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.

[LeanneBattersby]

Get a skip for two weeks before you move. Much better than arsing about with trios to the tip and I find a skip on the drive is a good challenge - fill me to the top, you're paying for me anyway.

[OurBlanche]

If only we had a drive at either end... I think I would have loved filling up a skip.

[WhatHo]

DH turned up all excited to his first ever flat with his stuff in his hired van, stuck the keys in the door, walked upstairs... to find 4 surprised South Africans sitting on his sofas (luckily he'd moved out of a rented house so had virtually nothing and had bought the flat lock, stock and barrel).

In the 6 weeks between exchange and completion the flat owner had moved out and rented the property to them via Gumtree (yup, them again). They had a long lease contract with no break clause, and they did not see why they had to move.

The previous owner disappeared the moment the completion money came through, and as he was not a UK citizen he really did disappear.

DH negotiated with the SAs that they had a month to move out, which was actually decent of them as they could have refused and he would have had to serve an eviction notice and it could have taken months. He had to move back in with his parents and commute 4 hours a day. He was supposed to have 3 flatmates moving in over the next week, they also had to find alternative accommodation.

On the plus side, DH got a months rent. On the minus side, the previous owner buggered off with the deposit so the SAs, to show their displeasure, had a massive, uproarious party the night before they moved out, trashed the downstairs carpets and put holes in many of the walls.

To give you some idea of how hard it is to get any kind of financial recompense for this situation, my DH is actually a lawyer and there was nothing - nothing - he could do. The tenants had rights and the only person who could have sorted it was gone.

[suzannecaravaggio]

[BiddyPop]

I know someone who moved overseas (quite a few years ago admittedly) and when her furniture turned up (6 months later), there was a full ashtray included in the sitting room boxes - although they had put that into a plastic bag!

Literally, anything IN the rooms was just boxed up and shipped.

[LurkingHusband]

Mumsnet needs a feature to let you know the last time an OP posted on their thread ... I keep waiting for an update to this bizarre story ...

[BiddyPop]

LH - the OP said that they DID leave, just 5 hours later (having demanded to stay 2 days extra).

Or are you expecting further drama such as the need to empty the shed/loft/cellar in the weeks to come?!

[nevertakeyouriphoneinthebath]

To be fair Lurking she's probably got bigger priorities right now than posting on MN!

[larry5]

I have been reading some of theses stories with horror as dd has exchanged on her first house today and will be completing on Friday. Fortunately she is not moving in until some work has been done as she is still living at home but she and her fiance are really excited about moving in together.

[hostinthemaking]

Squinkiesrule sorry don't have any links but i remember reading about the service

[thumb3lina]

Sorry for the late update!

We have FINALLY finished cleaning, i've had most of our family round helping!

DH has spoken to the solicitor about the delay and we may be able to get compensation. Our new neighbours seem lovely and have a DD just a few weeks older than my DD :)

But on the not-so-good side, our car broke down a few days after we moved in (I have no idea about cars so I don't know whats wrong) and it will be cheaper to buy a new one than fix it :(

[ThumbWitchesAbroad]

Bugger re. car but glad the house is done at least! Shocking that it's had to take you this long though, it must have been a complete minging sty!
Hurrah for nice neighbours and good luck with the compensation.

[peckforton]

We had this thirty years ago . When we couldn't find where the keys were we went round to the house at lunchtime and they were in bed. My parents bought a house 50 years ago and didn't move in straight away as it needed some DIY. My dad turned up one day and the previous owner was there helping himself to stuff he had left there two weeks previously.

[Jobseeker19]

.

[PyongyangKipperbang]

ZOMBIE

[AnnieSnap]

Clearly mad as a box of frogs. I understand why you are so pissed off, but no one could suspect owners would be that stupid. It wasn’t the agent’s job to explain this too them. They have a one in many millions mindset 🙂 I’m glad you managed to get them out on the same day. Hope you enjoy your new home.

[HirplesWithHaggis]

The thread was started in February 2016. She should be well settled by now.

[musicviking1]

This is why I have never rushed to move in on completion day

[AdaColeman]

🧟‍♂️ 🧟‍♂️ 🧟‍♂️ 🧟‍♂️

[halloweenie13]

Unlucky about the car but at least you are in, like above said if you haven't already make sure locks are changed, get cctv and alarms up, make sure all bills are sorted and finalised, have proof of ownership to hand as if they haven't paid anything or try to use your address for credit cards etc you will need to prove ownership if the bailiffs or debt collectors turn up. They seem completely deluded, by the point of completion unless already pre agreed to have a day or two to move I would have expected them to be gone. They are no longer the owners of the property by that point and shouldn't be at the property or have any possessions. It's good you stuck to your guns and demanded they leave, they could have been cheeky and remained ultimately giving them squatters rights after so long.

[Seashor]

We got up at the crack of dawn to do the six hour drive to our new home to find it looking like the Marie Celeste! Although the money had gone through the estate agent wouldn’t give us the key because they hadn’t moved out.
This is where our solicitor stepped in and told the agent that not us, but she would be taking legal immediate legal action against them and that we would be breaking into our home.
I was exhausted but it did get exciting as the agent suddenly realised the solicitor had organised a hammer to be couriered to us! She did get us compensation for storage of their furniture on our new front lawn!
I tend to go for vacant new builds now.

[Esspee]

Why is there a spate of zombie threads lately? The member who resurrected it Jobseeker19 didn’t even have the decency to write a single word. One has to wonder at the motivation behind it.

[tae19]

That is mad, you are supposed to hand your keys in so either they kept a set or had very odd views of the legality. Definetly change all the locks and go to your solicitor, hope you took lots of photos.

[Grayskelly]

@Esspee

Why is there a spate of zombie threads lately? The member who resurrected it Jobseeker19 didn’t even have the decency to write a single word. One has to wonder at the motivation behind it.

There was another thread about ridiculous vendors who were still in the house after completion and this one was discussed.

[Nodancingshoes]

Similar happened to us although less extreme! We arrived at 1pm to our new home having collected the keys with our lives packed into two Van's. Old owners not even half way through moving out and were suprized to see us!!! We ended up helping them and then moving our stuff into the house in the dark...