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?

@BoredZelda

It’s about buildings insurance, contents insurance and squatting

Nonsense. The OP’s contents are still in her house. The property is covered for buildings insurance even though the OP isn’t physically in it. And sure, if they are squatting, it’s a civil matter and the OP can start proceedings to remove them.

Actually if they haven’t taken possession then the buildings insurance will be invalid and the OP will be in breach of her mortgage terms . Likewise the vendors are also in breach of contract, you don’t just get to change your mind because it’s not convenient.

@BoredZelda
The cost to rent a van isn't.
Possibility of charges incurred if not returned.
Additional charges for extra day used on the vehicle.
Fuel.
Loss of a days income/holiday from work.
Unwanted stress.

So unless you're happy to pay additional fees when it couldn't been avoided due to the lack of common sense of others, then tell me otherwise.

Point is, completion date was today, the seller should've left the property as soon as they had that phone call from their solicitor.

Same thing happened to my DM. She's a feisty one, so walked into the house, dropped her handbag down, and went mad.

They soon scarpered 😂

Fairly sure the insurance is still absolutely valid given you insure from exchange.

They are however CF's and I'd be getting there to keep an eye on them.

[quote DancingQueen85]@drpet49
Unless I have misunderstood the OP's situation they have somewhere to stay tonight. Not sure what the point of getting stressed out by it is. Wait for them to move out. They've behaved badly but not really much you can do about it [/quote]
Have you heard of the law?

God I felt mortified when we were 'that' couple. Our mover had cancelled and we had 3 yr old twins and were moving across the country. I had found a replacement mover last minute who were ok but their estimate for the van size was off.

My parents had come up to help so dh and my mum took the kids to the new house and the big removal van went too but my dad and I had to wait in a fully packed up and hoovered house for the back up van which took another hour and a half to turn up.

I phoned the lovely vendor and explained - they were having building work so I knew they weren't moving in that day but I still felt really really bad. It was hideously stressful.

You poor things! Similar happened to me, on completion day we didn't actually complete until 5pm. The solicitor for the FTB at the bottom of the chain (one below us) didn't organise the transfer of funds on time. I had to pay overtime to the removal guys and overtime to the people doing childcare for our 3 year old in nursery and our 7 month old being looked after by a friend's au pair.

I should have pursued someone for the money but was too exhausted by the whole experience to do it.

The chain system in the UK is pants! You are so lucky to have a rental to go back to but I completely sympathise.

@stalkersaga

At this point, I wouldn't blame you if you did start considering the "contacting thieves" option. That'd get the house cleared quick!

I'm sorry OP. I know this is beyond frustrating but I've genuinely laughed out loud at your " The solicitor has contacted thieves" and the posts mentioning it.😅

Jesus. The mentality of the cheeky fuckers who do this was a mystery to me, but there seem to be some on this actual thread.

Ffs they don’t own the house any more! They should be gone. It shouldn’t be that difficult to grasp that you leave somewhere BEFORE the point someone else owns it, not after!

Bloody hell! Change the locks as soon as you can.

Its a shame if they are leaving tonight in a way.

Our solicitor told us to book the best hotel we could find, and charge room service at any excuse for any amenity we could - coffees, dry cleaning, trouser pressing etc and eat out for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

We racked up quite a bill, which they were updated with twice daily, and within 3 days they were out - owing us a grand total of just over 5k

I should have enjoyed it more but I was so stressed I was just ordering food and not eating it. Do relax OP and try to make the most at their expense.

@Twatarse

They chose the completion date too! We bent over backwards to accommodate them! It was supposed to be last friday, they wanted to change to today. Dh has had to re arrange work at the last minute to get today and tomorrow off which wasn’t easy for him either.

Why chose a day yourself then do this?

I think I'd have been wary of people who started out like this, being arses. They're usually CF.

I agree to go park your car or something and show you're about to go into your house immedately. I won't be surprised if they're still there tomorrow.

I also agree to change the locks.

@BillMasen

Jesus. The mentality of the cheeky fuckers who do this was a mystery to me, but there seem to be some on this actual thread.

Ffs they don’t own the house any more! They should be gone. It shouldn’t be that difficult to grasp that you leave somewhere BEFORE the point someone else owns it, not after!

Exactly. Would these posters be equally as chill if they bought a car and the owner said ‘oh let me keep it for a couple more hours as it’s inconvenient to hand it over now’. Would they be as chill if they purchased any service - let’s say paid for nursery - and the manager said ‘oh could you bring the child back on Wednesday, it’s inconvenient for us to take her today’.

Once you’ve purchased something, it’s yours and you have the right to use it.

If nothing (out of their hands) has happened to put them in this situation, they're probably some of the most disorganised people ever and their children are used to things being so uncertain and last minute. Wonder if they even have concrete plans for their next place. Poor kids.

Just after I last posted dh called his sister to come and sit with the children while I was out, he and BIL are at the house, he didn’t want to leave it any longer.

They are gone.

Well, he they are sat on next doors drive looking pissed of while a tiny van comes and goes taking bits away.

The door has a porch and the internal door has a lock that is very easy to change, a barrel lock and FIL has one and is taking it round. so they can do that now.

Dh says the house is filthy.

And why am I pissed off?

It’s my bloody house!! Me and dh own it. The old owners have no right to be there. They are breaking the law. I shouldn’t have to make allowances for anyone else.

We had a solid plan for moving to make things easier tomorrow which included taking a carful of things tonight for the morning. We would have liked to get that done this afternoon.

I’m just sat in the hospital car park having a breather before I head home.

And I honestly can’t believe there are people
who would be pissed off in this situation..

You should have been on here a few months ago, @Twatarse, when your vendor's spiritual twin was on here complaining about her evil old buyer.

Good times.

@EileenGC *Chilled

@DancingQueen85

Why are you so pissed off if you have a rental property to stay in? They absolutely shouldn't have done this but it sounds like it isn't much of an inconvenience to you, so why stress about it

If nothing else, the OP said they have a moving van coming tomorrow early morning. They'd need to get the house in order to move their things in tomorrow. So it should have been left empty by now.

Surely the people who cannot understand why OP is upset have not been through a house purchase themselves. It's stressful and this would be the absolute last thing you need when you are due to move.

Either that or you are CFs yourselves?

@DappledThings

Why on earth do people leave all/most the packing until the day of the move??? Goodness knows. A colleague of mine arrived at her new property and not only was the vendor still there with loads unpacked but she had just put a wash on.

This happened to us 30 odd years ago when we bought our first property. The vendors (a youngish couple) didn’t realise you had to move out on moving day! We arrived and they hadn’t packed anything, our solicitor and the estate agent were useless. The agent asked us to be charitable towards them as they weren’t very bright...
We went home and slept on the floor at my sister’s house, arranged to go back the next day at 2pm. But when we arrived the vendor had locked himself out, it was a first floor flat and the keys were upstairs. He was precariously stood on a bin trying to reach an upstairs window. My DH went back to sister’s, borrowed a ladder, climbed in and let the vendor in. They still hadn’t packed anything! We then spent the next 3 hours packing up their self-hire van and another 2 emptying ours, finally in at 7pm.
If I hadn’t experienced this myself on our very first move I wouldn’t believe other people’s stories on here.
Fortunately our next 2 moves were into new houses so no vendor issues, but I do have some remarkable stories about CF builders which I’ll save for another day.

Happened to a good friend of mine. His seller didn't even attempt to move out and claimed not to realise that he had to do so (bullshit).

Since then, I have always asked my solicitor to get the sellers' solicitor to confirm with the sellers in writing that they know that they need to be out at completion.

@User0658

Surely the people who cannot understand why OP is upset have not been through a house purchase themselves. It's stressful and this would be the absolute last thing you need when you are due to move.

Either that or you are CFs yourselves?

I've moved multiple times, including two house purchases. Can't drive, and no-one to help me with moving so I know all about stress.

No chance would I be booking a removal van for the day (or even the day after) the vendors are supposed to be out of the house. Not that there's anything wrong with per se, it's perhaps just a touch naive because people can be disorganised, entitled cunts.

I would’ve been tempted to tell them to get out of my fucking house!

@DancingQueen85

Why are you so pissed off if you have a rental property to stay in? They absolutely shouldn't have done this but it sounds like it isn't much of an inconvenience to you, so why stress about it

Er, there's such a thing called the legal system? Helps a civilised country run smoothly without descending into chaos.