Access to property buyer

[Brum1992]

We’re moving house in a week and a half in Scotland. We’ve just concluded the missives. We have a young baby and a 3 year old. Our buyer asked for access to measure things ups…we asked if they can hold off until the move date, which is just a week and a half away. They came back and said we have to legally allow access…we didn’t realise it’s a legal requirement. So therefore, they’re coming on Tuesday. Although they legally can come, we’re pissed off that they pushed the legal demand rather than wait a week.

are we unreasonable to be annoyed? It’s chaos and stressful enough with moving and two young kids….it just seems so off for them to pull the legal requirement on us.

I couldn’t imagine denying someone to come in and take some measurements. You really don’t need to do anything other than open the door for them. It’s also 8 days before you move so it’s not like you will be lugging furniture out the door and they’re in the way. I think you a blowing this way out of proportion for some reason. It’s the same as if you were having the boiler serviced or a meter reading.

When I bought my second place, the vendors allowed me access in advance so that the carpet fitters could measure up. They fitted the new carpet the first day while my furniture was being shipped up (company move, so I could afford it ).

We're in England and our sellers let us visit to measure up. We couldn't have cared less if there was a mess (they had a toddler). We just needed precise ceiling, wall and window measurements so we could order furniture, curtains and plan where to put existing pieces. We've offered to do the measurements for our current buyer (we have one of those electric measuring tools) or let him come and measure. I thought it was fairly normal.

YANBU. What wankers. Don’t tidy up.

Totally normal in Scotland. Have bought and sold 6 times now (and am Scottish).

I think people used to the system in England and Wales see the process as quite adversarial because of the way that things can still collapse at the last minute, whereas, here, once the missives are concluded you can relax until the exchange date, as things can't change.

It's usually a nice time when you might visit the house a couple of times, get measurements and chat with the seller about what to expect. They can point out all the foibles of the house they wouldn't have wanted to mention before missives, tell you about bin day, local stuff etc. I have been both the seller and the buyer in these circumstances and never questioned it.

To be honest, the only time I've had that particularly unpleasant and adversarial experience was when I bought from an English couple who'd only lived in Scotland for 5 years and didn't seem to understand that things were finalised with the missives (among many other things about the Scottish system along the way). Right up to the day of exchange, they behaved like they were at war.

We have been very supportive to them, even when they nearly collapsed the chain. We nearly even lost our new home due to them.

To be fair, this support benefited you in the long run just as much as them.

@GrinAndVomit not really, we had 5 offers on our place, so could have quite easily gone to one of the other offers.

I don't know why you keep emphasising how stressful it is. You let them in. They measure. They go. They'll have to work around whatever state the house is in.

You are completely over reacting and blowing this out of proportion. Take a step back and breathe. They won’t be in long. This is a completely normal part of the moving process. You are making it difficult by overreacting.

Totally agree.
You’ll be helping them hugely at a very minimum inconvenience to yourself.

And also OP, just because you had 5 other offers and could easily have taken one of those…..well those buyer would have wanted in too. It’s normal.

Oh gosh don't sour the buying process over something as petty as this.

As you've already heard, it's totally normal in Scotland to allow access, the buyers will likely have been miffed that you declined their reasonable request.

You absolutely don't have to spring clean from top to bottom for their measuring-up-visit, they can take you as they find you.

And no, no furniture will be ready to be delivered within a week, but by letting them in to measure they can start planning and ordering, shaving a week off the process for them, they're probably just excited and want to get organised.

Try to grin and bear it otherwise you'll leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth - they're not doing anything wrong / unusual, you're actually the one being a pita 😬😅

It’s you putting unnecessary pressure on yourselves.

Let them in to measure whatever they need, but don’t feel obliged or waste any time cleaning or tidying in advance of their visit. They can take it as they find it.

I don't know why you feel so resentful about this and why you didn't say yes in the first place. A reasonable vendor would surely let their buyers come round to measure up. I've always let people do it, and appreciated it when I've been allowed to measure up (every time I've asked).

I've no idea why house transactions become so emotional and, more importantly, adversarial in the UK, there's really no need. It isn't like that elsewhere,.

Someone buying something from you for hundreds of thousands of pounds - a few minutes of time for them to come back to measure up isn't asking a lot.

I do get the feeling that OP still thinks she's in the right and can't see the bigger picture here.

Have you thought about a packing service?

I am just wondering if the OP really understands what completion of the missives mean. That their buyer can't back out now, even if the house is messy.

And also wondering what the OP does if they have a leak or electrical fault -do they go on the internet complaining that they have to let a trademan in?