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?

It’s apparent from this thread that many people are very stupid and don’t understand the significance of completion day and being out of the house and ready to hand over the keys once the funds have transferred.

The vendor that I mentioned unthread just didn’t understand that completion day was the day you were supposed to leave, he thought it was ok to book his van for the next day as it was the day after completion. He looked at us like we were mad expecting to move in once we had completed, he even said ‘surely most people move out the next day’!

So sorry this has happened to you. The vendor of our first property thought they could live in our house for a week after completion. They got an absolute bollocking by their solicitor and we eventually got the keys around 5/6pm. I was about 8 weeks pregnant at the time and sick as a dog.

Seeing how whenever these threads come up there are always tales of people who just don't seem to grasp the concept of Completion I do think there needs to be a Clause added in the Contract that invokes financial penalties immediately, with, as a previous poster said, a sum of money to be retained by the solicitor and only released to the sellers if they abide by the stipulations for Completion. Might serve to focus some minds.

I had it the other way round.
CF buyers turned up long, at 10am, long before money was due to move. They asked me if they could bring their cat in as it was getting stressed. I agreed that when I had cleared a bedroom (movers were working steadily through the house, everything was packed ready to go and we were on target to meet completion time) that they could put the cat in that room. I popped to the next village to get some rolls for mine and DCs lunch, knowing I would have no time to give them something else, and came back to the buyers moving an aquarium into the kitchen and filling it, and my movers (understandably) having faces like cat's bums. There were four family members standing in what was still my kitchen. I had to pointedly ask them to let me finish moving out before they moved in.
I may have dragged my heels a little after this because I was truly pissed off, but we still left only thirty minutes after the sale completed.

An extra 'long' in there, but you get the idea!

What a nightmare! Hopefully you have the rental property for a bit longer and can do a deep clean of the new house before moving your stuff in. Get those locks changes ASAP. xxx

My removal men didn't turn up on my moving day, despite me paying a deposit.
I managed to find another firm who could send vans when they had finished on other jobs. I didn't get out of the house till 7pm and unpacked the other end at gone midnight.
My dh had come to the new house at midday, to get the keys.
Left me with 2 dogs, 2 kids and the house to sort out.
It was the most stressful day of my life, I will never, ever move again after that.

Our purchasers were fantastic, they didn't move in for 8 weeks.

I would have your DH pile everything he finds in the house out on the pavement and tell your Sol where it all is. Sol can tell vendor's Sol or agent.

What a horrible thing to happen.

Should probably try and have a word before the moving day to make sure everyone understands, considering how many times this happens. I felt really bad for early lunch lady, I really don't think she knew.

@Soldoutinyoursize

I would assume something had gone very wrong from them today. Go stay in a hotel for the night & tell them you'll be back at 10am.

Are you actually for real?? You would just pay for a hotel and leave the previous owners in your house? Apart from anything else, you’re insurance would be invalid if anything happened to the house overnight!!

It’s no wonder that there are so many issues when moving house, when there are people like you about!

@Twatarse

They have gone from next door drive now.

All the kitchen drawers are filled with with crap. Dh is doing some cleaning while he’s there.

I don’t think it’s so out there that i’ve found today quite stressful to be honest.

Seriously, would some of you have just shrugged your shoulders and said “oh well, the van isn’t booked until tomorrow anyway”, and just gone happily about your day? I wish I was that relaxed!

It sounds awful, especially as they have left the property so dirty 😔.

The last time we moved, the owner was late leaving and hadn't done a thing to clean in years from the look of it 😩 Not what I was expecting after spending the whole morning cleaning every room of our old house thoroughly and in a rush to be put by12!

My vendors were a bloody pain on moving day.

We completed around midday and I think I was out my home by about 12.45 so a bit late but not major, flat was packed and I had a removal company (taking things down from the fifth floor takes time). I cleaned the flat and was packed completely by the day so my buyer was happy.

Freezing cold December day. Estate agent said my vendors weren’t quite ready, needed another hour. Ok, I went to get some lunch. Went back to EA an hour later, nope they’re still not ready, EA is apologising and saying they’re a “bit too relaxed” and have asked for “another hour”. Ok, I’m a bit annoyed bu hey ho I’ll go and get a coffee and sit down. Gave them 90 minutes to be sure. Went back to EA. He calls and he starts to argue saying I’m here, the property is now mine, why didn’t you sort that previously? I ask for the problem.
They didn’t bother to sort their cat. Cat has gone out for the day like it always does, they need to wait for it to return. It’s now getting dark, I have no car, it’s below freezing and my removal company warm me that if it gets past a certain time my stuff will have to go to storage and delivery be rearranged, they need to have adequate time to empty everything in. EA calls vendors and says they need to leave now. They beg plead and cry for “just another half an hour” and they’ll be gone as cat will be back.
An hour or so later, EA has had it (it’s closing 5pm by now and he wants to go home on time) so he drives me to the house. The two of the, were merrily sitting in the living room eating a pizza. No care in the world.
EA goes first and says they need to leave, owner is here, times long up. They say they’re still waiting for the cat. EA says tough, you need to wait outside. Vendors ask to wait inside with me while my stuff comes on because it’s really cold. This is when I snap and point out that I’ve been out in the cold for 5 hours waiting for my house keys
They leave. Cat comes bounding in at half 6. I trap it in a room and call them.

@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

Probably because they have their Removal Van booked for tomorrow and wanted the opportunity to clean the house (which they now no longer have time to do) prior to moving in! If that isn’t enough for you, their insurance is probably invalid if they have not got vacant possession. Does that explain things any better, why they are likely pissed off to you?

I despair of the idiots who think it is, in any way, okay to do things like this!

Op are you my new neighbour?!

Your description of the family sounds just like the people we bought our house from, who annoyingly moved next door after keeping us waiting all day, getting our neighbourly relationship off to a great start.

They've just sold again and I bet they take all day this time too. What is wrong with some people?

Can you take photos of the mess they left in case you need some evidence?

[quote DancingQueen85]@CurlyhairedAssassin
The feeling is absolutely mutual regarding not wishing to buy a house from you. You sound easily stressed. That must make life hard.
I have bought and sold several properties and of course I would never behave in such an inconsiderate way. If it happened to me and I was currently in rented accommodation, then I would see it as an annoyance of course but there is no huge inconvenience and no reason to get so stressed.
[/quote]
It's not a question of stress, although clearly it adds avoidable stress, it's about what is morally and legally the right way to go about things, and having respect for others. I don't get the "no biggie" attitude if you're past the helpless teenager stage.

Probably because they have their Removal Van booked for tomorrow and wanted the opportunity to clean the house (which they now no longer have time to do)

Did OP claim this was the issue?

If you sell your house at 2pm on 24th, then your stuff should be out of it before 2pm. Its not complicated.

Of course it isn't complicated. But when things in our lives go wrong, being stressed about it when it actually hasn't caused you any inconvenience, is a complete waste of energy.

I guess I'm just too long on the tooth to get overly bothered about things just because they are wrong. I save that for things that actually cause me problems. I've enough of those to be going on with.

Awful Op.
Utter CF.
I would be charging them for a full proffessional deep clean and the time they were in there from exchange

@nzborn

Can you take photos of the mess they left in case you need some evidence?

dh has photographed everything. It really was dirty and cupboards and drawers filled with papers, rubbish, just crap really.

And yeah, this afternoon we were going to move some smaller bits over and have a clean. He’s done want he can tonight but he’s knackered and so am I.

We weren’t expecting it to be quite so filthy though! They left the cooker, dh said he opened the door and felt sick, thick with grease and dirt 🤢

@BoredZelda

Probably because they have their Removal Van booked for tomorrow and wanted the opportunity to clean the house (which they now no longer have time to do)

Did OP claim this was the issue?

If you sell your house at 2pm on 24th, then your stuff should be out of it before 2pm. Its not complicated.

Of course it isn't complicated. But when things in our lives go wrong, being stressed about it when it actually hasn't caused you any inconvenience, is a complete waste of energy.

I guess I'm just too long on the tooth to get overly bothered about things just because they are wrong. I save that for things that actually cause me problems. I've enough of those to be going on with.

They've left the OP with a filthy house still filled with their detritus. So now she's going to have to spend tomorrow cleaning up their shit instead of moving in.

You're making a truck full of assumptions here about it not inconveniencing anyone.

I'm glad to hear you're long in the tooth. Hopefully you won't be selling another property.

We put half our stuff in storage for a couple of weeks so we only had to hire a small van for the day.

We had everything packed the night before and just spent the morning cleaning.

We had everything in the van by 10am as instructed which is when it was supposed to all go through. It was supposed to be a buyer who wasn't in a chain but they'd been dicking us around for months.

We had to sit around until after 4.30pm for it to go through. It had to be through before 5pm or we would have been stuffed and liable on the house we were buying as we wouldn't have been able to complete.

God knows what we'd have done that night, although at least we knew we had the van all weekend.

The thought of people still being at the house we were buying terrifies me and if we do ever move again I definitely will put as much into storage as possible to take some of the stress out of the whole god awful process.

Moving house is a hideous experience.

Get a professional clean. It will be the best couple of hundred quid you ever spend.

@Clymene

There should be a £100 financial penalty for every hour you outstay your welcome. The solicitor should retain £1000 from the sale until vacant possession is delivered which is what you pay for.

I agree there should be a financial penalty, but should be at least £500 per hour. Some sellers would probably be quite happy to pay £600-800, on a £500-800k house, if it meant they could start moving out later and didn’t even need to take a day off work.

I'm afraid I was one of those that were late leaving had packed up some things before hand and put them in my hay barn, the day before I picked up van and filled it up but wasn't even half full, drove it next morning to new house the people had already left but I had to sit for hrs for the keys in the end I ask if I could unload and leave in the garden they said yes while I was unloading the new people had arrived at my house but had no key to get in someone came and got the keys ,then went back to load up again my son rang a friend to come and help, at lease all the stuff left was in one room, when we had loaded we put everything in the garden, didn't finish until after 10, have moved 4 times when married never had removals ,last move couldn' t afford it, have always regretted the last move ,will never move again