We've exchanged and complete in 2 weeks - buyers want YET ANOTHER viewing

[MoominFeatures]

We've exchanged contracts on the sale of our house - completion is in two weeks (we're in England).

Pre-exchange we accommodated multiple viewings - of course. We felt it was just part of the process and seemed fair enough.

We exchanged at the end of July. Since then, the buy has asked for (and we've accommodated) two more viewings, one really last minute while they knew we were on holiday and away (but we figured it out so they could come) and the second time one afternoon on a day they knew was a working day for us but was the only day/time that worked for them. We accommodated. They were here for four hours (the house is a pretty regular 4-bed detached house in a village - not some pile somewhere with a million rooms and corridors).

They're coming again today - for the third time. They've even asked me to push out a work call I have in case they need longer than 90 minutes here (I told them about that to try to get a sense of how long they'll be here for).

AIBU for feeling really quite put out??! The house is utter chaos - boxes everywhere, dust all over because we're actively packing. It doesn't look good at all and it's really stressing me out. I have been up until god knows what our the past two nights and up with the sparrows the following mornings trying to make things look a bit neater (not sure it's made a difference) but the more i do the angrier I get about it all. To top it off, the buyer sent us an email last night essentially saying "see you tomorrow" but jibed that "I guess you're more relaxed than we are". Well that's set me right off. I'm absolutely raging - they have no idea of all the shit going on in our lives at the moment (the house move is only one element and probably the least stressful one).

Please someone tell me I'm not being over-sensitive and they're truly CFs. Being tired and cranky isn't helping me no doubt, but we wouldn't dream of heading to our sellers' house now, when we'd been twice post-exchange already and when completion is in two weeks, so this is really pissing me off. I really need to not lose my shit at them when they rock up later this morning. Eeeeek.

As you've exchanged you don't owe them anything
You've been very accommodating already
Cancel and don't rearrange
They can wait 2 weeks

This. EA's exist for this. Tell them you're sorry, but that all future communication should be via the EA, and stick to that. Do not respond to anything else from them. I can tell being firm isn't something you are comfortable with but it will save you all of this anxiety.

Then tell the EA you aren't doing any future visits from them. Barring that, tell them they can have ONE more visit where they can measure everything but that is IT. And give them one exact date/time that works. The EA can feed that back to them.

I promise, this is not an unreasonable thing to say to them. They are the ones being CF.

I wouldn't measure anything for them - you know they'll be messaging you later to say you've got it wrong.

#bekind can #fuckoff because it’s so often used to make unreasonable demands or trample over others’ boundaries.

Are the purchasers #beingkind to OP with their incessant and unreasonable demands? No.

But thats not your problem. They can wait two weeks, or they can pull out and be liable.

Its not convenient for them to come due to your work commitments and no you are not prepared to accomodate their demand to spend so long.

OP didn’t say which EA they used. If it’s online - Purple Bricks etc - then sellers arrange their own viewings as the EA charges if they handle them.

Cancel. Say you’ve a family/work emergency.

We had this. A 3rd visit 2 weeks before completion to “measure up”. The house was basically packed up and the thought of them seeing it messy and using it to drop the price/mess us around was too stressful.

Also: don’t be in direct contact with them. That’s madness!

My #bekind would have ended after the viewing that took four hours. These people are CFs - asking for work commitments to be moved and interrupting holidays to view.

Well done for exchanging btw. Its more than most are doing in this current market.. I would allow a visit for 30 mins maximum. TELL them they will need to leave as you have a sensistive call to make and you cannot have strangers around.

BTW - who asks for you to change the time of your work call? That is really cheeky...

Just keep telling them when they arrive they have 30 mins to do whatever they are going to do. For security reasons you will need them to leave by xxx. I am security cleared myself and work from home. I have used that reason before for a neighbour who kept turning up for a chat and then wouldnt go. They said they would wait downstairs until I had finished but I said - no house needs to be empty....

It sounds horrendously infuriating OP!

I would suggest at the next request, simply say "I'm sorry. We have no more time available for viewings between now and completion. Any future correspondence will need to go through the Estate Agents, but we won't be facilitating any more visits"

Then block.

After exchange is a bit late for ‘sufficient consideration’ and a lot of solicitors discourage viewings in between exchange and completion.

Got a funny feeling that after the sale is completed these people will still be pain in the arse

EA's can be your best friends with this sort of thing. They will have seen and heard it all before and can deal with these sorts of people. When I sold our last house everything went through the EA. I had a CF ring the door bell (there was a For Sale Sign) and see whether we could do a deal...it was 8 years ago mind! We had a very nice looking house on a tree lined road and the EA told us to expect something like this.

I got to know our EA (local almost one man band and was brilliant!) and he said there was nothing he hadnt seen or heard over the years. Crying, threats, people refusing to give ID or any info about themselves. We had a family of 12 who wanted to see the house. Grandma, children, Mum and Dad, cousins etc. The agent handled all of that by saying that although culturally it was the norm for them to bring a cast of thousands to a viewing in the UK it would need to be done in groups. Needless to say it never went ahead. Maybe they just wanted a day out

Not after exchange. It’s usually only a couple of weeks between exchange and completion - why would you wait until so late in the transaction to make sure you wanted to go ahead, knowing you would be liable for extra costs, lose your deposit and leave yourself open to being sued by the seller ? Multiple viewings after exchange would raise a red flag to me that they’re looking for a reason to drop the price at the last minute.

Absolute CF'ers. I remember when my mum sold her house, the people who bought it wanted to know if they could come and put some of their stuff in the garage! (This is about 2 weeks before they moved in). People are absolute twats at times.

Crikey, I’d say no, they’re being excessive!

we viewed and offered, then had one more viewing before exchange (to show kids and measure a couple of things. Both visits were about 20 mins?

it’s not normal to view that many times, especially when people are living in the property!

She already has been.

Ive only ever viewed a house twice
Initial viewing. Then a more in depth/measure up one.

If it made you this angry, you shouldn't have agreed to it. They were being ridiculous but your level of anger does seem disproportionate. And I don't think it's fair to agree to something and then say things like this about them. At least, not if it is making you feel quite this level of anger. A bit of irritation, fine. But I agree with you - you seem to have some anger issues, probably not helped by agreeing things you're not happy with.

When we sold our house, our buyers had EIGHT viewings, with 4-8 people on each occasion, delayed by an extra six weeks more than their estimated date for completion and even had the cheek to set up a limited company (e.g. '123 Road Name Ltd') and had the paperwork sent to our address before they even exchanged!!! On the plus side, they paid about 80K more than we expected and our buyers waited for us.

Hope you put all those letters in the recycling !

This.
Ask if there’s a specific reason for the fourth visit? And if yes you’ll provide details but it’s too chaotic for you now during the packing stage. Be polite but firm!

I hope things finally go smoothly from now on OP.

All housemoves are stressful and I’ve had quite a variety. The worst was when we bought our current house. After agreeing a completion date our sellers changed their mind and we ended up homeless for over a month. Then on the day of actual completion they didn’t move out. It took them a further 48 hours. Our removal firm, our estate agents, their estate agents and all solicitors involved were astonished and did everything they could, bar physically manhandling them out of the property, to get them to leave. Problem was they just hadn’t started packing until the day before.

Then after we’d moved in they came back a few days later for garden benches. A bolt was installed immediately on our garden gate and the other locks changed.

And a couple of months later they sent a van courier to come and pick up the range cooker - the one that was listed in our contract as part of the fixtures and fittings included in the sale. He was sent away with very clear instructions that he wasn’t collecting anything!

They sent solicitors letters refusing to provide information about where they could be contacted, so short of employing a private detective to find them, there was no way we could sue them for breach of contract. We were so relieved to finally be in that we decided to let it all go and keep our sanity. I can only hope the universe is ‘taking care of them’!

Reading this makes me step back and find some perspective. Thank you so much for sharing, and I'm so sincerely sorry that this awfulness transpired for you. Hopefully you love your home every day and you never have to go through anything like that horror-show ever again! Just terrible.

We absolutely love our home. And on the day we actually moved in, there was almost a street party thrown by our new neighbours! They all said the same - that they were soooo pleased to the back of them. It’s over a decade ago now and we can laugh about it now. 😀😂