Bought a new house and the old owners didn't think they had to move out!

[thumb3lina]

So today we went to complete on our new house, very excited and all packed ready to go. We got a call from our solicitor to say it was completed and we left to go to our new home, with all of our things. Stopped off at the estate agents, got the keys, everything fine.

We get there, go to the front door, put the key in and have a massive shock to find the previous owners sitting in the lounge. We asked who they were and they introduced themselves as the previous owners. They hadn't even packed one box!! DH asks them why they are still in OUR house and they inform us that they decided not to move out until Sunday!? We pointed out that we had all of our things in a van outside with our 2 month old baby and DH politely asked them to leave to which they replied it would be too inconvenient for them to leave today!

We ended up threatening to call the police as we legally owned the house and now had nowhere to go, so they said they would leave in an hour but acted as if we were being very unreasonable. We had to get all of our helpers to help them pack and they ended up leaving 5 hours later.

I'm also quite pissed off with the agent as surely they should make sure these situations don't happen.

Bloody hellfire, that is outrageous!

Thats like me selling a pair of shoes on eBay, and then delivering them to the buyer by walking over to their house, wearing the said shoes, knocking on their door and saying "Congratulations you have bought these wonderful brown suede shoes...but hey! You can't have them yet, because I am enjoying them so much that I've decided to wear them for another couple of days. You can still look at them, though. Watch how the buckles glint in the daylight, aren't they just ever so sensual??"

Something similar though not so extreme happened to us. As we waited outside the house waiting for the call to say the money had transferred the previous owner was still putting boxes in the car. The estate agent was inside packing them!! Nightmare.

Iv messaged mnhq to have this put in classics! I hope a few of you do too!

It very very funny even though for most you in those situations it must have been awful!

We live in an area where it is really hard to buy houses as they just don't come up often,

A friend was in a difficult situation as she had taken on her sister children(early teens) a few years earlier, so had moved back here from London so as not to disrupt their lives further, she was stuck with unsuitable rentals, and being a none driver(wonky eye) she needed to be near the train station for commuting a couple days a week to London. So when a really nice large house five minute walk to the train station , school and shops came up she jumped at it.

She put in offer of the asking price to the agent, who told her that it had been accepted, then phoned her and told it was going to auction , so she prepared to go auction, and had a survey, her father is in a law firm , so he looked at the legal pack, and identified the reasons why they had chosen auction over selling, called the agent and offered to sort them out and re offered the asking price, which was accepted, and went ahead.

On completion we went to look in the morning after getting the keys, just before the removal vans arrived and the whole house was exactly the same as when she viewed it, not one thing appeared to have gone, lots of phone calls later it was established the owner a woman accidemic in her sixty with no family had decided to abandon her whole life and go off to die from cancer with some friends abroad. She had always intended to just leave everything behind, it was very sad and she had a beautiful eclectic household of stuff, her family had lived in the house for years, and nothing had ever left it.

It's not rocket science physically moving house is it?
You should be packed the day before completion. The idea being you have to load your boxes into a vehicle the next day - completion day. We always sleep on our mattresses on the floor having dismantled beds and any other furniture in the days running upto removal/completion day.
In the weeks between offer being accepted and exchange of contracts most people surely must be decluttering and packing up pointless/useless shizz. Things like the loft, ornaments, fancy wine glasses that only come out for Xmas etc. All that crap be packed well on advance. The closer you get the more you pack. Perhaps only keeping out enough mugs and plates,saucepans, bed linen etc that you actually need/can make do with in the short term. All this means less last minute packing. I get that even loading the van can be an ordeal and take longer than anticipated especially if not using g a removal firm but some people are idiots - like the people we bought of when we moved in here last autumn.

They left loads behind. Thry were e a few hours late handing A single key into the agent. They left their breakfast things in the dishwasher. We weren't moving in until the Monday (completed on the Friday before). My parents picked up the keys for us - I was in hospital (discharged on the Friday )200 miles away where our last house was. My parents attempted to clean but the prrvious ownets left it minging. My parents dropped off a few boxes we'd had stored at their house and then popped out to Tesco for some cleaning stuff because the house had been left in a horrific state. In the 40 minutes they were out the old vendors let themselves back in with a set of keys they never handed in, had a good wander around (wet footprints over wooden floors,)used the loo (unflushed) and took their breakfast things out of the dishwasher.

If they'd knocked and asked I would have happily handed it back but it was their audacity. They only moved a mile up the road so no excuse for not waiting. Shame they didn't also take the dog food all over the the floor of the entire house, the dog shit in the back garden, the nice solidified mound of rice and pasta welded to the kitchen cupboard with the contents of a leaky stir fry sauce sachet, the black sacks of rubbish, broken coat hangers all over the bedroom floors, their teen daughters diet and exercise recipe plan stuck to the back of her bedroom door, their love letters from when he was in the Navy nor properly emptied the loft. They left mud and dog paw prints up EVERY wall and door in the house. It pissed down with rain on moving day and they obviously just let their 2 dogs walk in and out the house all day long, shaking their wet coats everywhere.
The horrors they left behind are still turning up 3 months later. Had a central heating g guy out last week who almost vomited when he moved a radiator off the wall to find congealed dog food and dog hair balls behind it - good news is the rotting horrible dog smell in our hallway has since cleared. We had been battling that for weeks. Only thing now is I'm wondering what lurks behind every other radiator.
They never handed the keys over either. I called the agent twice and added for them but they never materialised so we also had the locks changed too.

See those posts are exactly the reason I like the system I have where I live (not in the US). The house I bought was empty, professionally cleaned and I had several opportunities to check everything before signing, no surprises, and do whatever redecorating I wanted before moving.
Sure the UK way can work perfectly nicely as well, except some sellers are apparently total swine, yuck.

That is very strange. Although I have been on the other end - when we moved house we packed as much stuff as we could into the van and then sat waiting for the call. The completion had gone through and we were waiting to pick up the keys. It finally came at 2pm, only the new owners of our old house repeatedly rang the agents demanding to know when they could have the keys. We explained that we hadn't got our keys yet and so the property still contained half of our stuff. It was all packed but we would need to make two trips. Instead of waiting for us to drop the keys off at the agents as arranged, they sat outside the property in their car seething. We handed they keys over at just after 3.30, which was pretty good going considering we didnt get our keys until after 3pm They were irate that we hadn't moved sooner, but we couldn't because we had nowhere to go until we got our keys.

Some of these stories are horrific. Mine seems mild in comparison.
We sold our flat to move to a house a short distance away. Hired a small can. Got everything packed and ready the days before, had been eating off paper plates, sleeping on a mattress on the floor etc so we knew we'd be ready for 12 midday.Up at crack of dawn, got van and both our cars packed with everything, then did a mammoth deep clean of whole flat.
At 12 we rang and checked all minutes had transferred - yes. Husband pootled of to our estate agent to hand over our keys. I rang our vendor estate agents to tell them I was on my way to collect the keys for the new house.They said ok. Got a panicked call a few minutes later from vendor ES saying vendors not ready yet and we'd have to wait until 3pm. Tried to remonstrate but told "nothing we can do".
So there we were during in the car park of our old flat waving at our cheerful buyer as she turned up and started moving in. It was late July and absolutely sweltering and we had nowhere to go. Didn't even dare leave our vehicles stuffed to the brim with worldly goods unattended while we went to get some lunch.
At 3 went to collect keys. Told vendors "still not ready, you'll have to wait". Threw a strop. Estate agents finally gave us their copy of the keys. We turned up at the house and they were nowhere near packed. Their children were lolling on the sofa watching tv. We just said a breezy "hello!" and started moving our stuff in. They were a bit pissed off but could hardly object. It took ages though thanks to having to jostle for space on the hallway/stairs etc.
The house was on the main road and if we'd moved on time we'd have missed rush hour but by 5pm we had only half emptied the van, had caused a massive tailback of traffic and the police came to tell us off. We had to park van in a side street and wait ... again. Finally got the last stuff in at nearly 10pm. Shattered, said never again, the next time I move out it will be in a wooden box etc.
(Er, still had enough energy to get pregnant that night though!)

*Hired a small VAN.
*MONIES were transferred.

Random question because we're hopefully moving this year...I know it will vary by area but how much are you paying for removal firms that come with one huge van to do it all in one go?

£200? £500? £2000?

I have no idea. When we moved from our rented flat to current house (just me and DH) we had our clothes and personal bits and that was it...packed up in the back of our car. Our flat had been fully furnished, we had a mattress on the floor in the new house and folding chairs and not much else for the first couple of weeks. Made moving simple though.

The thought of moving again with a house full of furniture, two kids and all the crap that comes with them and two cats is scaring the tits off me atm!

When we moved there was a clause in the contact stating the times monies had to transfer and the property had to be vacated and ready for occupation from 2pm. There was also a clause about condition and cleanliness upon completion, ie, to a professionally cleaned standard.

I hope someone has told the op she should have telephoned her solicitor who should have issued a non completion notice. The OP and family could have booked themselves into a jolly nice hotel and asked their movers to store their stuff.

We didn't move into our house on moving day because a,solicitor further down made a stamp duty error which caused a delay and a twit down the line had packed his passport and couldn't sort out the money. They had to pay our vendors and our additional costs.

Now read Loki's story and Honey' story and they are the two different sides of the same event.

This, Loki is why most people hire a removal firm or at least a van that is big enough for all their stuff. You shouldn't have left half your stuff in your old house, you had not right to withhold the keys once you had completed.

Random question because we're hopefully moving this year...I know it will vary by area but how much are you paying for removal firms that come with one huge van to do it all in one go?

I paid £400 about 3 years ago. It was worth every last penny and if I ever move again I won't hesitate to do it again.
That was for a 2 bed to a 3 bed about 1.5 miles away.

I watched all day as my tightarsed neighbours moved out using a flat bed lorry they had borrowed from work. It arrived at 11am and they were not out until 6.30pm, whilst the new neighbours sat and waited from 1pm. Nothing looked packed in advance, at all. They had to come back for the rest in the morning.

They had plenty of money for a removal firm. They were happy to boast how being self-employed they could buy new house on the business etc if they could not find a buyer in time to move into their new dream house. Yet they could not find a way to pay for a proper removal

IME the removers were the best value for money out of the whole house buying process

horrific stories.
part of the reason we

• only looked at chain free properties
• moved almost all our stuff into a self storage facility during the couple of days before move
• insisted on completion of thursday

When DP now amazingly DH was giving up his house that had been in his family for nearly 100 years ( and I sure still had some of the things from way back then) it was a nightmare.

We'd been away somewhere and arrived back home and then had two days to empty it before going off again which in a way was good as it have us a dead line.

He'd been permanently moved I with me for 5 months and before he did that we/ he had been gradually sorting out all of his stuff.

I'm one of these, if there's a job to be done , I roll up my sleeves and plough through it...oh no! Not him!which is why I said amazingly he's my DH.

Leading up to his move, I'd say shall we tackle so and so cupboard and I'd get a no! Granted the house hadn't been sold at that point but he was moving in and when he did he left loads, nd I mean loads of stuff in his old house.

So, back to those two days. House was sold. I waved him off . He came back at tea time with a loaded car,which he stored in my loft. Next day, I waved him off again and the plan was I drove up to his house and we loaded stuff into both cars.

So, I got to his house and when I got Inside....ladies I could have wept. I'm thinking it was just a matter of loading up my car. No way. There was stuff all over.

It wasn't all in one room. There was little piles scattered in every room. One room had enough clothes hangers in a pile on the floor to have done m and s proud. He wasn't best pleased when I started dragging everything into one room!

Three hours later when I was beyond exhausted( this is after I'd spent a day sorting my own stuff and packing for our trip) we set off for mine!!!

The next day, he was up early and back to his house to remove the last of the stuff . (He lived 40 minutes away ) before dashing back to me and then us setting off on a long journey.

At least it was left , clean and tidy and empty but if you run I to a vendor like him just hope he is attached to someone like me!

When I sold my house in the states the new owners didn't need to buy a teaspoon. I sold it lock, stock and barrel. Everything was all beautiful, immaculate icould weep at the lovely things I left behind after I'd removed my personal possessions!

My lovely hot tub! Sob! My beautiful lamps! My lovely dining furniture.....

We turned up at the house and they were nowhere near packed. Their children were lolling on the sofa watching tv

words fail me

I have moved umpteen times, sometimes in a van, sometimes in my car, sometimes with the full paid for removals service.
I have never encountered anything like this.
I just cant imagine how anyone could be so rude, stupid and selfish as to not get everything packed and ready to go for the day of the move

When we last moved (story briefly told upthread, and the memories of which still bring me out in a cold sweat) it would never have occurred to us to withhold keys until we had ours. Removals packed all our stuff, and left for the new house, planning a lunch break on the way.

We stayed behind and did a last clean - and then DH dropped off the keys. We then drove our cars to the new house, with me collecting DS1 from school on the way (we were moving 20 miles away), DH planning to collect the keys on the way. So far so good - except the keys weren't there. Vendors should also have been out by 1pm, but weren't. I had a babe in arms and a 4yr being looked after by mum - and I got this phone call from DH saying that the vendors weren't out yet. They had only ordered 1 removal van, which had packed up and gone - but still loads of stuff left, which they were trying to ferry in a trailer. It was totally ridiculous.

We moved into our current house when I was 8 months pg. (Lilac we paid over £2k but it was two massive trucks with 5/6 men over two days and, fuck it, I was 8 months pregnant!)
We'd fucked about for months waiting for the elderly lady to sort herself out and eventually agreed to a completion date. She was moving into an empty property, no chain.
On said date luckily we weren't moving in, just collecting keys and taking readings etc
We had a call at 12 to say we could collect the keys anytime from then on.
By the time we'd done some more bits and driven to the new house it was 2.30 and we were looking forward to DH trying to lift me over the threshold... without a whale harness and lifting tackle.

We pulled into driveway and there was another woman (not the vendor or a family member) in our house, emptying bits and bobs, she had a massive tupperware full of our fucking house keys and said the vendor had asked her to fetch a few things (her car was filling up!) and that we wouldn't need all the keys she had and should just keep the ones we had been given.
We were so shocked we barely said anything and didn't even make her give us the tupperware full of our own house keys!
Just a typical British huffing, awkward silences and furious knitting of eyebrows.

I would not have minded at all if vendor had called EA, asked them to let us know etc but he had no idea, she just told someone to illegally enter someone else's property and remove items. I'd have loved to have called the police, we were so disappointed and gutted. Total overreaction, probably.

On a side note, our removals guys were brilliant. Took all the stress out of moving. Except...
It was an unfurnished flat, so we said just pack everything. They took it a little bit too literally and packed the plug from the kitchen sink and the little softener drawer insert from the washing machine. Why?!?!?

Our removals were fantastic - we wisely chose ones who didn't have any sort of 'delay penalties' written into the contract, and they were so kind about the delays. They charged us around £7-800 for removals including a packing service the day before- I had a new baby, and 2 older dc, Dh working long hours - it really was a god-send. I don't think I packed a single thing. I'll always do this in future.

DH tipped them generously too. Worth every penny though, they were brilliant. There was this old guy who was so lovely, and so admiring of baby DD - they were our saviours on that day.

We paid about 3k for packing, moving and insurance. Worth every penny for a 4 bed house stuffed to the gills. They took 1.5 days to pack, the travel to the new place and a day unloading and reassembling stuff.
I always work to a midday deadline. You need to be packed and giving it the final hoover by 12.30 latest. You book movers around your schedule rather than the schedule around your movers. And you leave it clean.
We arrived at one house, sweaty and unkempt in cleaning clothes to find the vendors bright and breezy in white t shirts. They were mostly out but we had to clean as the men brought the stuff in. We judged.

Another with a similar story. Completed at midday while I was at work. Seller who is a MP texted to say he would empty the property by 9pm as travelling from their new home. I'm like wtf it's my house. He ..self absorbed wanker let himself in without my consent. Nowt I could do.Thankfully MP to a party I loath. Did I say he was a wanker.

This thread has reminded me of a service where the removal container can be parked at your house. You fill it at your leisure and then on removal day truck comes to move you.