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.

But the loft, though!

I think you're making excuses, sorry. If it dragged on and on, you had more time than you thought anyway, and that should have been sorted out ages before anything was signed! There's simply no excuse for sorting out the loft on the day of the move.

You knew you were moving, you just didn't know exactly when; you didn't have 12 hours notice at all. You had months.

There was a 1980s film called the chain.

It came out just before our first move (where the previous owners took the back gate and all the light bulbs, but came back for the plastic curtain hooks they left on the windowsill not too unlike the film).

I'm not sure it was all that good despite a good cast, but a better one could be made with these stories

I had the simplest move ever.No one moving straight into our home, and we were moving into a new build. Completed at 11:30, ideal as vendors wanted us in at midday.

Pulled up with the removal van to find the builders tarmaccing the drive.

DH was supposed to have cleared the loft, as he was the only one who ever went up there, but he never got round to it. Everything up there was boxed, and it wouldn't have been too bad to clear it if I hadn't been doing it alone.
The buyers didn't seem put out, they were self-moving with transit vans and friends so didn't have everything at once, and they could see I was doing all I could.
Given the time again, I would have made someone stay with me, but I didn't know that nobody had cleared the house we'd bought, or that it would take 4 hours to empty a truck I'd filled in under an hour.

*There was a 1980s film called the chain.

It came out just before our first move (where the previous owners took the back gate and all the light bulbs, but came back for the plastic curtain hooks they left on the windowsill hmm not too unlike the film).

I'm not sure it was all that good despite a good cast, but a better one could be made with these stories*

This is one of my favourite films! We originally saw it by accident because the big-name film we had actually gone to see was sold out and this was on at the same time. We recently bought it on DVD.

The chain in this case was actually a circle. The first person in the chain was a young lad leaving his Mum's house to move in with his girlfriend and she was letting his room out to a lodger. Everyone in the chain was moving one step up the ladder until the very top where the rich elderly man had found out he was dying and he wanted to leave his luxurious house and go back to his humble roots - which turned out to be the house the boy was moving out of and the old man was the lodger taking his room. Somewhere along the chain was a newly-widowed woman who had decided on the day of the move that she wanted to stay right where she was. It took a whole load of persuading and cajoling from the very experienced removal men - who were involved in several links of the chain - to get her to go.

I've always thought it would be a fascinating being a removal man. Happy couples moving in together, angry couples getting divorced. People gratefully upsizing, people sadly downsizing. The bereaved. The expectant parents. It's all human life isn't it?

What I don't really understand is why anyone would agree to complete on a day they couldn't get packed up in time for? It's not imposed on you, it's agreed between parties. I get that house buying is very stressful though and things happen.

My parents kept the new owners waiting about 7 hours. They massively underestimated how long the packing would take, and then they broke a radiator which needed repairing (dad had to buy and fit a part) they were hideously embarrassed though, they knew they'd fucked up

You're right purple it would

Maybe they agree under pressure because buyers are threatening to pull out or something? Not saying its right, but I can see how someone might think 'I'll find a way' and then find that they can't.

I think we may have inadvertently been one of 'those' vendors.

For our last move, we arranged to use the removal firm's packing service, and they started to pack up on the day we exchanged with our buyer.

That night, the removal van with all our stuff was taken to the firm's depot 45 minutes' drive away. They were due to come at 8.30 the next morning, finish off moving the last bits in the van, and then we were done.

Unfortunately, the next morning, the van's engine would not start up at the depot. The removal men had to move the entire contents to another van before they could drive back to ours. It early afternoon by the time they got to us, and then nearly 4pm before we were ready to leave.

Our buyer was renting a small flat elsewhere in the village, and had very little furniture. She stood on pavement opposite the house with her arms crossed just watching us all afternoon.

To make matters worse, the only van the removal firm could get hold of was a full-size artic lorry. It blocked our street (only a car and a bit wide anyway) for over three hours. That was fun too.

Once we were (finally) out, we had an hour's drive to our new place and then of course had to unload. It was nearly 9pm by the time the removal men left.

Oh, and this all happened with a 7 week old baby. What was I thinking?!

I'm not moving again.

Anyone who plans to do a move with more than one load but using only one vehicle is always going to be the baddie seller. You can't move like that. But the time you have the keys to your new property you will no longer be the owner of your old property and therefore your second load of property is now sitting in a house that no longer belongs to you. Anyone planning a move in this way is planning deliberately to be the slow mover which is out of order.

Sorry, Redhat, was that to me?

The vast majority of the packing was done the day before completion. The van was coming back on the day of completion to finish off, with the objective being to be out by midday at the latest.

Estate agent was kept informed all the way along, so they could keep the buyer up to date.

I'm not sure what else we could have done.

Removal lorries breaking down I totally get. There is not much that can be done. We moved once (thankfully between married quarters so no completion to worry about - just a March Out but that another story) where our 7.30 am removals rocked up at 7pm!!! There had been a terrible fatal accident on the motorway and they'd been stuck stationary for 10 hours!! To be fair between 7pm and 10pm they packed 80% of our house up!

Seriously though there is absolutely no excuse to still be packing ANYTHING bar the duvet you slept under the night before on completion day. Everyone knows they will be moving from when the property is sold. The worst that can happen if your sale falls through is have to unpack a few boxes and if it's loft or shed crap then most of that can stay packed anyway. Loft and shed shut should be the first stuff packed cos most of it isn't in regular use. Yes the week or 2 before moving you have to "make do" with only a couple of saucepans/paper plates/eating lots of take away etc but it's better than trespassing in a house that isn't yours anymore.
I just don't get why anyone would be packing their loft on completion day.

there is absolutely no excuse to still be packing ANYTHING bar the duvet you slept under the night before on completion day

exactly, some people appear to think they are packing to go on holiday

or do they think that if they just faff about the proper grown ups will step in and do it for them

for me packing everything up has always been a central part of the process of mentally separating myself from my old home

I've moved several times so I know the drill, started out small with few possessions when I was younger.

Perhaps those who fail to get their act together haven't moved before and faced with a lifetimes worth of stuff and no past experience they go into some sort of denial?

I think that's what we did. The sale got within one piece of paper of completion (which the vendor's executors refused to sign) and stalled. For months. In the meantime I was heading for exhaustion, commuting DD 8 miles each way on a seat attached to my bicycle for 2.5 hours of nursery. I can't remember much about those few months, but I'm not surprised we forgot there was stuff in the loft, we were just plodding from week to week, hoping it would end soon.
It was the first time we'd sold a house, we'd moved in with a transit van before having DCs so we underestimated the amount of stuff that accrues with 2DCs.
Assumed DH would empty the first truck quickly into the new house and return (it was only a 20 minute drive away) and didn't factor in PIL's "help" making everything take 5 times as long as it should.

The first time I bought a property it was a brand new one bed flat. The developer was doing all sorts of incentives to help first time buyers without much cash to put down and one of the incentives was paid for removals.

My BF and I were very young at the time and we'd been living in a rented furnished bedsit. We were very excited about moving into our very own one bed flat but we barely had a stick of furniture to our names and certainly nothing that was in our rented bedsit apart from a suitcase of clothes each and about four cardboard boxes full of records, books, a kettle etc. It was like moving out of student digs.

Imagine our embarrassment (and the amusement of the three removal men) when a mahoosive great Pickfords truck that could have moved a family from a 5 bed mansion turned up, and put our meagre belongings into the back and then unloaded them at the other end.

Shortest job in the world.

I've been reading this all weekend in horror. We are due to complete on the 24th of March and I've been living in cloud cuckoo land. Dh will leave EVERYTHING to me and I am a faffer.

You have given me a well deserved kick up the arse
Please all of the professional movers, could you give me your top tips to avoid us being the people you are talking about

Neverputyourphone that made me
Laugh so much

We have moved many times and it's an art. My top tips would be:

Early on, order your boxes, tape, markers and bubble wrap. Decide on how you'll move, taking the best option you can afford.

Start on the areas you never use- loft garage shed etc. de clutter as you go. Think seriously whether you want to pay someone to move each item and unpack it at the other end. Use the opportunity to get your paperwork in a good order

Clothes-strong bin liners. Leave them on the hangers and rehang the other end- you'll look like a student but who cares

Label every box with the name of the room to which it belongs

Pack a seperate bag and box of things you need immediately- kettle mugs tea important paperwork clothes for a few days and toiletries and keep it in the car with you.

Take cleaning stuff in the car so it's the last thing you do in old house and first thing in new

Buy a notebook to contain meter readings important phone numbers etc

I packed our stuff up - just the two of us and (I thought...) we were heavily decluttered. Still took two fairly solid weeks (I wasn't working so I mean 14 days of packing) and a lot of earlier collecting of boxes, wrap etc (All hail freecycle)

that excludes plants and garden kit which was moved in several separate car loads. Fortunately the stuff did just about fit in the removal lorry, a big Luton.

do not underestimate what is involved!

I agree with the last two posters. The fact that you are a month from moving and haven't done anything is making me twitch.

Get boxes, I went to customer service at John Lewis and got all my boxes from them or look on gumtree/free cycle, there is always someone who has just moved and wants rid of some.

As said above, pack all the stuff you don't need for the next 25 days. All the books, CDs, cake tins, Christmas decs, posh clothes, cushions on the sofa, all but the essential glasses/crockery, spare bed linen and towels. Think about what you use day to day. Everything else you can cope without.
Go through everything and bin a ton of stuff.
Go up in the loft. If it's been up there over a year then the chances are you don't need it, bin it.
Make one corner of a room the box corner. Label all the boxes and put them there. Add at least two boxes a day.

We hired a self storage container when we moved - put the contents of the loft and some other stuff in it. We were then able to sort through this gradually and decide what we were keeping and what we were chucking. Took us about four months but was very thorough.

Am planning on doing the same thing when we get our roof done soon - it is quite a useful 'halfway house' solution.

If you are paing for professional movers then why would you waste time packing yourself? Declutter, pack those few personal items and leave the rest to the movers.