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AIBU?

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Original poster

Bought house but they’re still in it now!

404 replies

ItsOnlyRainFFS · 26/09/2025 17:44

So we exchanged contracts last week and completed by 10am today. We vacated our house by 12.30pm as our buyers keen to get in and contract said 2pm. The house we bought was supposed to be ready 2pm but it’s still
not ready! Now the seller (house we now own!) is saying they’re going to struggle to empty it by 8pm! And that sounds optimistic. They just don’t sound like they packed up properly. Anything we can do? Solicitor and estate agents shut.
We have put most of our stuff in storage - which is shut. We have though thankfully hired medium van which has our essential stuff in it. But we just want to unpack it now. We have 2 kids and have been at a bowling alley and kfc trying to kill time since school.
Would we be unreasonable to demand we move in 8pm?

OP posts:
tripleginandtonic · 26/09/2025 22:16

MeridianB · 26/09/2025 17:51

This. Call the police if you have to but they need to leave (and ideally get all their possessions out of the house). Guessing this means they won’t be cleaning it either. It’s outrageous.

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You can't call the police for thwt.

fruitypancake · 26/09/2025 22:14

Shocking OP - hope you are now in and they are finally gone . What a nightmare!

IsEveryUserNameBloodyTaken · 26/09/2025 22:14

BramblesMum · 26/09/2025 20:09

This exact same thing happened to me, the previous owners took 6 hours after the deadline and I was on to the solicitor saying he had to get them out, I rang the police and they wouldn't do anything. When I did get in the house was filthy, they had removed every light bulb & the wiring to the electric meter. I had no electricity or heating and didn't get in until 8 pm when it was already dark. I spent my first night in my first new home crying. There was nothing I could do about it. They were complete b*!!!

They took the wiring to the electricity meter.Who the fuck does that.
I hope things looked up for you after then and you had many happy days there since.

TheCheekyCyanHelper · 26/09/2025 22:14

InMyHealthyEra · 26/09/2025 17:50

I voted YABU because YABU to accept any of that.

You order them out of your property immediately and either put all of their belongings out the front or in a designated room for them to collect later when it suits you. First thing Monday you call the solicitor or estate agents and start the process of financial compensation for their breach of contract

Their movers are already there unloading the house. Not much else they can do. Not sure why people are posting crazy, impossible suggestions of what OP should do.

Pearl69 · 26/09/2025 22:13

Happened to us many years ago. Pouring of rain and my sellers had nt done a thing to move (thinking they had all Easter weekend. 🙄). Drafted in all able bodied family and put their stuff in our garage to be collected the following day or it would be left out on the lawn. Obviously the house was filthy and we had to clean it too.

next day they came back to collect from the garage (unlocked) but had kept a key and tried to let themselves into our house … annoyingly nothing could be done when we complained . Outrageous behaviour.

Friendlygingercat · 26/09/2025 22:09

Not people still in the house but those next door blocking the street with their shitty little car so we could not get the removal van in. Twice I went around and politely asked them to move the car, Kept saying we will do it "in a minute". Id had a few run ins with them about bins so they probably saw it as a chance to get back. I was only moving up the street so had got a few mates to do the work. After a cuppa one of the removal guys went around - he was a 6 ft 6 foot biker - and they quickly moved their car. I dont know what he said but I think he looked pretty scary with all those skull tattoos.

Next bin day I moved all their bins into a nearby alley so they didnt get emptied. I am petty that way. I bloody hate neighbours/

Doris86 · 26/09/2025 22:09

namechangetheworld · 26/09/2025 21:25

Well it's not hard if you can afford professional movers to do literally everything for you, no.

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They didn’t do everything for us. We packed every single box, dismantled every item of furniture, and disposed of all junk and rubbish. All the removers did was turn up on the day of completion, and loaded everything into their vans.

It wasn’t hard because we were organised, not because someone did it all for us.

justasking111 · 26/09/2025 22:00

Got to our new house removals guys stood around. All the doors open. Walked into the sitting room to find the wife on the sofa having a panic attack. I had to talk her down because her husband was at their New house organising the removal guys. 🙈

Charminggoldfinch · 26/09/2025 21:54

Are you in yet OP? I would ask your solicitor but I think you might be able to get them to cover any out of pocket expenses you’ve had to incur because of them - eg extra hire van/ storage costs or hotel for you all tonight.

GAJLY · 26/09/2025 21:50

This happened to a friend. She didn't know what to do so called her dad. Her dad came and they went into the house and said, this is my house now. Move your things into the garden, so we can get our stuff in. This guy panicked and dragged his stuff into the garden and came the next day to pick it all up!

Annonymiss123 · 26/09/2025 21:44

Hope you’re in @ItsOnlyRainFFS

LiquoriceAllsorts2 · 26/09/2025 21:36

QuestioningQuorn · 26/09/2025 21:12

Omg this happened to us. I assume OP is in now as silence. Took us 3 days to get in 😱

They stayed for the weekend and already had the keys for both houses. They wanted to get the house sorted properly before moving in apparently.

Wow, surely they must have realised that you also wanted to get your house sorted

ItWasTheBabycham · 26/09/2025 21:36

How are you going OP? I hope you’ve kicked them out, whether you move your stuff in or not tonight.

WonderingWanda · 26/09/2025 21:35

Oh god, I really hope that you've managed to get the cheeky twats out and you are settled in enjoying your new home now.

We had this once, although not as late as yours. They were moving small van load at a time. We just marched in and started moving their stuff out onto the street. They'd left if filthy too and infested with fleas. So grim.

SP2024 · 26/09/2025 21:35

Also, never move on a Friday!!

SP2024 · 26/09/2025 21:35

We definitely took longer than we should have done to move out. Our professional removal company totally under estimated the time it would take to pack up. We were a couple of hours late, completely out (and cleaned house around the removers) by 4pm though! Luckily our buyer wasn’t moving in that day. Did you ring the solicitors at 4.45pm to advise they were no where near ready and what options were?

InOverMyHead84 · 26/09/2025 21:28

Hoping OP is holding a cold drink of some description whilst celebrating their new home.

Looking forward to an update.

readingmakesmehappy · 26/09/2025 21:25

OP, what happened? They are right chancers doing this to you.

namechangetheworld · 26/09/2025 21:25

Doris86 · 26/09/2025 21:01

There have been similar threads on here in the past , and it never ceases to amaze me. What on earth goes through these people’s heads? It’s not like completion day comes as
a surprise. You literally have months to prepare for it, from the moment you decide to go on the market.

When we moved, we woke up on completion day, packed our last minute things in a suitcase and waited for the removal men to arrive. We literally twiddled our thumbs most of the morning, whilst the removal men loaded the vans with our pre packed boxes and pre dismantled furniture. Then we just ran a hoover round at the end. It’s really not hard if you start early.

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Well it's not hard if you can afford professional movers to do literally everything for you, no.

QuestioningQuorn · 26/09/2025 21:22

Frostynoman · 26/09/2025 21:18

What ended up happening?!

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Big payday in fines and compensation. In hindsight it worked out quite well for us although there was a point when I was thinking omg they are squatting. They are never going to leave!!! We had an excellent solicitor.

Frostynoman · 26/09/2025 21:18

QuestioningQuorn · 26/09/2025 21:12

Omg this happened to us. I assume OP is in now as silence. Took us 3 days to get in 😱

They stayed for the weekend and already had the keys for both houses. They wanted to get the house sorted properly before moving in apparently.

What ended up happening?!

Carrotsaregreen · 26/09/2025 21:13

Hope they're out by now and that you're in by now. You must be exhausted!!

Thisaintascene1 · 26/09/2025 21:13

BreatheAndFocus · 26/09/2025 20:07

I don’t understand this. Surely you negotiate a completion date with the vendors? That’s what I’ve always done. Once everything legal is ready, I got confirmation of that from my solicitors and then I suggested a completion date, which was agreed by the vendors. But, we always had a rough date in mind anyway, and this date changed slightly according to progress or delays. So both of us knew roughly when it would be weeks before completion, with the final date agreed closer to the time.

I hope you’re in your house now, OP.

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We found out we were exchanging the morning of our exchange day last time and completed less than 24 hours later. There was no discussion of dates at all!! Maybe as we were FTB and the house was empty, but it was so stressful then. Moving again now (selling ours) and we haven’t been able to agree a clear date for 2 months now for the whole chain… never again.

hope you’re now in, OP!!

QuestioningQuorn · 26/09/2025 21:12

Omg this happened to us. I assume OP is in now as silence. Took us 3 days to get in 😱

They stayed for the weekend and already had the keys for both houses. They wanted to get the house sorted properly before moving in apparently.

WonderfulSmith · 26/09/2025 21:11

Take lots of pictures and speak to your solicitor.