To wonder what's happening next door?

[MrsCK]

Moving day for the neighbours. They moved out about 11.00am

First lorry arrives about midday and it's just sat there...no unloading or anything.

Could it fall through this late in the day?

it could do - or there is just a hold up with the solicitor or bank.
moving is so stressful.

They can't do anything until money has been moved and new owners have then collected keys from estate agent.

Vans get loaded first thing as that is most efficient.

Go and find out. Offer cups of tea and have a chat.

Hair currently plopping and nobody is there. I have the mugs ready though for when there is movement!

They are waiting for the money to clear at bank and for solicitors' go-ahead that keys can be released. Very common. Also common for something to go wrong if solicitors aren't on top of it and for the moving van to be camped out until tomorrow. That's why Fridays are to be avoided at all costs for moving in a chain :-)

We had to sit outside our house while we waited for the money to be officially received by the seller's solicitors and the seller's solicitors to officially tell the estate agent and the estate agent to officially give us the key. I was so bored/frustrated/excited.....

Solicitors and banks - moving is such a dreadful business sometimes.
so much stress, especially in long chains. not to mention expensive.

Oh no!! What would happen if funds didn't clear until tomorrow? Would they have to find a hotel?
My limited experience of buying in a chain was that we were all done and dusted by 11.30 and able to move straight away

They will approach soft touch neighbours for a bed for the night /week /month!!!

Your hair is plopping?

New owners are behind the lorry? Our lorry arrived at our new house well before us because we had admin to do at the old house after all of our stuff had left

Yeah. We all had to sit outside for an hour or so too.

Fanatical- it's drying turbanned up in a t shirt. I can't work out how to do pictures but I look odd.

why are you so concerned about this, to the extent that you have plopping hair (wtf?) and mugs at the ready?

My plopping hair isn't for the benefit of the new neighbours-it's just what I do to my hair

It could be a large chain and they're waiting for the money to be transferred up. I used to be a legal secretary and, yes, it can fall flat even on the day. On one occasion we had someone pull out on the day even though we'd exchanged, they lost their deposit and have to pay costs. Another time we completed for our clients but the chain couldn't complete higher up on the day and there were claims for compension. On another we hadn't had the money by 5pm and it was a bank holiday, but we released the keys on the understanding if the money didn't come through on the Tuesday then the new owners had to move back out. Luckily it arrived!

When we moved three years ago, our purchase was No 5 in the chain and there was another house after us.

And I'm concerned on behalf of my previous neighbours. I don't want it to go pear shaped for them :(

The bank lost my parent's money when we moved house once. Sent it all off to the wrong (nonexistant) account number. Took hours for them to find it and get it back.

In fact it was only threats of violence from DM to the wanker of a bank manager that got it sorted.

Don't be mean willconcern. She is nosy about interested in her new neighbours, I would be too. Yeah, they are strangers now, but she will have to live next to them for potentially a long time, benign curiosity is understandable!

I couldn't get the key to our house till 5:30, despite the funds going through at 2, because the estate agent was an utterly unprofessional piece of scum related to the vendor and wanted us to give them a few days to get their stuff out. 'What do you expect them to do, they only got the keys to their new house today?' he said. I shouted at him quite a lot but resisted hunting him down and injuring him very badly, which I thought was pretty good going.

RED That sounds like a nightmare! I have heard of solicitors being defrauded by hackers before, who try to arrange last minute changes to bank details.

Yay! They have arrived and have the keys.
Time to get my newly plopped hair out for them-obvs

I was breastfeeding my 7 week old on the front lawn of our new house on moving day because our buyer's money took a while to go through which then obviously delayed ours going through to our sellers. Great first impression for the new neighbours, ha!

We had the van packed (both my and dp's flats) early on moving day and had time to go buy a sandwich and collect the keys before we were meant to meet the moving blokes at the new house.

Went to estate agent and they said, hmm, seller hasn't brought in the keys yet. I think at that point a new time for key collection was arranged.

Spoke to our moving chaps, who sat there for hours waiting for something to happen. One of them eventually managed to get his head in the door of the new house and told us 'There is no way they are moving today, they haven't packed, and even if they had, they're not going to fit a four bedroom house into the small van they have sitting outside.'

Cue running around in circles, weeping and rending clothing. Rang solicitor and froze the final exchange of funds, spoke to movers who kindly offered to store our stuff at no extra charge, did some more weeping, bought dinner, went back to my flat (which wasn't being sold so still had my bed and a few small things inside) and watched Eurovison drinking the champagne we were meant to drink in our new house. Moved in a week later.

I hope that is not what's happening.

Not a puffin
That sounds a nightmare! You'd expect an estate agent to refuse to be a part of that sort of trickery, even though most of them are lying scum self serving.