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.

[moanyhole]

Happened here too. Completion went through at midday. Got keys. Went to house. Previous owner still there. Said her new place wasn't ready for a few days so she wouldn't move out. Fully expected us to accept this. Our solicitor rang hers and she moved out the next day. We had to stay in a hotel

[ThumbWitchesAbroad]

marypoppins - Just another person offering caution. I wouldn't even let people you know do what they're doing, IME they're MORE likely to take the piss on the grounds that you DO know them.
Can you not just change the completion date until a couple of weeks later? I really wouldn't do this, not without solicitor's input. It's just not worth it.

[TitClash]

But...their solicitor would have told them they have to get out. And I'm pretty sure when you get they keys you also own everything they left...

[Cheby]

I feel soooo lucky with our last move. Got the call at work about the keys around lunch time, went to pick them up an hour later. Arrived to find an absolutely pristine house, spotlessly clean, beautiful curtains left for us which, along with the carpets, had been professionally cleaned the day before.

My friend wasn't so lucky. She was buying from a BTL landlord, so the property had been empty for 3 months while the sale was going through. She picked up her keys, went to the house and they didn't work. Eventually after 5 mins of trying different keys on the ring a young guy holding a baby answered the door. He was apparently renting the house with his girlfriend, had a contract and was paying rent.

My friend was devastated, she only had 2 more nights left in her rental, white goods booked for delivery the following day as well as removals.

She got on to the solicitor and called he vendor. It took 24 hours but eventually they were all bundled out, the house cleaned and my friend's removal bills paid as an apology.

Turns out what had happened, was that some chancer had clocked that the house was empty, broken in, changed the locks, then advertised it as a rental on gumtree. He had then 'rented' it to multiple couples (at least 5), taking a deposit of 6 weeks plus 6 weeks rent in addance from all of them. The people actually living there were just the first to turn up to collect keys. They'd had lots of very disappointed couples turn up over the next 48 hours trying to collect their own keys. Couple with baby knew something dodgy was up but figured they were OK as they had a signed contract. Contract signed by an unknown man, mobile they had as contact was out of service and obviously all the landlord's details were made up.

The guy got away with over £2k per couple he scammed, it was in London.

My friend was very lucky in the end, the vendor realised how much shit they were in for not ensuring vacant possession, they were a company so had significant assets which made the threat of suing them realistic, and they happened to have an empty flat which they agreed to rent to the couple and baby to persuade them that they had to leave immediately (I think they were considering squatting, they had no money as already paid rent to fraudster and would have been on the street with the baby). I believe they were given a free month rent in the flat as a bribe to go, cost the vendor a hell of a lot less than it would of my friend had taken legal action.

Apparently this is not uncommon with vacant houses, especially in London.

[steppemum]

This happened to us when I was about 13.
We rocked up and the guy hadn't packed anything, wasn't ready. His girlfriend was horrified and helped him to pack and leave. She rang round moving firms and found someone to come, he said there were about 1 large removal van worth.
The house was a rambling country farm type place, with very few finished living bits, and lots of outhouses.

In the end the removal van went back and forth all day, it did at least 4 loads, and most of the out buildings were still full. There were 6 broken down cars around the 'garden' that he took 6 months to collect, and we were allowed to move them.

[JeffreySadsacIsUnwell]

We bought our house nearly 20 years ago now. We were young FTBs, worked long hours, etc. We completed at midday, turned up in a hired transit with all our possessions at 8pm on a Friday evening (I found the timetable and spreadsheets for the day last week - we're in the process of moving again for the first time since, yikes!) - and found the elderly vendors and all their grown-up DC and their partners frantically stuffing bags and boxes.

Being FTBs (and young... that was probably more relevant!) we were slightly surprised but not overly so, and helped them pack up. The poor lady was in tears, her DH wasn't much better - he'd been born in the house, she'd moved in with his family when she married him still in her teens. But they were lovely people, they didn't mean ill - just genuinely hadn't realised how much crap they had and how long it would take to pack up. They had a fiesta and a cortina to pack an entire house into.... We finally got rid of them at about 1.30am, with Mrs distraught that she hadn't had time to clean behind the cooker after they removed it. We didn't like to tell her that we were going to rip that kitchen out ASAP...

Hope you get it all sorted OP!

[steppemum]

sorry - we weren't allowed to move the cars

[Anaffaquine123]

We moved on the snowiest day on record. We couldn't physically get the removal van away because of the snow and were out much later than first anticipated, 4pm I think. The van had been unable to get to us in the first place to load up. However, that was very, very unusual circumstances and we were very apologetic. New owners also couldn't get their van to the house because of the snow.
I am shocked they thought this was acceptable!

[Anaffaquine123]

I remember a friend moved into their new house and found the previous owners' dog in the cupboard under the stair. It had somehow been accidentally left behind.

[RaphaellaTheSpanishWaterDog]

Crikey, it's amazing how many of these idiots that don't understand the significance of completion there are about

We've been reasonably lucky in our seven house purchases, although we did buy a house that had previously been converted to four flats that were let out fully furnished and the vendor (who lived in the US) had assured us during the private sale that the place would be cleared of all the (extremely tatty) furniture his tenants had to use.

When completion day finally arrived - after a long drawn out saga to get two tenants evicted - we arrived with our two enormous removal lorries complete with the contents of our previous four bed house that had been in storage since we'd sold six weeks earlier, only to find the house still full of stuff. We actually counted fifty seven items of furniture Worse still, one of the evicted tenants had smeared shit brown stuff round the bath in his former flat.......not what you want for a new home with a young DS! We rapidly changed the locks as I was convinced we hadn't seen the last of him and a couple of weeks later he turned up on our doorstep asking for his mail. DH dealt with that as I don't think I could've been polite under the circs!

We also once sold to a family who delighted in telling us they would see us bright and early on completion day as they'd be staying in a local hotel the previous night. We hoped thought they were kidding, but there they were on our doorstep at 9am, where they stood trying to engage us in conversation whilst our removals were in full swing. Completion didn't happen till 3pm, by which time thankfully they'd buggered off to a local hostelry leaving us to get on uninterrupted. No other interesting moving experiences here although we did also sell to a rather scary convicted killer on one occasion.........

[Pipbin]

I am not sure how they thought that we would we able to all simultaneously move out by 12 (we were in a chain). I think we filled 4 containers and you can't really be in two places at the same time ie. packing and unpacking

But I understand that this is how it works. Everyone moves at 12. You get packed up in the van in the morning. Arrive at the new house at 12 awaiting the phone call to say it's all gone through. Then move in.
You don't need to be packing and unpacking. You pack into a van, then unpack at the other end.

[Fatmomma99]

I am at this thread!

[ApplePaltrow]

Cheby

That's awful! I feel so sorry for those couples!

[iPost]

Thankfully there were no stray people still in this house when we bought it and turned up to move in. But the garage had been filled with more than 20 industrial air con units. There was no room left for anything else.

We nagged and begged for nine months for them to be removed. Nada.

Then suddenly it was all systems go and with an hour between a phone call to us and the last one leaving, they were gone.

Great.

A few weeks later the vendor's face is staring back at us from the local paper. Under a headline announcing a local (equivalent of) NHS director had been arrested for dodgy tender back room deals, stealing hospital equipment and rampant proper actual Mafia Nastiness.

That was 12 years ago. He still pops up in the paper for his various appeals of sentence, unfortunately for him they don't seem keen to let him go. But think that is more the proper actual Mafia angle and less the large number of stolen hospital air con units issue.

Next move I am digging my heels in and I want all property, stolen or otherwise, out before I step over the threshold.

[sailawaywithme]

I live in the US and I am glad our system is better! Usually s few days before closing ("completion" in UK terms) the buyer will do a final walk-through. To check that the seller has removed all the furniture, and hasn't trashed the place. Actually, the place Haiti be clean. Buyers can - and do - delay closing until the house is if a decent standard of cleanliness. Not eat-your-dinner-off-the-floor, but reasonable! Only then do you go to closing and swap keys. I can't fathom someone thinking they can pack up a house on the day they move. Are they insane?

[sailawaywithme]

Haiti? Has to!

[MintyBojingles]

For goodness sake change the locks first thing in the morning! SIL had the previous owners let themselves in when they left loads of stuff behind.

[Elllicam]

When we arrived (with keys) to our new house the previous family were still in it and making bacon. They did leave about 4 hours later but the house was filthy, all the cupboards, garage and attic were filled with crap and when we contacted them through the lawyer about all the stuff they graciously said we could keep it... It took us 6 tip runs to clear it all.

[Elllicam]

Oh and they left the bacon

[ICantDecideOnAUsername]

Some of these stories are !

On both the times we've bought property the vendors have tried to do a diy move and not been out until way after completion.

First time i didn't matter as we'd kept our rented place for a week to decorate but the second time our removal men got there first and when we arrived (several hours after completion) they were disconnecting the vendors sky boxes. Turns out they'd given our movers some money to move them as well. And then Saturday in the car to let them do it. I was fuming. I think our movers accepted as they didn't really have any choice as they had to ft our stuff in the house. The cheek of some people! It still makes my blood boil thinking about it years later.

[ICantDecideOnAUsername]

Sat in the car obviously, not Saturday!

[Komododragon16]

We had this happen to us. Collected keys and owner's wife was there. Our bed was delivered before we got there, so it was being put together while she was still packing. She was pregnant with a toddler and he'd gone to work leaving her to organise it all. Nice! We were very chilled about it all, just helped her and the removal men.

[nevertakeyouriphoneinthebath]

Fuck me, it's a wonder anyone so spectacularly dim was ever in a position to buy their own house in the first place.

[nevertakeyouriphoneinthebath]

I'd have been straight on the phone to the solicitor.

[exLtEveDallas]

I once turned up, with my sister, to move into my new rental, to find the previous tenant still in place along with her naked boyfriend.

Stairs were directly opposite the front door. I unlocked the door, walked in and looked up into the eyes of a rather tasty bloke with all his 'belongings' on show. My sister stood there with her eyes on stalks and said "is he part of the fixtures and fittings?"

It was a surprise to say the least.