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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Bought house but they’re still in it now!

404 replies

ItsOnlyRainFFS · 26/09/2025 17:44

So we exchanged contracts last week and completed by 10am today. We vacated our house by 12.30pm as our buyers keen to get in and contract said 2pm. The house we bought was supposed to be ready 2pm but it’s still
not ready! Now the seller (house we now own!) is saying they’re going to struggle to empty it by 8pm! And that sounds optimistic. They just don’t sound like they packed up properly. Anything we can do? Solicitor and estate agents shut.
We have put most of our stuff in storage - which is shut. We have though thankfully hired medium van which has our essential stuff in it. But we just want to unpack it now. We have 2 kids and have been at a bowling alley and kfc trying to kill time since school.
Would we be unreasonable to demand we move in 8pm?

OP posts:
ohyesido · 27/09/2025 20:12

This is ridiculous i cannot believe their audacity.

PoliteCat · 27/09/2025 20:38

We had this. Solicitor said we would sue for “damages” as in breach of vacant possession. We never did in the end as just wanted the whole ordeal to be over, but only once they had paid my storage costs.

AdoraBell · 27/09/2025 21:20

Glad you are in OP, hope you all managed to sleep well.

Nanny0gg · 27/09/2025 22:09

snowmichael · 27/09/2025 10:11

Call the police to throw them out
They are trespassing

Which is a civil matter

(and they're already in)

Nanny0gg · 27/09/2025 22:11

Dillydollydingdong · 27/09/2025 18:55

On the other hand, it's so hard. Once when I was supposed to be out and wasn't, my buyers actually loaded their car up and helped me move. They drove my stuff to my new house, on the other side of town.

Why is it?

You start sorting once you decide to move

As soon as you've got dates you start packing

StewkeyBlue · 27/09/2025 22:29

Dillydollydingdong · 27/09/2025 18:55

On the other hand, it's so hard. Once when I was supposed to be out and wasn't, my buyers actually loaded their car up and helped me move. They drove my stuff to my new house, on the other side of town.

Because they were exasperated and desperate, no doubt.

Also, it seems that they had time to do this because they had already successfully packed their own place up and vacated on time!

It IS hard work, and stressful. But it is a legal obligation and not planning properly to get it done causes massive stress and inconvenience, and probably money, to other people.

FluentOP · 27/09/2025 23:45

Charge them rent for living in YOUR house

Givenupshopping · 28/09/2025 00:44

As someone who has bought and sold a LOT of homes, I can now see why moving home is so stressful. While I totally appreciate how frustrating it is to get to your new home and find that the previous owners are still there, and only half moved out, all of the posters saying throw them out, call the police, blah, blah, are talking absolute crap, and were just trying to egg on the OP to be aggressive to people who were obviously already stressed, making the whole situation worse for everyone, including the OP.

The fact is, that on moving day, any number of things can and do go wrong. The original owners, may have had a sickness bug running through the family for the last week. They may have been dealing with a death in the family. They may have young children and no one to leave them with on moving day, so they've been getting under everyone's feet, and delaying things. The removal van could have had an accident, or a flat tyre, or a breakdown. Some people are even so poorly informed that they think they have all day to move out, but the fact is, if the person at the beginning of the chain has paid over their money at 9am, it really doesn't give the person they've bought from, time to have even loaded their removal van, so going along and saying 'this is my house now, you need to get out', is only going to make life miserable for all concerned.

I actually experienced this once with a couple of gay men, who bought our family home. They were first time buyers and so had very little to move, so on moving day when their solicitor told them their funds had been sent over, they drove straight over, and expected us to move out there and then. I had a young daughter, and the house we were moving from wasn't what you might class as a 'first time buyer's' home as it was quite big. We'd done all the preparation we could, but the removal van had been late turning up, and so only about half of our stuff had been loaded when they arrived. We also hadn't heard from our solicitor to say that funds had been received, so initially we told them they'd have to wait. We asked them to be patient, but one of them came in, all full of swagger, telling us that it was his house now, and we needed to get out, I explained about the removal van being late, etc. and that our solicitor hadn't yet received funds, so although his money had been sent into the system, the house wasn't even officially his, until it had been received by our solicitor's bank, which he didn't understand at all, so marched off to tell his partner what I'd said. A few minutes later, they both marched in with boxes in their arms. I asked them what they thought they were doing, and once again, they gave me all the bullshit about 'we've paid our money, etc'. I told them that we'd asked them to be patient, that there was plenty of time for them to move in, but moving their stuff in, before our removal men had finished, would likely result in some of their stuff, being picked up and put on our truck, and as part of our stuff was going into storage, they might not be able to get it back for several weeks! Only when I'd told them all this, did they realise that what I was saying made sense, and once they'd backed off, and gone to sit in their car, things went at a rate of knots to get stuff moved. We'd just finished loading the van, when the solicitor called to say that funds had just been received, so all of the harassment, and stress had been completely unnecessary.

So after such a long post, what I'm trying to say is, if we all practice a bit more patience, and given and take on moving day, a whole lot of stress could be avoided.

starfishmummy · 28/09/2025 01:10

We watched it happen with neighbours. The vendors were moving themselves in one tiny van and some cars - further complicated by the fact that they had split up and although he'd moved out, clearly he had a lot of stuff still in the house. They each had friends helping but its was clearly acrimonious and getting worse as the day went on - the whole street could hear the arguing! And then the buyers arrived!! I don't know who ended up paying the buyers removers to help the vendors get their stuff out but they got everything on to the lawn very swiftly!

InNewYorkNoShoes · 28/09/2025 08:31

Dillydollydingdong · 27/09/2025 18:55

On the other hand, it's so hard. Once when I was supposed to be out and wasn't, my buyers actually loaded their car up and helped me move. They drove my stuff to my new house, on the other side of town.

That’s so unfair on them. They did everything they were meant to, they were probably stressed and tired and then they helped you!

january1244 · 28/09/2025 08:36

I think what made it even worse for ours (filthy, unliveable house, had to hire 2 extra large skips and spend two days clearing it, broken furniture and rubbish left in the house and in the front and back garden and not getting access until the night) was that we had deep cleaned our previous house, packed up way in advance, and left a welcome pack including champagne and detailed notes for how everything worked.

We got into our new house in the dark, with a baby and a dog, a lot of the lights weren’t working, stuff had been broken, they’d broken the lock on the door, and I just cried. Luckily it was so late that the removal men had had to put our stuff in storage, as there wasn’t a clear room even to store it in. But why people would do that to someone, I don’t know. There should be a requirement to empty and clean it. We didn’t recover any of the money, the seller refused to engage, and court would have cost a fortune. We lost well over £1k though

Silverbirchleaf · 28/09/2025 08:39

Dillydollydingdong · 27/09/2025 18:55

On the other hand, it's so hard. Once when I was supposed to be out and wasn't, my buyers actually loaded their car up and helped me move. They drove my stuff to my new house, on the other side of town.

Why is it so hard? As soon as you decide to move, you start to pack or at least, declutter. Do the tricky rooms - garage and loft - in advance. Pack up non-essentials, and then the essentials in the last week or two.

salsapasta · 28/09/2025 08:47

When the solicitors are open contact them and you should be compensated for any expenses. I definitely would be at the house watching them, but you may need to stay in a hotel tonight.

FableLies · 28/09/2025 09:10

InNewYorkNoShoes · 28/09/2025 08:31

That’s so unfair on them. They did everything they were meant to, they were probably stressed and tired and then they helped you!

I'd probably have helped too, if it looked like an issue they were trying to fix. Better than being a tosser about it.

InNewYorkNoShoes · 28/09/2025 09:14

Packing takes so long. It took me forever. I have moved whilst pregnant a lot of times, I have 2 dogs plus I work and my husband works away. Not wanting to help someone who didn’t get their shit done when they probably had 3/4 months notice a rough date and maybe 3/4 weeks notice of an actual date doesn’t make me a tosser!

FableLies · 28/09/2025 09:31

InNewYorkNoShoes · 28/09/2025 09:14

Packing takes so long. It took me forever. I have moved whilst pregnant a lot of times, I have 2 dogs plus I work and my husband works away. Not wanting to help someone who didn’t get their shit done when they probably had 3/4 months notice a rough date and maybe 3/4 weeks notice of an actual date doesn’t make me a tosser!

No. But doing half the stuff suggested on here would.

neighboursmustliveon · 28/09/2025 13:08

This could have been my in laws. They just didn’t get the concept that the house was no longer theirs on moving day. Despite us trying to help them pack before hand they kept assuring us the removers would help. Clearly removers did not expect the level of packing required.

On the morning she was messaging saying they will just go back the next day for the rest. I told her she can’t do that! I had to get DH to ring her as she stopped engaging with me. I finished worked at 4pm, rang to say I would come round to help unpack to be told the estate agents were ‘hassling’ them for their keys and they must have them by 5pm when they shut she wasn’t remotely bothered and told me they were too busy. I said I would take them but when I arrived she hadn’t even got all the keys together so was going around getting keys from different coat pockets etc. It was only as I was driving back to their new house I realised she hadn’t given me the fob to the garage door!

I got back to theirs at about 5 and the removers were still unloading boxes and furniture and had, had to call a second team in to help.

They were just lucky that the new owners were not moving in right away as this was to be their second home.

Pemba · 28/09/2025 13:41

This happened to us (kind of) when buying our first home, way back in the early 90s. The sellers had told us that they wouldn't be able to move out on the Friday of completion, so would it be OK if they moved out on the Saturday? Foolishly we agreed, being young and naive. We'd asked our solicitor and he advised against it, but we just thought at the time he was being a bit of an old stick-in-the-mud about it (to be fair, he was like that in general) so ignored his advice and decided it was OK!

We didn't actually need to move in that day, but when we pootled around on Saturday, they were still not ready, and the woman tetchily asked us to go for a walk until they were ready! I did feel a bit miffed at that point.

It's only nowadays I realise what cheeky CFs they were being. And that their request was unreasonable, it had become our house on the Friday. Of course back then you couldn't just Google things so I suppose people were just less well-informed. And of course most people only move a few times in their lives.

MissSophiaGrace · 28/09/2025 16:21

Forgive me for piggy-backing onto this thread but does everyone change the locks as soon as they move to a new place? This thread has provided so many examples of CF house owners including those who have returned and let themselves in!

Is it simply good practice, a necessity or a requirement stipulated in insurance policies eg how do you know how many sets of keys are out there / with the previous owners?

K0OLA1D · 28/09/2025 17:05

MissSophiaGrace · 28/09/2025 16:21

Forgive me for piggy-backing onto this thread but does everyone change the locks as soon as they move to a new place? This thread has provided so many examples of CF house owners including those who have returned and let themselves in!

Is it simply good practice, a necessity or a requirement stipulated in insurance policies eg how do you know how many sets of keys are out there / with the previous owners?

I've never changed the locks

Sortalike · 28/09/2025 18:29

MissSophiaGrace · 28/09/2025 16:21

Forgive me for piggy-backing onto this thread but does everyone change the locks as soon as they move to a new place? This thread has provided so many examples of CF house owners including those who have returned and let themselves in!

Is it simply good practice, a necessity or a requirement stipulated in insurance policies eg how do you know how many sets of keys are out there / with the previous owners?

I've always changed the locks - You'll get the keys on completion, but you don't know who else might have a copy, so for peace of mind, we do it fairly soon after we move.

CatHairEveryWhereNow · 28/09/2025 18:37

MissSophiaGrace · 28/09/2025 16:21

Forgive me for piggy-backing onto this thread but does everyone change the locks as soon as they move to a new place? This thread has provided so many examples of CF house owners including those who have returned and let themselves in!

Is it simply good practice, a necessity or a requirement stipulated in insurance policies eg how do you know how many sets of keys are out there / with the previous owners?

We complained we were given one key - just one for an entire house - solicitor told us we should be changing locks.

Moved here got normal keys shifted tumbers round and kept keys in back and put one new lock in - and just as well as it turns out previous people were expecting to pick up their post -by letting themsleves in no redirect - sort of came out later via neigbour - we just heard someone shoving door and driving off one day before we could get to door.

Helen1625 · 28/09/2025 18:45

CatHairEveryWhereNow · 28/09/2025 18:37

We complained we were given one key - just one for an entire house - solicitor told us we should be changing locks.

Moved here got normal keys shifted tumbers round and kept keys in back and put one new lock in - and just as well as it turns out previous people were expecting to pick up their post -by letting themsleves in no redirect - sort of came out later via neigbour - we just heard someone shoving door and driving off one day before we could get to door.

Wow! That is unbelievable! What a cheek.

The people who we bought off (I wrote about them upthread) left us a note asking us to push any post through the door of their friends' house, 2 doors from us as they hadn't requested a redirect.

We did as they asked for a while, but when they came to pick up their post, they would turn their back on us if we happened to be outside.

I started to put their post back in the post box 'return to sender' shortly after - he came knocking on our door one day demanding to know if I'd seen a letter and what I'd done with it because they knew it had been sent and they were waiting for it. I lost my temper with him and said from now on it was all going in the post box and they'd better organise a redirect before it started going in the bin! Rude, entitled pig.

MissSophiaGrace · 28/09/2025 20:17

CatHairEveryWhereNow · 28/09/2025 18:37

We complained we were given one key - just one for an entire house - solicitor told us we should be changing locks.

Moved here got normal keys shifted tumbers round and kept keys in back and put one new lock in - and just as well as it turns out previous people were expecting to pick up their post -by letting themsleves in no redirect - sort of came out later via neigbour - we just heard someone shoving door and driving off one day before we could get to door.

Bloody hell - that's awful

Daftypants · 29/09/2025 11:45

Legally this is your house now , wonder if they ought to be paying for you and your family to spend the night in a hotel ?
absolutely ridiculous., very disorganised of them