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.

[MaryPoppinsPenguins]

I know it's unorthodox, but we do know them personally (our children are in the same class) so I feel okay to do so. If it was a stranger I definitely wouldn't...

[Pipbin]

I can't believe how many examples there are!

[TestingTestingWonTooFree]

Happened to a friend of mine, she turned up to find the previous owner sat on the sofa, arms firmly crossed with a face like thunder. Turned out she was reluctant to sell after being divorced.

[itispersonal]

We had similar but not as bad when we moved into our current house. Completion date had been up in the air and only finalised the day before, on completion dp and I pulled up to the house to start moving stuff cleaning and previous owner still emptying the house. Fortunately we were renting out our old house so didn't have to move out and in on the same day. But even on the day after completion she was moving stuff out of the house was quite awkward and perplexing hovering around our now house now waiting for her to get out!

[MamehaSan]

Yep, same thing happened to me, too, when I bought my first house. The muppet lady I bought from thought she was going to move out a few days later and got a bit uppity when the estate agents phoned her to enquire why she hadn't dropped the keys off. My solicitor intervened and told her solicitor I would be charging rent at £100 per day if she wasn't out by midnight. I ended up helping her to pile armfulls of clothes into the back of her Dad's transit van. She had at least started to pack and move, but thought she could do it at leisure over the course of the weekend, despite the fact that as of 2pm Friday it was my house...

Congratulations on the house purchase OP, I hope you settle in quickly

[YoniMitchell]

When we bought our first place we collected the keys at midday on completion day and went for lunch to celebrate before popping by to celebrate more in our new flat with a bottle of fizz and some paper cups (classy). When we got there a few hours after actual completion the previous owners were really chilled, chucking a few things into boxes and totally not arsed about the fact that it wasn't their place any more. Their daughter also spilled bright red nail polish all over one of the carpets that afternoon . They were moving over the road so in the interests of neighbourly relations we pitched in, carrying boxes and wrapping stuff up and they finally moved out properly about 6hrs after they no longer owned it. They then turned up a few days later realising they'd forgotten to empty the loft. Then again about a month later to see if they could take a couple of fixtures and fittings they'd changed their mind about leaving!

We actually became quite good friends in the end but it kind of always felt (while we lived there) that they still had a bit of a stake in the place. Total oddballs but kind of nice with it!

[TaliZorahVasNormandy]

See now, its mad shit like this that convinces me that Aliens live among us and sell us houses.

[Meeep]

Happened to us too but it was really bad because the wife left and the husband had some sort of breakdown and wouldn't go. Took a couple of weeks to get him, and all his pets, out.

[gleekster]

Oh dear! I had this OP.

I bought my house about ten years ago but it all went terribly wrong.

The vendors were moving in with HIS mother and the wife really didn't want to buy a joint house with MIL. She and her husband were on the brink of divorce over it.

When we went back for a second viewing we couldn't see the master bedroom as the wife as in there and we could hear her crying

On moving day we tuned up after being assured by sols and EA that contracts all sorted. Husband was there desperately trying to move alone. Said contracts not completed and looked very cross we were there. Turned out wife had left him and decided he could handle all the moving shit alone he couldn't!

They left loads of shite in the loft but we just got rid of it after three months.

I am sure that, like me, you will be able to look back and laugh at this.

[Seriouslyffs]

New neighbours moved next door to us and later told us they'd been asked by the vendor if he could stay a few nights as there was a delay. They said no. Not just for the very sensible reasons mentioned up thread. What with him being a famous murderer.

[marshmallowpies]

When I bought my house I'd had delays with completion and had been dithering about having stuff delivered to my new address - I had bought a new bed and without that I wouldn't have anywhere to sleep the first night, and a fridge, so I had somewhere to put the milk for tea (priorities!). I eventually settled on a delivery date for the items when I was pretty sure I would have completed - only to find I didn't complete till about 3pm that afternoon (a Friday) and the previous owners were nowhere near ready to leave.

I hadn't booked my own moving van till the next day so I wasn't moving in myself, but I had nowhere else for this bloody fridge, mattress and bed frame to go, and a delivery window of about 4 hours for it to arrive, so I went and sat on the wall a bit further down the road from the house and watched the family coming and going with all their stuff, waiting for the van to arrive. I felt so weird watching them moving out but too shy to go over and actually talk to them, I didn't want to intrude on them - finally when the van pulled up I said 'err sorry, I'm the new owner, can I just put this stuff in the living room?' - then I was finally able to leave.

Re the people who thought they could move with only a car - had this with friends who were moving from a flat to a house - 'Oh, we don't have that much stuff, we aren't going to bother with removal men, it'll just be a couple of loads in the car, can you help us out with the move?'. Cue a weekend of hellish packing - they hadn't thrown anything out for years and years, it seemed - and all of us exhausted and at end of tethers with each other by the end of it. We were all in our thirties, not students moving a few boxes of uni notes and CDs, and I was so tempted to break down and cry at them 'for a few hundred quid you could have had all this done in no time by a couple of Aussies with a van!'

[ClaraLane]

We had a similar thing happen when I bought my first house, had the phonecall to say it had all gone through so headed to the house only to find 1.5 van loads of their stuff still there because it wouldn't all fit in at once. Not to mention that their SNAKES were still in the spare room - wouldn't you at least take them first?!

[TaliZorahVasNormandy]

What with him being a famous murderer.

Errmmm....say again!

[Pigeonpost]

When I bought my first house we turned up post completion opened the door and found the previous owners still packing. We told them we would be back in an hour and sauntered down the road to a cafe via the locksmiths. They left loads of rubbish and the house was a shithole. Luckily it was such a shithole that we weren't planning to move in for a month because of the work that needed doing so there was no waiting around with a van full of stuff.

[NoelHeadbands]

I'm gob smacked that this happens

In fact, me and DH have just spent an enjoyable 5 mins discussing what we'd have done if this had ever happened to us

But actually, thinking about it, with this house we completed at 9am Friday morning but didn't go near the house until the Sat afternoon.

I wonder if people do similar and then years later just....forget that's not how it's usually done....

[Pinkheart5915]

That is awful and so cheeky of them!

Make sure you have the locks changed

[IslaSinga]

Outrageous!

Our solicitor is also a friend and told me she knew of owners who thought that deciding on a moving date happened after 'completing' - they were also sitting in the house,still waiting to be boxed up, when the new owners arrived .

After completing, our sellers dropped the keys to their solicitors, so Dh drove all the way to collect them before going to our new house. When we got there the sellers were still there, in our house, unwilling to leave until the money went through on their new house

[deste]

My son completed and was given the keys from the solicitor. We arrived at the house (no van thankfully) to find music blaring and nothing moved out of the house. We assumed he had walked away and left everything when he came in and started asking why we were in his house. They explained that they had completed and he argued that he didn't have the money in his hand and that we had no business being there.

They got in touch with the solicitor and he said there was nothing they could do as they had to let him get his stuff out. He did get out next day.

[Pinkheart5915]

Can't believe people do this.
My aunt had a similar situation she arrived at her new home to find a lady in a dressing gown inside completely unaware that her ex had sold the (his) house, my aunt had no where to go as her place was sold so the lady did eventually pack her things in to my aunts garage and go to her mothers but made it very clear to my aunt she was not happy.

Some people !!

[Ginmakesitallok]

When we arrived at our last new house with all our stuff, I unlocked the door to find no-one home (as expected! ), but all their stuff including their 2 dogs still there. Called our solicitor, who rang us back to say that could we come back at 3? We did, and they were in the middle of moving. They weren't bothered at all, and were finally gone at about 6.

Having said that, when we moved from there the new buyers weren't moving in for a couple of days, and we weren't out by time of completion.

[BarbaraofSeville]

It's not just buying. MIL did a council house swap a few years ago and we all turned up to help her unpack and the family of hoarders she was exchanging with hadn't even started packing.

She had to cram her stuff in one room and it took days for them to clear out and she stayed with her sister.

[NiceAcorns]

Please don't blame the lawyers.

We have stupid, ignorant clients who don't listen to a word we say, no matter how simple the words we use to explain.

Plus, the "i'm to important to move according to your schedule" brigade

[SocksRock]

Yup, had this as well. Completed on the Friday afternoon, the vendor didn't manage to move out until the Sunday. He was very elderly and going into sheltered accomodation, he had assumed he could move out of the house his family had owned for 80 years in a morning using his car. His son turned up to help him (also no spring chicken) and as they were moving (s l o w l y), we left them to it. Our stuff was in storage as we were planning to do work on the house before moving in and we were staying with in laws, so we weren't put out much.

[Haffdonga]

Was there a communication issue or understanding problem (were they not English speakers or very elderly for examp;e?)

[MidniteScribbler]

I'll admit that on my last move, the removalists were the slowest I had ever had the misfortune to meet (and I've moved 30 times, so I've met plenty). My average moves take less than two hours to pack the truck (I move all the boxes and light items myself, the movers just have furniture) and these guys took nearly seven! The house settled and they still hadn't finished. I was so upset, but the new owner fortunately wasn't moving in that day (and came over and we stood in the kitchen drinking the bottle of champagne I'd left for him).