Bought house but they’re still in it now!

Which is a civil matter

(and they're already in)

Glad you are in OP, hope you all managed to sleep well.

We had this. Solicitor said we would sue for “damages” as in breach of vacant possession. We never did in the end as just wanted the whole ordeal to be over, but only once they had paid my storage costs.

This is ridiculous i cannot believe their audacity.

Book into a hotel for tonight. New owners should be responsible for hotel and extra cost if any storage. They signed a contract .

How awful for you! Moving is stressful enough without these complications! And eith children too!

Something similar happened to friends, 2 ladies in 80s. Eventually, they realised that by the time they gained access, it was going to be too late to try to unpack & set up for the night.
They booked into a cheap hotel & tackled the move the next day, having had some sleep & a hotel breakfast.
Not ideal, by a long way, but made the best of the very unsatisfactory situation they found themselves in.
I hope you're able to resolve this frustrating, infuriating situation without a major meltdown.

At 2pm yesterday they were in breach of contract. Should you move again, you get onto your lawyer and estate agent at 2pm and get them to fix it for you. I would also still email your lawyer and advise what time vacant possession was given as you will likely be due compensation (depending on where in the country you are and what your contract says)

This happened to us, we were the one taking ages.

I felt extremely bad, and we were trying our best to get everything out. It's not something we were used to doing, and therefore didn't prepare properly. I would say just stand at the door, that would help put pressure on them. They did that to us, and it made us feel worse, but we definitely felt the pressure.

Oh it's absolutely a piss take OP and their behaviour is appalling.
If this happened to me I would be far more direct with them and then seeking compensation .

A similar thing happened to us…. We ended up helping the couple pack their van…

They were just dozy and "didn't think I'd mind". Yes, they do walk among us!

You can only claim costs if your solicitor serves a notice to complete. Why didn’t they OP?

On the other hand, it's so hard. Once when I was supposed to be out and wasn't, my buyers actually loaded their car up and helped me move. They drove my stuff to my new house, on the other side of town.

This... once completed the house is legally yours! The cheek!

Check your contract - there should be a fine that they have to pay your for every day the house is not empty. Don’t engage directly if it’s stressful, just get your solicitor to advise that you’ll be actioning the clause. You might end up getting quite a lot of money! Happened to my sibling and the vendor had to pay £1000 for leaving furniture

same thing happened to my parents years ago. My Dad just said we own the house, get out, we’re moving in. And they did. I think they have them until the next day to come back and get the rest of their stuff.

It’s legally yours and they are in breach of contract. Hopefully you took photos and records of everything. You can recover any costs from them, so if you did book a hotel, or have to pay extra a storage costs, bill them. Your solicitor can advise.

P.S. This is why you should never move house on a Friday! If anything goes wrong it can take the whole weekend to sort out. Far better to move midweek when everything is open the next day.

Read the updates.

Walk in to your house and put your belongings inside.

They are actually breaking the contract. This happened to us. We found out too late but your solicitor can send them a fine for this. They are totally out of order anyway, absolute piss takers

We had similar years ago. We weren't planning on moving into the house straightaway (fixer upper) so the previous owners thought they could take their time about moving out. I think they planned to do it over the weekend!

We walked in through the front door with our box of essentials (kettle, tea, milk etc), settled ourselves in the kitchen with hot drinks and watched them. They speeded up considerably then and were gone within an hour. We allowed them to leave some bits in the garage which they collected the next week.

Had you’re in and good luck with your new house

You should let your solicitor know so that they can be charged a penalty for breach of contract. Otherwise how will they learn?

I wanted to add that a friend of ours used to run a removals company and the whole thing was so shambolic, relying on guys working cash in hand when needed, that both times we moved I insisted we use a professional company. And even then we had problems - at the last move, the crew leader was clearly drinking our booze, and i mentioned before that on the previous move one lad just got fed up and went home.

But if it's a proper company, they have back up options, complaint procedures, properly paid staff, insurance - our friend's van often wouldn't start and he employed really dodgy people. I refused to use him!!

well, unless the former owners stay in the property for 10 years, they aren't getting squatters rights!