To say no to my house buyers wanting to redecorate before completion?

[Tarantella43]

I know my house buyers slightly as they were parents at the school my kids attended until recently. They found my phone number from a former school year group parents WhatsApp group and set up a group chat with me once they made their offer (though estate agent — it’s not a private sale). Anyway, my house is now empty and it turns out they somehow presumed they would be able to have early access before completion to have floors sanded and walls painted, My solicitor strongly advised against this as it brings various risks, not least that I’d ultimately be liable for any accidents or damage. I said, on an awkward phone call they asked for with me, sorry, no, I’m not comfortable with this. They said it will be hard for them to do the work with kids and furniture. Seems like they’d assumed my goodwill in this. AIBU?

During remodeling my coworkers husband who is a firefighter… bagged up some rags which had varnish/ paint remover/ some flammable product on them and they self ignited and burned part of the house. It can happen. If they ask again tell them to call your solicitor if they don’t understand the reason for your first reply of NO. Your solicitor can be direct and unemotional about.

They are sanding floors and redecorating.

You would honestly hand over the keys to your property for a couple of virtual strangers to play Changing Rooms on your house and put you in breach of your mortgage conditions and nullify your house insurance

I actually don’t believe anyone would think this would end well.

are they first time buyers?

They wouldn't have to be doing flammable things - a faulty spot-light set Windsor Castle on fire. And how would you police what they're doing? Just because they tell you they're just sanding floors and painting walls, how would you know?
You'd have to be staggeringly naive to agree to buyers entering your property and doing any work before the sale has completed.

They won’t be able to leave the house empty while they decorate if they’re selling their own house.

Absolutely not. Worst idea ever.

I swear some people on this site are barking mad!

OP - it’s a big, fat NO. It’s not their property until you’ve exchanged and completed. It’s as simple as that. And get your estate agents or solicitors to firmly cut off the idea, its what you’re paying them for.

Almost everybody has to decorate their house while they're living in it and it's full of furniture, and they usually manage!

If you don’t feel comfortable saying no just say ‘ my solicitor says that’s not possible’ on repeat and blame them

@Lavenderandbrown OP’s solicitor isn’t allowed to speak to the buyers.

God this site is insane! Of course they can’t fucking decorate a house they don’t own!!

Well, to be fair, 97% of people agree that OP is NBU to not allow her buyers to do this, and only two or three PPs are naive enough to believe it's not a problem (they'll learn the hard way one day! 🙄 ).

In my country there’s something called early possession where the buyers can rent the house from the owners before settlement day and there is a legal agreement that covers both the parties.

Settlement doesn’t take forever like it does in the UK so it is only used if there is a stuff up with the settlement day - for example a document was improperly executed or someone stuffed up from the settlement agent and where the funds are definitely there. It would be very risky to enter into this arrangement if funds aren’t available.

It’s rare that this is exercised. Certainly not in this economy with a housing crisis and certainly not to complete renovations. People rent another house while renovations occur. Most often they have to move in and then move out because trades are booked up.

You should never allow someone in to redecorate before you've completed. You run the risk of potential damage, fire, voiding your mortgage, voiding your house insurance and whose to say they might squat in your house and not complete. How will you evict squatters? If any damage is done, you run the risk of the buyers wanting a discount off the house price or worse pulling out of the house sale altogether and leaving the house in a mess for you to have to fix, at cost to you.

Their wanting to redecorate whilst the house is empty is not your problem. A damaged house will be your problem though. Squatters will be your problem. Just say no, your solicitor doesnt recommend it. They will just have to wait.

This would be inadvisable, I'm sure your solicitor will tell you that. They can wait until it belongs to them!

I can understand it'll be hard to do the work with kids and furniture, but if they don't want to work around them the sensible thing to do would be to put their stuff in storage, rent an Air B&B for a few days, and get any work like that done once completion has happened. My parents did that when they downsized, and it made moving day much less stressful, as they weren't reliant on the progress of the chain to finish moving out, and could move stuff in at their leisure once some initial maintenance work had been done.

you are not being unreasonable until completion the house is not legally theirs and could still fall through if you have already moved out then as soon as sale is complete there is nothing stopping you from allowing them the keys to do work but not before. id say Hi [Names], Unfortunately access to do work at the property won’t be possible before completion. My solicitor has strongly advised against it due to the legal and insurance risks, and I have to follow that advice. I understand this may be inconvenient, but it's not something I can make an exception on. Thanks for your understanding.

It's actually illegal to squat in a residential property in the UK and can lead to 6 months in prison, a £5,000 fine or both. However, anyone who originally enters a property with the permission of the owner is not a squatter, so this is just another reason not to allow this and I agree with you. It's amazing that two or three people on here would be OK with letting their buyers into their home before the sale has completed - just nuts!

I've heard it all now! The cheek of them!

Also: THEY SET UP A WHATSAPP - WTF?

It doesn’t really matter what sob story they come up with, the legal advice is not to engage with this arrangement, and that’s what I’d lean back on. The other thing is, you see it all the time on here - the problems always occur when people do people they know favours and it backfires. I wouldn’t even entertain side conversations about the transaction. All communication should be professional and via the solicitors.

Technically the buyer has to insure the property from the point of Exchange, before Completion. If anything goes wrong during that period it can be claimed on the buyer's buildings insurance.

However, it's still completely inadvisable to allow entry and works to take place between Exchange and Completion from a legal point of view; should anything happen or the buyers fail to complete then the vendor could be left up shit creek with a damaged property.

I'd also leave that whatsapp group, you know they'll be badgering you after Completion for x, y or z.

No no no. They can stay in a travel lodge if they can't decorate with kids there if that's the issue.

Nope. As someone who has been through a failed completion do not let them into your house before everything has gone through.

Alot of people redecorate with kids and furniture or they rent an air BnB, put the furniture in storage etc fur a month.

For goodness sake, of course they can’t. Surely you know this.