Bought house but they’re still in it now!

Similar situation to us. We were moving on the Friday and getting married the next day on the Saturday. I had a phonecall to say contracts had exchanged, money had been transferred etc at about 10am on the Friday morning so expected the keys around lunchtime. Well, they were still faffing around in the house at around 3pm, the wife and the grown up daughter standing watching whilst the husband moved things around, instead of all mucking in and helping move things out of the house. The guy who was helping us with his van walked into the house and started putting our things in there and if I remember rightly, anything of there's in his way he put out on the drive.

He ended up emptying his van of our stuff and loading their stuff in it to take to their new house, just to move them quicker. They dawdled all the way through the process, so expected nothing better.

They said they'd leave curtains and a few other bits behind so we could buy new stuff at our convenience after the wedding. We got in the house and discovered they'd stripped it bare, even taking the hooks off the curtain tracks so they weren't usable! We had towels covering the windows for the first few days until we could get out after the wedding and replace stuff.

Why is your system so ridiculous?

you have to do a closing inspection here the night before you close. Meaning that the people need to be out the day before closing. Even then, very few people actually move in on closing day because it can take a while for the banks to do what they are supposed to.

Most people tend to have a bridging loan for a week where they own both houses. But that’s just standard.

ive never heard of sellers refusing to move out

Glad OP is in her new home.

We had an issue recently selling a probate property of an elderly relative, several hundred miles away. We’d cleared the house of all the personal stuff, but left the furniture and some paintings for agents photos and the viewings. Two weeks before completion DH organised various organisations to come and pick up the furniture - a furniture resale specialist for a couple of nice sellable pieces, a charity for anything that was still fit for use but not auction material, and the LA bulk waste service for everything else. He went down for three days to let them in and supervise, and every single one let him down. The auction house and the charity just didn’t turn up and the cherry on the cake was the LA turning up at just before 5pm on a Friday and couldn’t take anything because the van was full (even though he’d itemised everything for them to take so they should have known how much van space they’d need.)

He ended up staying for ten days trying to get it all cleared, and finally managed it the day before completion, so he could at least run a hoover around and left a bottle of wine for the new owners. But it was incredibly stressful and at one point he was threatening to just have a big bonfire in the back garden and burn the lot.

Moved house a number of times, mid afternoon always seemed about the time we were able to gain access. 8pm at the earliest,😱 is taking the piss.

Trespass is a civil offence not a criminal one. Nothing the police could do.

Technically yes, but contractual time is usually 2pm, so it’s not “you had my money at 9am so get out”. There’s a time for a reason.

Argh, this thread is making me annoyed at DH all over again. We sold our last house from a few hundred miles away and hadn’t lived in it for years. After our tenants left DH went down to clear it out, weeks before completion. Imagine my surprise when on the morning of completion I got a call from our solicitor to say the buyers were going to withhold several hundred pounds for ’house clearance’. It turned out our agent had taken them on a pre-exchange visit without telling us, and they had taken photos of ‘all the things’ still in the house which he had sent to our useless solicitor who had then sat on them. Turned out that DH, who is exceptionally relaxed, had decided that leaving not only pots of paints etc in the shed but also random garden stuff and also some flat pack boxes etc was ‘as good as’ empty. As we would have just got a friend to go round and sort it if the solicitor had alerted us they did offer to share the cost of the disposal - note that the buyers didn’t complain about the paint - but I remain annoyed that DH was pants, embarrassed that we looked a bit shit as sellers, but also feeling a bit hard done by reading some of the CF stories where sellers got away scot free with way worse behaviour!

We did complain about our agent not flagging the visit or the issue to us (we’d told him explicitly to tell us if he took them on a visit as a previous one had caused chaos) but got a flea in our ear from his manager about how we were just shit basically. Sigh.

Glad you finally got in, OP.

Back in 2003 my late DH and I (just pre-children) had a nightmare move. We were only moving about 2 miles from our flat to first house.

On the completion day our movers turned up, loaded all our stuff, drove over to new house (which was empty as previous owner had already gone but we didn't have keys yet). Then we heard from solicitors that the buyer of our flat had failed to complete in time. Not just their fault but also their dodgy solicitor who had failed to ensure funds were in place.

This was on a Friday. Our solicitors were amazing but it was a right mess. Obviously we couldn't complete on the house either.

It was a whole saga but our solicitor and removal firm couldn't have been more helpful. The removal firm put all our stuff from the van in storage at their HQ. We had to go and stay with a friend while our solicitor put the fear of God into our flat buyer and his solicitor.

Eventually the flat buyer completed the purchase the following Tuesday and our removal firm arranged to move our stuff in that day. Our solicitor made the flat buyer pay a hefty extra sum for our inconvenience, our loss of earnings as we had to take extra time off work, our storage and extra removal costs, inconvenience to the seller of our new house - they made them cough up for EVERYTHING!

We were still a bit traumatised by it all. Luckily our next move 13 years later went very smoothly in comparison!

I wouldn't call Paint/tiles etc waste. To many they'd be useful for repairs/touch ups
.

the people we bought off did this we owned it from noon by they still had not packed even though they were going to a new build they had been waiting for - there was no chain - i phoned every hour for update - but when the kids came home at 4pm they wanted to go to new house so we did and watched them pack up think us being there helped with focus !

And this is why you should factor in the cost of a removals company when moving. And pay for their packing service which doesn't cost much more in the scheme of things. The one time we couldn't get into the house we bought until 5.30pm was when the people moving out did their own removals. And they had taken light fittings from the two reception rooms. We had cleaners lined up too because we could tell from our viewing that we would need them. It was very stressful. We also needed to pay for a skip to get rid of all the crap they left in the cellar, garage and garden.

Illegal it may be but getting the thieves out is a nightmare, as ever the wrongdoers seem to hold all the best cards.

We are hoping/thinking of moving in the next year and have already started to chuck/recycle stuff out!

The actual day if/when it comes will be hard - but not that hard.

They can't claim squatters rights, it's illegal to squat in residential properties.

Best wishes for every happiness in your new home.

Is there a way to safeguard against this happening? Could the solicitors set up an ESCROW where the seller places money that would be forfeited if they failed to move out on time? Alternatively the buyer could place, say £5k of the purchase price into the ESCROW that they get to retain if the sellers don't move out on time, or meet whatever set of criteria is agreed between seller and buyer.

In addition, I don't think the police would be able to throw them out as was suggested, they don't bother to throw squatters out so they'll not get involved in what is a civil offence.

My friend started packing on the day she exchanged contracts, so she had almost 4 weeks to get sorted. She was downsizing, and arranged for a local charity to come and collect furniture that she wasn't taking a day or two before completion.

She was meticulous. She printed A5 adhesive labels for all the boxes, colour coded according to the room they were meant to go in at her new place. The removal company supplied all the packing materials, including fabulous tall boxes with a hanging rail in, so you could just take clothes from the wardrobe and hang them in the box. The kitchen at her new place was fully fitted, so there were no appliances to go. We disconnected the gas cooker the day before and got it taken to the tip, and I took her fridge freezer to the tip on the day of the move.

I went to the new house with her to help get everything in place, her (adult) kids cleaned the old house throughout as each room was emptied, and the new owners arrived to find a fresh-smelling, spotless house, with a lovely card, flowers and bottle of champagne on the mantelpiece to welcome them.

If I ever move again, I want to buy a house from someone like her!

Great news that you are in. I hope you are all very happy in your new home plus you have a great story to tell about the move, even though way more stressful than you needed.

Glad you’re finally in OP.

This is why you should NEVER agree to complete on a Friday. Most moves go fairly smoothly but if you have problems with your buyers or sellers, there’s no-one around to sort it out and you’re left powerless and stuck.

I usually complete mid-week, giving the legal team time to sort out any last minute headaches. Last time we sold, we left on the Tuesday afternoon and completion was Wednesday. Our stuff went into storage as we were moving abroad.

Even then, our shitty removals company had to return on the Wednesday morning for the stuff they couldn’t fit into their too small second van and we’d had to leave it piled up in the unlocked garage all night and we were miles away by then. Luckily, the buyers didn’t arrive until after 12pm otherwise they might have stopped the removal men collecting the rest of our stuff. 😱

In case it’s useful to anyone else you can inspect to ensure vacant possession before completion. Just instruct your solicitor that completion isn’t to take place until you have confirmed that everything is out of the house. Admittedly it’s not always a practical solution if you are moving a long way but maybe worth considering if you suspect your sellers will be CFs!

Glad to read your update. In a month's time, when you are settled and have your new home as you like it, this will all be a distant memory and a good tale to tell in the future. I hope you are very happy in your new home.

NC for this.

As someone two years into the process of suing for expenses incurred after a delayed completion, I would warn that it is actually NOT the easy and immediate fix posters are making it out to be.

Turns out solicitors have NO powers to take money from wankers who just refuse to pay you the thousands of pounds in expenses you incur when they don't move out on time.

And it's cost me so far hundreds of pounds further out of pocket to pursue via small claims. With no guarantee I'll actually get any money back when I win the case.

What?

there are updates and why is it a police matter?

Read the update !!!