new house to see what’s going on. Seller is apparently at different agent waiting for their keys which she eventually got at 4pm. She finally brings our key to agent at 5.30pm. Finally gets out of the house at 9.45pm.

I said to husband it was a bit of luck that a) we didn’t have the movers booked for completion day and b) it was him over there not me as I wouldn’t have put up with “oh but what if we don’t have anywhere to go”

I might have been a bit more tolerant if she’d been less of a complete and utter dickish nightmare through the whole sale process.

Same as in England!

You mug 😆

No they couldn't.

Don’t be silly….

How can you move from top down….. you wouldn’t have the funds!

So top of the chain is buying for £500,000 (a new build) they have a mortgage arranged for £100,000, and are selling their current home for £400,000 to the person in the chain below them, where is the additional money coming from to complete on the new build, if it has not been given to them by the person they are selling their home to? In which case if the person below had paid their £400,000 for the house then it’s theirs, isn’t it?

But do explain how it completes from top downwards, without the funds being paid for the new build?

So, when you get the completion call on the home you’re buying, which home do you then own?

I assume the new home? Because you’ve now completed?

So which home do your buyers own? The one that they’ve completed on? Which used to be the one you owned.

No from bottom up…..

When we moved we completed but our sellers weren't able to get in their house so even though legally it was our house i did the decent thing and gave them an extra 2 hours till 4 so they could clear the rest of their belongings.

But once the solicitors have arranged exchange of money and the keys have been handed over - as was the case here - it’s no longer your house. Where the previous owner goes next is not OP’s problem.

When we arrived at our house they had about 8 relatives there still packing everything up there was stuff everywhere the garage was still full and no sense of urgency at all. We had to get the estate agent to come down and she basically told them the had to get a move on we ended up getting them to clear one room and we starting to move our stuff into it. They had to come back the next day to do the garage. They were elderly so we cut them some slack. However because of the continued contact with them I became friends with their daughter she is now a cherished friend! So every cloud and all that…

This!

At that point the house PLUS ALL the contents belonged to you legally!! You should have got a locksmith out to change the locks and anything you didn’t want chuck out onto the driveway and tell the sellers to F off if they thought they were picking anything else up the next day as otherwise they wouldn’t be getting any of their stuff as legally it’s not theirs anymore

Neighbours (UK) handed their keys in, got their funds released and turned up at their new house in a removal van to find the sellers had not released the keys, though they had left. Some blockage upchain. Approaching 5pm, the removers said they'd have to unload onto the pavement and leave. The chain unblocked with minutes to spare and they got in.

Plus one to this.

‘Be kind’ should work both ways. Be kind by moving out of a house that you no longer own.

Agree with all of this. MN has gotten weird. OP they are completely in the wrong and it sounds very unpleasant. Be kind my arse…code for ‘be a doormat’…usually aimed at women.

AIBU is officially fucking batshit now. There seems to be this automatic contrarianism. People just respond to be unpleasant and argumentative.

OF COURSE it’s not unreasonable to expect free and unfettered access to what is now officially YOUR property after the previous owners have handed over keys. They are now trespassing. Would all the “be kind” posters genuinely be ok with that?? Random people lounging about in their house? I suspect not. It’s stress you just don’t need on what’s already a stressful day, especially with a toddler and newborn.

For England this would not be so shocking but in Scotland I am really horrified.

good luck in your new home OP!

Well yes, they’re clearly in the wrong, but easily resolved and you’re in. A bit of an overreaction OP.
A lot worse things can happen on moving day, so keep your perspective

Could claim squatters rights though

Moving Day is the most stressful day possible except for the day you are born, which no one remembers for very good reason. There is no "shine" on Moving Day. Congratulations on your new house.

If it's all so simple and it's unexpected that it might not go smoothly then why is the OPs tale not at all unusual?

Traffic was stopped around the corner from where I live once while a buyer pulled up to a not emptied house and the two parties went head to head in the middle of the road!

And there's been plenty of other examples on this thread ..

IT HAPPENS, it's not rare, I do think it's a bit silly to have absolutely no safety net in your move day itinerary

I felt terrible on moving day as we were still trying to get out but our movers were taking longer than expected. We had until 5 but had said we thought we'd be out by 3 so our buyers were ready for 3. Unfortunately it turned out to be 5:05. I apologised profusely as it wasn't what I'd wanted for our buyers to have to wait. They were lovely about it and we're on good terms. I can't imagine inconveniencing a buyer deliberately and thinking that's ok.