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

[TheGrumpyAccountant]

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.

It's the same in England! Why would it not be?

Once you have the money for your house, it's not yours. You've no right to be in it. If your purchase fails, you're homeless.

Thought you were going to say you couldn’t move in. Appreciate it was inconvenient though!

A friend arrived at her new home to find the previous owner with his feet up watching TV. He hadn’t moved a single thing because he didn’t trust the process and wanted to make sure they arrived. No removals firm booked or anything. Absolute madness and chaos! 😅

She can laugh about it now. All they could do was put a hold on their move, pay for a B&B and keep stuff in vans overnight. Never heard anything like it!

But completion wasn't messy. The funds transferred. The previous owners had given the keys to their solicitor. They just then decided not to move at that time.

was the ops house and the previous owners were just that and shouldn't have been there.

it wasn't anything to do with the completion and everything to do with the previous owners being cf.

Question - how do the buyers of the first house pay for their house if they haven’t sold their house yet?

It is bottom up. You’re wrong on this.

I once bought a house. Funds were transferred mid afternoon, and we became the legal owners. It then took the previous owners six hours to hand over the keys. We ended up unpacking all our belongings onto the drive because we had to return the van, then moving them again once we had the key. That was a stressful evening, as we wondered if we were going to spend our first night camping.

@Didimum You’re not wrong - mountain out of a molehill seems to be the basis of pretty much every thread on MN at the moment. Just non events. If these are AI generated they’re going off on some very weird and uninteresting tangents.

Its strange that your sellers actually handed in the keys before they were ready to move. Any time iv moved iv dropped keys into the estate agent after leaving my old house for the last time. I can see how it took the shine from your day and wasn't ideal but after reading some other horror stories in the scheme of things it could have been worse! Congratulations on your new home

You’ll be annoyed right now but remember after a while in your new home you’ll forget all about it.

Always read about these sorts of crazy stories! We moved last year and had packed up and handed in keys but were waiting for the call from the solicitors to say we can collect the keys to our new home. We had an hour of sat in our cars outside our old home whilst waiting, we certainly didn’t keep a spare set of keys and sat in our old home when it wasn’t ours! Very odd behaviour of your vendors.

But these particular cheeky fucker vendors clearly had received the OP's money as they had handed over the keys!

Indeed.

That's not how it works in Scotland.

Their solicitor had the money for the house. They had no right to stay there.

I felt terrible on moving day as we were still trying to get out but our movers were taking longer than expected. We had until 5 but had said we thought we'd be out by 3 so our buyers were ready for 3. Unfortunately it turned out to be 5:05. I apologised profusely as it wasn't what I'd wanted for our buyers to have to wait. They were lovely about it and we're on good terms. I can't imagine inconveniencing a buyer deliberately and thinking that's ok.

If it's all so simple and it's unexpected that it might not go smoothly then why is the OPs tale not at all unusual?

Traffic was stopped around the corner from where I live once while a buyer pulled up to a not emptied house and the two parties went head to head in the middle of the road!

And there's been plenty of other examples on this thread ..

IT HAPPENS, it's not rare, I do think it's a bit silly to have absolutely no safety net in your move day itinerary

Moving Day is the most stressful day possible except for the day you are born, which no one remembers for very good reason. There is no "shine" on Moving Day. Congratulations on your new house.

Could claim squatters rights though

Well yes, they’re clearly in the wrong, but easily resolved and you’re in. A bit of an overreaction OP.
A lot worse things can happen on moving day, so keep your perspective

For England this would not be so shocking but in Scotland I am really horrified.

good luck in your new home OP!

AIBU is officially fucking batshit now. There seems to be this automatic contrarianism. People just respond to be unpleasant and argumentative.

OF COURSE it’s not unreasonable to expect free and unfettered access to what is now officially YOUR property after the previous owners have handed over keys. They are now trespassing. Would all the “be kind” posters genuinely be ok with that?? Random people lounging about in their house? I suspect not. It’s stress you just don’t need on what’s already a stressful day, especially with a toddler and newborn.

Agree with all of this. MN has gotten weird. OP they are completely in the wrong and it sounds very unpleasant. Be kind my arse…code for ‘be a doormat’…usually aimed at women.

Plus one to this.

‘Be kind’ should work both ways. Be kind by moving out of a house that you no longer own.

Neighbours (UK) handed their keys in, got their funds released and turned up at their new house in a removal van to find the sellers had not released the keys, though they had left. Some blockage upchain. Approaching 5pm, the removers said they'd have to unload onto the pavement and leave. The chain unblocked with minutes to spare and they got in.

At that point the house PLUS ALL the contents belonged to you legally!! You should have got a locksmith out to change the locks and anything you didn’t want chuck out onto the driveway and tell the sellers to F off if they thought they were picking anything else up the next day as otherwise they wouldn’t be getting any of their stuff as legally it’s not theirs anymore

This!

When we arrived at our house they had about 8 relatives there still packing everything up there was stuff everywhere the garage was still full and no sense of urgency at all. We had to get the estate agent to come down and she basically told them the had to get a move on we ended up getting them to clear one room and we starting to move our stuff into it. They had to come back the next day to do the garage. They were elderly so we cut them some slack. However because of the continued contact with them I became friends with their daughter she is now a cherished friend! So every cloud and all that…

But once the solicitors have arranged exchange of money and the keys have been handed over - as was the case here - it’s no longer your house. Where the previous owner goes next is not OP’s problem.