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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think previous owners of our new house were being unreasonable?

261 replies

TheGrumpyAccountant · 08/08/2025 21:11

Today was moving day. Having sold our house, we packed up and cleaned yesterday so that we could do a final clean/take last minute stuff today. All of our belongings were out and being stored as of yesterday afternoon. We handed in keys at 10.30am this morning and our funds were transferred to the solicitor of our sellers before 11am. At 1.15pm we were told that we could collect the keys to our new house from their solicitors. When we arrived at the new house the previous occupants were just ‘chilling’ in the house (despite having meant to have handed all keys to their solicitors). Standing with my toddler and newborn, when I (very politely) spoke to them they said that they had not yet been told they could collect their keys for their new house and so refused to leave until they knew they had somewhere to go as if something went wrong they’d have nowhere to go. I pointed out that if they don’t leave WE would have nowhere to go. After some quick calls to lawyers they were told they had to leave, so they eventually did.

We are in Scotland in case that makes any difference to legalities etc.

AIBU to this that they were unreasonable in this situation? They’ve really taken the shine off of moving day for me since it all got quite tense and stressy. We are also in the new house over 2 hours later than we could have been.

OP posts:
FunnyOrca · 08/08/2025 22:45

TheGrumpyAccountant · 08/08/2025 21:27

All missives had been signed and THEY HAD HANDED IN THEIR KEYS! Their solicitor had acknowledged receipt of funds and told us to collect the keys. I’d have understood if they had said there was a hold up somewhere and we couldn’t get the keys.

Yeah, the handing in of the keys and then remaining in the property is the weird part.

My parents moved in Scotland and had a similar situation but there was a hold up in handing the keys over. The sellers were moving abroad so not a chain exactly. My dad just went to the sellers to find out what the problem was and it turned out just to be their disorganisation. He ended up helping them make a couple of trips to the tip!

FunnysInLaJardin · 08/08/2025 22:48

this is why the UK system is shit. Moving on the day of completion and can't move until money has been transferred.

In Jersey the money gets transferred the following Tuesday and everyone moves over the weekend at their leisure. There is no such thing as adverse possession.

And this is why I no longer work in the UK!

FunnysInLaJardin · 08/08/2025 22:51

Clarabell77 · 08/08/2025 21:26

I blame the solicitors. Every single time I’ve moved house they have been really poor communicators and really don’t seem to
get how stressful the whole thing is.

I guarantee they know

SomeOfTheTrouble · 08/08/2025 22:51

FunnysInLaJardin · 08/08/2025 22:48

this is why the UK system is shit. Moving on the day of completion and can't move until money has been transferred.

In Jersey the money gets transferred the following Tuesday and everyone moves over the weekend at their leisure. There is no such thing as adverse possession.

And this is why I no longer work in the UK!

Trying to get my head around how this works. What if one party wants to move out on the Sunday, but the person buying their house wants to move in on the Saturday? How do they all agree who moves out when?

Seeingadistance · 08/08/2025 22:51

AndyMcFlurry · 08/08/2025 22:03

There is no chain in Scotland . Yes there might be several people buying and selling on the same day but the transactions are not linked legally .

The sellers should have been out long before 1.15pm when their solicitors released the keys to the buyers. Whether or not their own purchase had settled was irrelevant.

The Op is quite right to be annoyed.

Exactly this. We don't do chains here.

They had the OP's money, she had the keys, they were sitting about in her house!

I can't even comprehend how they could have handed over the keys and not understood that that meant they'd quite literally shut the door behind themselves!

Absolutely cheeky fuckers, but it's by now, OP. I hope you're settling in now in your new home.

FunnysInLaJardin · 08/08/2025 22:54

SomeOfTheTrouble · 08/08/2025 22:51

Trying to get my head around how this works. What if one party wants to move out on the Sunday, but the person buying their house wants to move in on the Saturday? How do they all agree who moves out when?

Show quote history

they just agree between them, usually the seller says I will be out midday Saturday and then the new owners move in. Its very civilised

WonderingWanda · 08/08/2025 22:56

We've had that in the past, we collected the keys and turned up to find the previous owners still moving out, very slowly one small van load at a time. All their pets were still running around and they hadn't cleaned a thing...and ur was filthy. We went in and started moving there stuff onto the pavement which hurried them up a bit.

The most recent time we moved myself, my kids and my cat had lunch in a car park while we waited for our keys.

RoseAlone · 08/08/2025 22:58

It's really no biggie and definitely not worth letting it bug your happiness. Now get on with the unpacking and enjoy the new house

GarlicLitre · 08/08/2025 22:59

catmothertes1 · 08/08/2025 22:38

I might be wrong but in Scotland,I don't think the notion of a chain really exists. The deal is between the one person who is buying and the one who is selling (via their solicitors). Once the funds have been confirmed as exchanged,it's not the new owner's problem where the old owner is going,the house doesn't belong to them anymore.

Show quote history

That's the same, surely?

In England, there's no special clause that says your money doesn't count until everybody else has got their money. It becomes a chain because nobody can get their money until their buyer gets theirs. It must be the same in Scotland.

holysmokee · 08/08/2025 22:59

I’m not sure if people aren’t reading the OP correctly or something because the replies are mental.

I have never heard of or experienced previous owners still living in the house by moving day, because it’s after the keys have changed hands and the sale is complete- there’s no reason for them to have been there! They didn’t hand in all their keys and stayed living in a house they don’t own, cheeky and weird.

NoWordForFluffy · 08/08/2025 23:00

Seeingadistance · 08/08/2025 22:51

Exactly this. We don't do chains here.

They had the OP's money, she had the keys, they were sitting about in her house!

I can't even comprehend how they could have handed over the keys and not understood that that meant they'd quite literally shut the door behind themselves!

Absolutely cheeky fuckers, but it's by now, OP. I hope you're settling in now in your new home.

Show quote history

There is no link legally here in the same way. If your sale goes through and your purchase doesn't, you're homeless. That's how it works.

If you're selling, you have to vacate, whether you've completed on your onward purchase or not.

There is no legal link between the buyer of the first house and the seller of the second (with the seller / buyer in the middle).

If there are a number of linked transactions, it's a chain.

Thehobbit2013 · 08/08/2025 23:00

i can’t believe that how many people believe that a chain works from top down. How can I buy my next house until I have released the funds from the sale of mine.

once the sale has completed the new owners own the house. The previous owners have sold their house regardless of where they have anywhere to go to they no longer own the house they’re in.

it may be called something differently in Scotland but surely there still effectively a chain. I.e the buyers use the funds from the sale of their house plus mortgage to fund the onward purchase.

as a side note I have sold in both Scotland and England and Scotland has by far the Joe simpler process.

SomeOfTheTrouble · 08/08/2025 23:02

holysmokee · 08/08/2025 22:59

I’m not sure if people aren’t reading the OP correctly or something because the replies are mental.

I have never heard of or experienced previous owners still living in the house by moving day, because it’s after the keys have changed hands and the sale is complete- there’s no reason for them to have been there! They didn’t hand in all their keys and stayed living in a house they don’t own, cheeky and weird.

Yeah, there are loads of replies from people saying ‘no big deal, we just sat outside for an hour while waiting for the keys’. That’s an entirely different situation. The OP had the keys, the house was hers. There’s absolutely no situation in which it’s reasonable for a seller to hand over the keys, having received their buyer’s money, but stay hanging around in the house. It doesn’t belong to them.

SpaceRaccoon · 08/08/2025 23:04

It becomes a chain because nobody can get their money until their buyer gets theirs. It must be the same in Scotland.

No, they're in effect unconnected transactions. Once your house is sold and you have the money, it's not your house, and not your buyer's problem if there's a snag or delay with your own purchase.

RosaMundi27 · 08/08/2025 23:04

Didimum · 08/08/2025 21:19

In a chain, it’s meant to move from top down. The solicitors are supposed to communicate with each other from top down.

Show quote history

That's not how it works, legally, when the money goes through to your vendors, the house is legally yours. The vendors have no legal right to stay a minute past that point.

Merryoldgoat · 08/08/2025 23:09

In a chain, it’s meant to move from top down. The solicitors are supposed to communicate with each other from top down.

I’m always confounded by the confidence with which posters can assert absolute guff.

NoWordForFluffy · 08/08/2025 23:12

SpaceRaccoon · 08/08/2025 23:04

It becomes a chain because nobody can get their money until their buyer gets theirs. It must be the same in Scotland.

No, they're in effect unconnected transactions. Once your house is sold and you have the money, it's not your house, and not your buyer's problem if there's a snag or delay with your own purchase.

Yes. Same in England!

Buyer 1 buys. Money goes to seller 1 / buyer 2. Seller 1 / buyer 2's money goes to seller 2 / buyer 3. Seller 2 / buyer 3's money goes to seller 3. Seller 3 is going into rented, chain ends.

If seller 1 / buyer 2's money gets trapped between their sale and purchase, it's tough. They're homeless. Same as Scotland!

Saz12 · 08/08/2025 23:12

Theres no "uk" property laws, in Scotland we have a different system.

But, as soon as the money is transferred to the vendors account, the house isnt theirs. There's often a stressful moving day where everything is done, the deal can't fall through without legal recompense (that's not the right word), but theres a bit of a delay with keys, money, removal vans, etc. You kind of just have to go with it and not be a walker er- sounds like your vendors were.

TheNightingalesStarling · 08/08/2025 23:12

If you go to a cafe and buy a cake then cake is then yours.
The cafe owner can't keep your cake while they decide how to spend the money.
Or while they wait for their purchase fro Amazon to arrive.
They have to give you your cake.

The house is yours when the money goes through. Not the sellers.

SpaceRaccoon · 08/08/2025 23:14

They're homeless. Same as Scotland

Thanks, so posters really are talking nonsense then! Ive only ever bought and sold in Scotland.

NoWordForFluffy · 08/08/2025 23:14

Saz12 · 08/08/2025 23:12

Theres no "uk" property laws, in Scotland we have a different system.

But, as soon as the money is transferred to the vendors account, the house isnt theirs. There's often a stressful moving day where everything is done, the deal can't fall through without legal recompense (that's not the right word), but theres a bit of a delay with keys, money, removal vans, etc. You kind of just have to go with it and not be a walker er- sounds like your vendors were.

It's the same in England. Once you're sold, and you have the money, that's it. If your purchase fails you're homeless!

Saz12 · 08/08/2025 23:17

But, on The Day, the money goes via solicitors escrow accounts and the bank - so thete can be a time lag between you paying for the house and the vendor getting the money through.

So at those points anyone can be a dick about it, ie, I've paid so its mine/ I've not got the money so it's not yours yet.

Lolapusht · 08/08/2025 23:18

Happened to us! Arrived to skip into our first home together to find the sellers say outside having a fag break! Said it had taken them longer than they thought it would so they’d have to leave this until tomorrow 😮 I was 7 months pregnant at the time and not best pleased. Our estate agent was aghast and said “never in all my years…”. They also left crappy nightshades and boobs that they never connected that I ended up talking to the dump 😡

Scotlabd had a different system to England and chains aren’t really a thing. Sane people soles however when it coves to comes relate/keys available. That’s competition and when it happens ownership passes to the buyers so the sellers have no right to either have themselves or their stuff in the house.

NoWordForFluffy · 08/08/2025 23:20

Saz12 · 08/08/2025 23:17

But, on The Day, the money goes via solicitors escrow accounts and the bank - so thete can be a time lag between you paying for the house and the vendor getting the money through.

So at those points anyone can be a dick about it, ie, I've paid so its mine/ I've not got the money so it's not yours yet.

No. You can only get the keys when the seller has the money. If people misunderstand that, they're idiots!

SomeOfTheTrouble · 08/08/2025 23:21

Saz12 · 08/08/2025 23:17

But, on The Day, the money goes via solicitors escrow accounts and the bank - so thete can be a time lag between you paying for the house and the vendor getting the money through.

So at those points anyone can be a dick about it, ie, I've paid so its mine/ I've not got the money so it's not yours yet.

The seller had handed over the keys though. You don’t have the keys over until you have their money.
When you hand over the keys, the assumption is that you lock the door behind you. Not hand the keys over then sit in the property.