To ask for your 'moving home nightmares' - when did it all go wrong?

[FeelingBlobby]

We're almost through our chain and I love our new house and so excited about moving there but I know how often things go wrong.... So can I ask for your horror stories? I want to keep myself grounded and prepared that it may still all fall through. Searches are done, mortgages sorted, only three in chain and just contracts to exchange....

I fractured my wrist 2 weeks before the move, dp was away, and I was on my own with an 18mo a fractured (right hand!) Wrist faced with packing, sorting amd washing literally single handedly...

Exchange and complete on the same day not my choice

We found out just before exchange that the owners of our new house had failed to drop a curb which rendered the driveway illegal. House also couldn't get residents parking permits due to planning restrictions. Massive stress! All worked out in the end though!

I walked in and hated it.

Day before move-in date of my first home, 5pm, dropped round to measure for blinds that were coming to be fitted first thing in morning (this had been agreed by vendor) - not a single thing was packed and vendor still had dirty dishes in sink. I was - she asked if she could move out a day later than agreed (but complete the next day still). I said no, as the house was mine from tomorrow AM and I didn't want her living in it. She got very pissy and started to say "well I don't know how I'm going to get this lot shifted before tomorrow morning!" . Even as a shy 19yo I was annoyed and firm with saying no to the cheeky mare.

Quick call to solicitors and it was sorted that she'd have to be out in the morning. She was luckily, but I clearly passed her off by not allowing her to live in my house for free, as she took batteries out the smoke alarm and left what I suspect were pubes in kitchen drawers and cupboards

*pissed her off

Vendor didn't move out. That was entertaining. Luckily we weren't moving in immediately, but he took 3 days to finish.

Our nightmare began after we had the offer agreed, the people buying our wanted 10k for indemnity insurance, the house was spilt over 80 years ago!! The people we were buying off well.... She cheated, he divorced her. She wanted us to wait until she's found somewhere else, this is a posh house in posh area, we would of been waiting forever, she's alway had 4 months and hadn't bothered looking. On the actually day at 3pm she was still hiring a transit van to move out of an 8 bed house, no packing done at all. I walked in and the place was disgusting. I cried I hated it, it wasn't the house we viewed. Lucky we have a holiday lodge just over an hour away, for the first week we work then when there for the night. My advice, when moving. Find somewhere else to stay for 7 day, get babys sitters and hire some cleaners.

Estate agents rang our buyer as she'd been out of touch for a week. Chatted to the hhusband as it was a joint purchase. .oy he wasn't the joint purchaser. Husband was very surprised to learn his wife was buying a house, with another man, since they were still as he thought happily married. Sale still went through but took about six

Ok so you asked! 2 DC under 3, had to stop home business (due to imminent move), had to decorate due to renting out current house to take on new house, housework, life etc.

We were going to sell and found a buyer, found a house all good - small chain. Our buyers house had a damp issue - no one told us for weeks, then chain collapsed. So we put ourselves under massive financial strain to buy without selling and rent out our house (previous landlords so not that much of a biggie). Then we got in a bidding war over our next move - we paid £5000 more than we wanted to - loads of offers and EA trying it on, i think. The owners of our next house still hadnt found somewhere after a year of searching - then did and was vacant possession. We were told get ready to move in a month or so. So packed up, painted etc etc

Then their new house had title issues - 6 week delay to sort that out. Their solicitor just would not respond to mine, so i rang them in the end and demanded that they actual respond to the bloody questions raised.

Then there was another 3 months of delays with all manner of useless behaviour from their solicitor ( an official complaint was put in by all parties they were that useless). Turns out when they had actually bought the house 10 years ago a mortgage title had not been cleared when it should have been ( they had problems picking good solicitors it seems). Then boundary issues which no one seemed able to answer and solicitor wouldnt or couldnt answer. Then it was bank holiday so couldnt get movers to move us when we needed to. Then we spent a month driving our daughter to new school (30 miles away) as the delays had dragged things on that much. Went on holiday one week after moving and came home to mountains of boxes

We lost loads of money due to closure of home business, tonnes of stress.

If we hadnt of rented out our house the chain would have collapsed. The stress actually spoiled the start of our new home and its only now 3 months later it actually feels like home. I am NEVER moving again and i love it here now. Good luck

Day of exchange. Some bastard decided to set fire to a car just up the road from my house the night before exchange. I'm utterly convinced that my buyers drove past and saw it and decided to pull out. Luckily I sold again a few weeks' later. It was bloody stressful though.

My nightmare came in the shape of the estate agents - they introduced a "committed buyer" who just happened to be "an expert builder" and who claimed the (actually structurally sound) house was practically falling down and wanted it at a colossal discount

Too bad for them that I found out he'd tried this on with numerous sellers, and that he was in fact the estate agent's brother. They got very upset when I refused outright to sell to him

Day of the move, the removal men didn't turn up.
Dh informed the estate agent and solicitor, whilst I frantically rang round for a replacement. To my shame, I was in tears to most of them. I finally managed to get somebody at just gone midday. They eventually left our new property at 10pm.
Took 2 weeks to get a refund (£1200) from the original movers, after which I left an honest but scathing review on a site that they link to from their website. Then they turned nasty but that's another story.
We won't be moving again in a hurry, it was only 7 weeks ago but I still feel annoyed that we were royally shafted by them.

A couple of weeks before the move when my husband said he had everything under control and I believed him.

The banking system froze and our solicitor sold our old house without getting everything in place to buy our new one, leaving us homeless for a night.

Moving from the UK to France with four horses, four dogs, a cat and all our belongings...the horse transporter was 6 hours late delaying absolutely everyone, causing chaos and they dropped off the horses at 1am one day later threatening to tie them to a gate and leave if we were not there.

Ok, thanks for keeping me grounded at least. Crikey some of those stories are horrendous!! Thank goodness most of them turned out OK.

The estate agent hadn't got the key from the vendors. We had to phone a locksmith and break into our new house!