Is this ok when selling a house? Doesn’t feel right

[DonnatellaLyman]

We are selling our house, part way between exchange and completion. We’ve half moved out (sleeping in new place) but still lots of stuff in old house.

We’ve just found out that EA has been letting the buyers in on several occasions and has facilitated their tradespeople coming in to carry out work (who have damaged the property). We were not asked about any of these ‘visits’.

It feels like a massive invasion of our property /privacy but I don’t know if I’m just being precious as we won’t own it soon.

And tell both sides’ solicitor.

Basically at this point you need things putting back to how they were immediately.

Completely outrageous.

Tell the estate agent no more access, but I wouldn’t flag damage. If you can’t prove it was them you are just highlighting a problem with the property. They have exchanged, so if they pull out you will get % of the purchase price which should cover any damage.

Outrageous! You ought to kick up a stink about this and any damages repaired and paid for by the buyers!

They are trespassing on your property. They do not own it yet and you did not give permission. The EA doesn't have the right to permit this 😕 and I'd raise a formal complaint to their professional body.

I would tell your solicitor and follow their advice.

Wildly out of order.

They don't own the house yet so shouldn't be doing a thing in there. Have you seen what they have done in your old house? Can your solicitor contact them to tell them to cease work?

I absolutely agree that you should demand the key back. These people are trespassing on your property with the connivance of the EA.

It's legally yours until completion and the money has landed in your bank account.

Email your solicitor including pictures of the damage and ask for their advice .
The agent should not have given out the keys without your consent , however your solicitor should be holding a 10% deposit which you could eventually confiscate if the buyer didn’t complete .

It does happen at times but normally I would expect the buyer to have signed a key undertaking via the solicitors .

in the normal run of events it should sort itself out by them completing provides urgent repairs aren’t needed in the interim.

Even if the buyers should have buildings insurance from exchange it is not compulsory. Depending on the insurance policy it may well not cover accidental damage even if they have it and is probably not going to cover personal injury. Advice is generally that you should refuse to let anyone into the property unsupervised and be aware of the risk even when supervised. You not living in the property may also invalidate your insurance. This is really terrible behaviour from your EA to be facilitating this without your permission or knowledge. You should make very clear to them that this is not acceptable and that they are also leaving themselves open to legal risk if they allow this without your permission or knowledge.

Second going via solicitors - unless there was a formal agreement they should not be entering the property without consent, let alone doing work.
I would also complain to the EA area office and their professional body (unless a very satisfactory answer is forthcoming).

You pay the EA a sizeable sum not just to sell the property but to manage the situation until completion. They have failed to do what you are paying for.

I think at the point of exchange the buyer has to arrange buildings insurance for the property they’re buying don’t they? It doesn’t give them right of entry or the right to touch the fabric of the building.

This happened to our family. The buyers knew the house was empty (it was a probate sale though) and started moving stuff into the garden definitely prior to the sale completing.

We were also suspicious that they accessed the house too via the key safe that was on the property and had been used by the viewing agents so they could have been given the code or observed what was put in.

I was really upset at the cheeky behaviour at the time and still think they behaved badly (which as it is a small community and they will inevitably intersect my path again probably wasn't a great move on their part).

I would be very tempted to withhold their fees on a breach of contract - see what your solicitor thinks? Obviously I haven't seen your contract but they have broken the Rules of Conduct from the Property Ombudsman which most contracts will bind them to:

13. Exchange and Completion 13a After exchange of contracts you must not give the buyer the keys to the property without the specific permission of the seller or the seller’s legal representative.

Change the locks and complain to the head of the agency, the estate agency association (whoever they are) and leave a scathing review of the agency on all social media platforms. They won't like that, make sure you let other potential sellers know what this agency does. So they lose potential business.

Well no, not easily, as contracts have been exchanged. But certainly the EA has no business letting people in. Tell them they will be responsible for paying for any damage.

Buyers have to take our buildings insurance from the point of exchange as standard…

only as condition of mortgage. if they are cash buyers they might not have insurance.

When I let the buyer in before completion (to change the really shoddy kitchen) the solicitor took a £10k bond against them pulling out and leaving me with a devalued house with no kitchen in place.

With full agreement from me.

I agree you should change the locks, and then a stern call to the EA.

absolutely not! What damage have they done? I would expect a full repair before going any further

Awful behaviour! There’s some good advice here on how to deal with it. Do not accept any further entry.

That is awful.
We asked for some access to a vacant property between exchange and completion, and permission was given. We wouldn’t have dreamt of going there without agreement. In our case the owners had emigrated some months previously and were genuinely not bothered. They let us move our hens in 24hrs before completing so they weren’t stressed on the day amongst other things (all outside). But if they’d refused that would’ve been fine.

Are you sleeping in a house you are in the process of buying? Or have rented?

The buyers shouldn't be doing anything to your house until completion.

You shouldn't be sleeping in a house you are about to buy, if that's what's happening.

Very interesting name indeed!