Absolutely fuming - why are some people so bloody selfish - moving house hell :-(

[DeludedDay]

Some mumsnetters may well recognise this but I need to vent now as furious.
Yesterday we brought a new house, all completed at 11am - all contracts agreed that all parties would vacate property by 1pm. At 1pm armed with keys to our new house we went in to be greeted by the place still full of junk, three dogs running rounds, cats shut in the bedrooms, stuff everywhere... we were not impressed but proceeded to be kind when they eventually turned up over an hour a later, offered to help move out etc. We had to unload our stuff as van was due back so we put all of this in one room whilst we waited for them to shift.
During this time they were repeatedly rude to us about our 'right' to be in they're house, their dogs were terrified and pooing and peeing over the house and on our furniture, they decided it was ok to smoke in the property whilst they finished packing and became increasingly aggressive towards us as we asked what was happening with the seemingly increasing pile of junk building up.
They eventually left about 7pm in the evening. They left any furniture they didn't want, against our wishes and agreement, there is junk and crap everywhere, and there was an overflowing skip in the front garden full of more junk. There is at least another skip laid left around the place.
We were told skip man would take skip today - and indeed a very nice man turned up to take away skip... unfortunately he had turned up yesterday, had been turned away by them which he thought was strange and told to come back today... unsurprisingly he hasn't been paid! As the skip is so over flowing we will have to have a second load, and likely a third to deal with the rest of the rubbish - so I am now facing about a £450 bill for their crap.
I am so upset - this is supposed to be our lovely new family home, and it feels tainted and grubby now and framed in conflict! We know we have to do some work to it anyway and have cleaners, carpets and painters coming this week but just so flaming furious as these people - how can anyone think these behaviours are ok?

I can see that the skip company are under no obligation to take the rubbish away - but surely they are not entitled to dump it on the OP's land either? And emptying a skip must be quite a lot of work?

Hopefully your solicitor will be able to advise on the best route forwards.

Upsetting beginning to a new house - we had something similar but not as bad when we moved into our last house. But in a few months you will have made the house your new home and it will all be a bad dream.

Blu- what did you expect the estate agent / solicitor to do to get them out the house yesterday? Completion had already happened

Best way would've been physical force. Times like that you want a massive scary uncle or something.

Oh dear what a horrible experience.

I'd be fuming.

I hope your Solicetor can help.

No the exchange had happened 2 weeks before - we were then due to move yesterday so we all knew the deal.

diddle: Clearing your house ready to hand your keys over on completion is the standard and legal method of moving house when buying and selling!

There is a point at which all your possessions are out of the house you are selling and packed in the van, and likewise the house you are buying has been emptied and all their possessions are in the van and rubbish disposed of and off the premises.

This is why when buying and selling a cheapo local man and van service or friends doing multiple trips with a small van does not work.

Hard stare at DP.

On completion the property legally belongs to someone else.

When it happened to us and the vendor was being a dick and saying our removal men couldn't start unpacking because he was still in the house the EA came down and read him the riot act, and made him get extra help to clear out.

The EA also helped by getting a local van firm - I am sure they charged him for it.

His solicitor also called him and assured him we were legally in the right..

He was planning on leaving all his furniture until the following day when he had a van booked, and being unpleasant to us.

Can relate to this but as the other party!!
Due to move 3 DC's under 4. moving ourselves with help from friend. Woke up on the big day feeling awful. The ambulance and removal van arrived together I had appendicitis! Our buyers were furious as we were a bit delayed

Seriously I am disgusted for you. Would be inclined to dump their rubbish at their new house but that is even more work for you.

Good luck in your new home, you will be fine

Am I reading this right?

Two hours from completion to moving in?

No way could I have done that!

But surely that's the norm? You plan your removal so that you are out of the house you are leaving and ready to pick up the keys for the one you're moving into as soon as completion has gone through. From the moment the vendor's solicitor has the money he no longer owns the house.

That's totally shit

Please don't let it upset you too much. They will take their crappy lives with them and you can make a new one at your new house.

Were these people the actual vendors or tenants? I can't get my head around actual home owners who presumably have a new home to move to and a desire to go there (otherwise why be selling?) behaving in this way.

Photos and solicitors are all I can offer by way of advice. for the misery. I understand the upset because it's not a house it's your new home. I hope it all starts getting sorted on Monday.

Why on earth did you pay for the skip?!!!

Similar happened to us, OP, and to one of my sisters - so it's really not uncommon (although I wouldn't have believed till it happened to me!).

It's incredibly annoying how utterly crap some people are. We were very lucky, in that we incurred no extra costs - the removal men had to take one van full of stuff back to their dept overnight, because they literally couldn't unload it - it was stuff for the garage, and the garage was floor to rafter full of their stuff. They could have charged us extra for this - but they didn't - those removal guys were saints.

The wife did a disappearing act with the keys too! Meant to hand over at 1pm, and I think we eventually got them about 3pm, to find their junk still everywhere. DH just told them in no uncertain terms they had to empty the house/garage now - they were like "oh, are you moving in today? We were like "Yessss..." Idiots. They were at least polite to us - well, not aggressive, anyway. But the house was left filthy - and we had 2 dc and a baby. The 'wife' when she eventually turned back up again, had the cheek to tell me my baby's feet looked cold. Ugh. Her house was a health hazard. It was awful.

Deep breaths, OP. Try not to let it sully your new home.

Why didn't you just phone your solicitor when it became clear they hadn't moved out in accordance with the contract? Your solicitor would then issue a failure to complete in accordance with contract notice. I'd have put your movers on notice and booked into a hotel until they had gone, hired contract cleaners to clean and instructed the solicitor to sue. You accepted the situation by starting to move in your stuff.

It was a truly awful situation but I wouldn't have proceeded on reaching the property.

I'm surprised anyone would listen to an estate agent. What could they do?

And again, what would the solicitor do? How would a failure to complete notice remove them from the house? I can see these things may help later in the unlikely chance you'll get any cash out of them
But they won't get the person out the house when the house is full of their stuff and animals and they clearly are in a complete state and being aggressive.

Refere the skip hire man back to them as they made the booking. Add a lock as suggested and let the solicitor deal with the rest.

I'd be tempted to tell the guy they want the skips, with contents, delivered to their new address, but that probably isn't the most helpfull thing to do.

Then concentrate on redecorating and making it your home.

We moved into a house earlier this year where the carpets had obviously been cleaned but the dog's wee had soaked through to the underlay, and every surface had a fine coating of grease from the cooking. As the agent was telling me just house clean the house was I touched the extra fan over the hob and my hand stuck to the grease

They sound a bit screwed up to me.

Is it worth the hassle of legal action?

Horrible experience- you're not BU or overreacting in my view. Try to get the mess sorted ASAP before you unpack any of your gear and once you've cleaned up their muck open a bottle of fizz, clear your mind and start afresh. Congratulations on your new home- it'll be lovely very soon!

That sucks - but try not to let it colour your view of the house. In years from now when you are settles and the house is the way you want it, you WILL look back at this and laugh about it.

Till then - take the great advice that others have said. There's no way you should have to pay to dispose of their junk.

Contact the EA. This happened when I brought my property. Vendor refused to do anything so the EA paid for removal and a skip, maybe to avoid bad publicity not sure why.

We had similar, the lady decided to hire a man and van to empty the house. Completed at 12, they weren't out until 5pm. Our removers told her they'd pass on our additional costs to her via our solicitors.
She had neighbours helping to 'clean' but it was filthy and the water was turned off as she had disconnected an American fridge freezer with no cap. I was 38 weeks pregnant and furious and she knew it.

I just focused on getting it all clean, got rid of the smelly dog hair covered mats, scrubbed and binned anything she had left behind. We soon felt settled and like it was ours and put it down to one of those things..

We had a similar situation, complicated by it being simultaneous exchange and completion. We ended up having a row on the driveway when I asked for access to our(!) house to feed our five month old baby. I got screamed at and the door slammed in my face for that one. They also left a load of old rubbish here that we have had to pay to get rid of. They also gave us two sets of keys when there was a family of 6 living here .

We had legal recourse for the failure to vacate on time and the rubbish but they only moved around the corner and looked the type who would have come back to key the car or something so we just sucked it up for a quiet life.

That first day has definitely coloured my view of the house. I just don't feel at home here. We are redecorating expunging every last trace of the shitty people and hopefully I will feel better when that has been done.