Three hours after completion still in my house

[Twatarse]

As the title.

Completed at 2pm.

No keys. Agents frantically calling vendors. They are still packing the van. Agent and solicitor tell them in no uncertain terms that they do not own the property anymore and are now breaking the law.

An hour and a half passes and they drop the keys off with the agent.

Phew, we think, they are all gone. So we pick up the keys and drive to the property - they are still there and the house is still full. I mean full - could still see paintings on the wall in the lounge, hallway and kitchen filled with boxes, appliances.

Get a sob story of how they have been at work all day (completion date hardly comes as a fucking surprise, maybe take the day off as we did?)

I tell them that they no longer own the properly, me and my husband do, and that actually, we could legally walk in and lock the doors, “you couldn’t” came the reply - I don’t know what planet some people live on.

Called the agent who was like, What?! Solicitor aghast too. Our solicitor have contacted thieves saying that yep, we’ll just lock them out if we chose to and charge them to remove their properly.

I didn’t go in and lock the doors, I’m not that much of a prick even though it’s now my property and they are trespassing. My 15 month old was knackered in the back of the car.

Back at home now, thankfully only 5 mins down the road and thank god in a rented house so no massive deal tonight although removals booked for 9am.

I’m so pissed off. We’ve had a really awful few months, I’ve got a close relative in hospital, Ive been fighting for a diagnosis for them, I’ve been ill myself.

Why are people such dicks?

Bless you. I hope that the home will soon be making happier memories than this nightmare-on-a-hellmouth.

Have you spoken to the neighbours whose driveway was the CF's temporary holding bay? Hope all goes well with them.

Best wishes to you. x

I suspect that although it can and does happen in Scotland, it's less frequent as each link in a "chain" tend to be complete.

Dh tells me that his previous wife and he got a letter from the solicitor telling them to come and remove a roll of wallpaper and spare tiles from their previous house : it was extra that they'd used decorating a room and they'd left them in case they were needed.

We throughly cleaned our flat before completion (we'd been in our house a while and had emptied the flat gradually) and left a bottle of wine, a bunch of flowers and a wee note saying that we hope the new owners would be as happy there as we had been

Good to know that you're now in and the house is clean

Very minor revenge but cross out the address and write RTS (return to sender) on any mail that turns up for them and put back in post after suitable delay (CFs like them won’t have set up a redirection) and if there is a landline ask for a new number.

@BorsetshireBanality

Very minor revenge but cross out the address and write RTS (return to sender) on any mail that turns up for them and put back in post after suitable delay (CFs like them won’t have set up a redirection) and if there is a landline ask for a new number.

Yes. It's actually much better than just putting them in the bin, which means you'll just keep receiving more letters for them. Do a RTS and the companies will eventually update the address and you won't receive them any more.

"They chose a shoddy removal firm (man with a van)."

There's nothing shoddy about a man with a van. If you get a man with a van, you do all the packing and a lot of the carrying yourself, that's all.

@Groovee

This happened to my very chilled mild mannered friend. She surprised us all by charging in there and helping the woman pack. The woman was so surprised that she did everything directed. She was then firing the boxes out the door and told her to get the van there.

In Scotland this would never happen so it stuns me the Audacity of sellers who don't seem to think they actually need to move house.

I’ve been following this thread, and a similar one from a few years back. I think the issue is maybe with the wording. In Scotland, we don’t talk about ‘completion’. Instead it’s ‘date of entry’ and that forms part of the offer and can be negotiated along with price before missives are exchanged. So it’s very clear from the start of the process that the buyers will be moving in on that date.

And yes, it doesn’t always go to plan, but I’ve never encountered or heard of vendors casually sitting about on date of entry, talking of moving out in a few days time. Panicked and flinging stuff in a car or van, yes, but not blissfully unaware that they need to go.

I agree it's not necessarily shoddy, but you still need to allow enough time to get everything packed up in advance and then moved to the new address, which in a small van might need several trips.

Oh my! Now I’ve read on and it does happen in Scotland! What arseholes those people are!

Is it normal in the UK not to clean when you vacate a property? To leave all your rubbish and dirt for the next owner?

No, it's not normal but it happens. Sometimes people are just dirty fuckers but sometimes the way our buying and selling works goes against us - contracts generally stipulate a completion time (1pm in our case) but if money transfers prior to that, you've completed and the house is no longer yours. So you may be planning for 1pm but actually complete at 10am which happened to us once. How early you complete generally depends where in the chain you are (bottom completes first) but sometimes it all goes really quickly. So we had the new owners banging on the door as soon as completion had happened so we got out as quickly as we could (11am) but had no opportunity to clean behind the wardrobes or hoover where the bed had been etc. I'd planned for 2 hours to clean a small, empty house but didn't get the option.

It wasn't filthy though, we'd cleaned in the preceding week as well!

What happens in other countries?
This idea of all shifting one place to the left at the same time on the same day is almost guaranteed to go wrong. There has to be a better way.

@LookItsMeAgain

I'd phone for a skip today and get the first available one and chuck everything of theirs into it.

You own the house, you own what they left in the house and you can do with it what you want, so I'd put it in a skip. I'd also get the solicitor so that the costs associated with it are paid for by them as they weren't out by the time the keys were handed over.

Legally you can't do this.

You can keep it, write to them explaining how long you'll keep it, keep it until then and then charge them for disposal. But you can't just chuck it immediately.

@ChicCroissant

I also thought one wasn't allowed to leave houses with no lightbulbs at all, but I could be wrong about that.

I only noticed that there were no lightbulbs in our new house when I tried to turn the lights on the day we moved in! Why would you take the lightbulbs FFS?! Had to dash to the local shop to get some

I'd have been beyond furious if someone was still in the house though! It's the biggest purchase you'll ever make and if you've completed then they've got your money and not stuck to their part of the deal - vacant possession. I would be understanding if something had gone wrong like the people who had removal firms cancel (that must have been a nightmare ) but you know in advance you've got to pack up and go.

To be fair, we have hue light bulbs and will absolutely be taking them with us, but that's because they're linked to an app on our phone and the new owner wouldn't be able to use them! I would put others back in though.

To be fair, we have hue light bulbs and will absolutely be taking them with us, but that's because they're linked to an app on our phone and the new owner wouldn't be able to use them! I would put others back in though.

Careful now. I said I’d do that on another thread and the grief I got was shocking. The fact that they wouldn’t work without the extra equipment like the bridge didn’t count for anything.
Apparently I should leave all the complicated, expensive, programmable light bulbs (which I was told were tacky) because someone might have bought the house for the quality of light.

Maybe extend a little patience. They’re obviously very behind.

As you’re in rented accommodation right now you can surely stay another 24 hours there to give them time to pack up?

Personally seeing as I’d booked a day off work anyway, I’d have helped them pack up if it was going to facilitate my moving in quicker. It’s the nice thing to do.

technically lightbulbs dont need to be left unless listed in the inventory. So replacing them with functioning ones is fine

I am sure some of this is the complete ignorance some have of what I consider normal life stuff and the lack of any sort of drive to find out despite google making life very clear.

Solicitors can play a part in this and be more clear in plain english to people and not assume people just know

OP, I had it - vendors made any effort to move out on the completion day, quoting some emergencies (I think the actual story was that repairs on their destination property were delayed). I had to stay in a hotel, 35 weeks pregnant. It took two weeks to get them out. My solicitor was actually panicking towards the end that we will have to start a full legal eviction process.

Bloody hell. I was packed a month before moving day and moved out a month before as I had to start my new job 300 miles away.
The estate agent lost my keys, one of them was on holiday with my keys. They rang me up to tell me I owed them £200 for the locksmith and new keys. I told them to get fucked.

This would have had me incandescent. It never ceases to amaze me how entitled, stupid and disorganised people can be.

Happened to a friend of mine, but they were moving about three hours away, got there and found the previous owners still moving out, their shit everywhere. Eventually after sitting for about five hours the removal men had to off load their stuff onto thr lawn as they’d have to charge an over night. It was a nightmare for them.

I also remember the thread of the woman who was sitting eating sandwiches in what was no longer her house, and annoyed the new owners started doing stuff.

I had this with my very first property I bought. Arrived at the estate agents and they didn’t have the keys. They called the owner, I could only hear one side of the conversation “no, Mr X, you can’t move out next week ... no, you no longer own the property, you need to move out today ...” etc.

I went to the pub, the old owners gathered friends and family to move the 6 of them and their stuff out - four flights of stairs and all. By 8pm they were gone, the agents gave me a bottle of champagne. As it was my first home, I didn’t have loads to move and was staying at a friends, so I didn’t have my own removal company to worry about - can’t imagine how stressful that would have been.

When I got in, I could have cried - it was awful. They’d painted around furniture, so all the walls looked like chessboards. The thick grease in the kitchen cupboards was unreal - never seen anything like it before or since.

Good luck in your new home OP - it’s obviously been a crap situation, but hope you settle in soon. And I think your neighbours will probably be glad. These types of CFs don’t normally limit their behaviour to moving house, they’re usually a nightmare all the time!

And it’s very easy from this thread to see who are CFs in normal life 😂

@KeepPortlandWeird

Maybe extend a little patience. They’re obviously very behind.

As you’re in rented accommodation right now you can surely stay another 24 hours there to give them time to pack up?

Personally seeing as I’d booked a day off work anyway, I’d have helped them pack up if it was going to facilitate my moving in quicker. It’s the nice thing to do.

Oh come on!

No. Absolutely not. It’s not like they didn’t have prior warning and they chose the date!

And no, I would not have let them stay in MY house for 24 hours.

@TheWestIsTheBest a new dishwasher, wow!! Ours left us a new cheap plastic loo seat that wasn't secured properly (and the wrapper/instructions so obviously fitted last minute)! I can only guess that the one they took away with them was made of rare wood or of extreme sentimental value

The vendor had made a big point of telling us that she would be cleaning the house. Clearly we have different ideas about what cleaning means (and I'm quite slovenly) so a new loo seat was probably much needed!!

I was getting extremely annoyed for you as I read your post, remembering those times I’ve moved house with a removal van full of stuff, waiting for the keys handover, unable to get in. Luckily I’ve never had the nightmare scenario of being physically unable to move because the previous owners haven’t left yet.

But…

Neither have you!

I’m sure it’s annoying but as you’re not moving in until tomorrow, it’s all going to be fine. Chill a bit.

@EuromamaAussiekids

I'm sorry I just don't get the drama of this thread. They were late leaving the property but the op is not homeless or anything similar and simply has to clean the house or get a cleaner in. It's not the end of the world.

Lol at the idea of there being an abundance of cleaners sitting by the phone waiting for an emergency call out and turning up immediately to do an extensive complete house clean

@DancingQueen85

An exceptionally serious situation! I think you all need to get some perspective. They have taken too long to move out. They will be gone by the morning and the OP can move in. The chances of anything happening in this period to invalidate your insurance is pretty much zero. It will be fine. Don't waste any more time thinking about it.

As the OP has young children, maybe she wanted to have the day free, while there was somewhere safe for her children to stay, to clean the empty house before moving in? Rather than having to work around boxes and small children. They shouldn't be there, it's not their house anymore and she has every right to be upset about it. Perhaps we should all go and camp at yours, see how you like it?