To think this buyer is being totally and utterly unreasonable?

[stillpinching]

I am so stressed about this I don't know what to do - and I now feel powerless until tomorrow at least.

We are selling a house having already moved over 100 miles away. That's been a nightmare in itself, but we are/were finally due to complete tomorrow. Just a couple of hours ago I had a phone call from the agent to say the buyer has been round today and seen 'a load of rubbish' in the garden. This is bollocks anyway - there's a table and chairs, which, while not new, are not rubbish and are perfectly usable, and a few pots. Nothing has been said before about them wanting it cleared but now they're saying they won't complete while it's there.

Me and dh have work tomorrow and can't take leave at this notice and there's no one else to ask. We are absolutely on the bones of our arse at the moment and desperately need the money from this sale. I can't stand for it to all fall through now. Can they do this? I'm not UR am I - if they had said a couple of months ago when they put the offer in they wanted it cleared we would easily have got it done by now, but we haven't got a magic wand to sort it now.

@PeppermintPasty thanks, so using this as an example, who is the one defaulting on the contract- the one not leaving the property truly vacant or the one delaying until it is?

I once acted for people buying a house who found onthe kitchen a folding card table with

an old but clean and serviceable electric kettle
some mugs and spoons and plates
a jar of coffee and a box of tea bags
a pack of biscuits
and a welcoming note listing some useful local shops and services.

And that’s the way to do it!

Just can't believe they didn't say sooner they didn't want it. Why go round and check today at the last minute. Feels like they are trying to catch us out.

No.

They reasonably assumed that you would remove all your stuff.

And when I buy a house I ALWAYS do a pre-settlement check. Precisely because of V’s ndors leaving their stuff which is a hassle for me to remove.

Offer that they get it cleared and you’ll pay the bill. That would be very reasonable of them to do.

Why not ask them to sort out removal and you’ll foot the bill? That’s what we did when we moved into our new place and found it bursting with the seller’s unwanted furniture.

Well done to your DH for going to sort it out, OP. I probably would have forgotten there was stuff in the garden if I'd already moved 100 miles away.

I'm not sure if they'd have carried out their threat anyway. If they were selling as well, I'm damn sure they wouldn't have stopped completion of the sale. They sound like proper tossers.

There was stuff left in the loft and shed when I bought my first house. It included a 1950s Revox tape recorder, sold to a collector for £100, an early 1950s black telephone, now converted and working (they sell for £80-150 in Brighton retro shops) and an Art Deco bakelite box which now sits on my dressing and has some of my jewellery in it.

I think I did rather well out of that little lot!

If you don’t want the stuff put it on freecycle it’ll be gone today if you do tell the solicitor it’s going to the new house with you when you move.

We bought from an absent vendor, had moved overseas and let the property out. There was all sorts of random stuff in the house and shed and the ea arranged for the house to be cleared on day of completion. EA won't want there to be issues but may bill you for any expenses.

Who needs this hassle?

But do you not see that you have created "hassle" for your buyers?

Plenty of people find moving house extremely stressful, so it's not surprising if they appear to be a little "highly-strung" as a result of your adding to their list of jobs.

@MaggieFs , strictly they both would be in default. However, imo the chairs in the garden is such a non issue. If you issued court proceedings over that, a judge would think everyone had taken leave of their senses. Failing to complete because you've got the huff about said chairs is more serious than leaving the chairs there in the first place, if you see what I mean. In the first scenario the buyer would be in trouble and would risk a judgement against them for failing to complete. In the other scenario, whilst in theory you might have an action against the seller, in practice you would not. Only a very serious failure (to pass the house on in the expected condition etc etc) would merit (possible) successful court action, after lots of different hurdles have been jumped.

-There's a lawyer's answer for you!!

Why go round and check today at the last minute.

It's pretty standard where I live for buyers to do a last minute walk through the day before, just to make sure the house is still in the condition it was bought in. Ie. no damage to walls, floors, carpets ripped up, missing fixtures, etc.

It is BU to leave stuff BUT

....Seriously would you not complete on an actual house purchase because of some garden furniture in the front garden?!

Pull the other one.

Instead of such a prissy and over the top threat you'd think the purchasers would ask for the price of a skip off their price. Job done.

I think you should have offered that OP.

Your estate agent should have steered this stupid situation.

We had left a couple of large items in the garage of my parent's home which we had intended to move at some point. Executors rang me one day to say completion was happening in 3 days time which was very short notice (but no doubt the Executors had known about this for longer!). Told them there was no way we could get over to the house with the required hire van until the day after proposed completion at the earliest. Executor told purchasers solicitor that they would need to complete with the 'offending' items in situ (and cover cost of removal themselves) or completion would be delayed. Fortunately for us, the buyer was keen to complete so chose to go ahead without us removing the items.

So have they completed??