House sellers not handing all keys over

[Arkestra]

We've recently bought a new house. Not moving in just yet because we are moving some internal walls around. The sellers have let themselves in to what is now our house (at least) twice after completion, leaving the garage door open the second time, where it stayed for some days until we came back and checked the house after Christmas.

Obviously we need to change all the exterior locks ASAP and I'll do that tomorrow. We didn't prioritise changing locks because we don't actually have any stuff in there yet, and it didn't cross our mind that the sellers would repeatedly trespass!

My question - is there any kind of legal remedy that it's worth us pursuing, or do we just shrug our shoulders, change the locks, and get on with our lives? We are highly pissed off that the sellers are holding onto keys, which is surely a violation of our right to vacant possession. I don't imagine we'd get any kind of monetary award, but I would like to try and make it clear to the sellers just how far over the line they are stepping.

Is anything stolen? If not, maybe it's best to just change the locks and put it behind you. You might have changed the locks regardless.

Just change the locks asap. I always get the locks changed as soon as I move (whether rented or bought) as you never know who has keys to the old locks.

Well technically they are 'breaking in' to your property so you could report them to the Police, and ask them to have a word. But if you don't want to do that you could get your solicitor to contact theirs with a strongly worded letter advising them to hand over all the keys, as they shoukd have done, or action will be taken as what they are doing is illegal. Or just change the locks and forget about it

Definitely change the locks. BTW are you sure is is the old owners and not neighbours who had spare sets of keys?

Change the locks and get that solicitor letter sent. What on earth are they playing at?

Definitely the owners - will get that letter sent.

How do you know it was them for sure? I’d get all locks changed and charge the sellers.

If you have proof, they are committing an illegal act.

Can't give too much information on this without it being rather outing, but there is very strong evidence it was the sellers, for one visit at least.

There are two offences here I think. the first is common-or-garden trespass, and the standard advice with trespass is to start by firming up the boundaries, which means changing the locks, and that's probably all there is to say on it. The other, potentially more interesting offence is that the sellers are in breach of the sales contract by failing to give us vacant possession of the property (vacant possession implies exclusive use of the space).

While carrying out a civil action for trespass is generally not worth it, I believe a breach of a property sales contract can carry a penalty of 4.5% of the house purchase price pro-rated by the number of days of breach / 365.

Although practically speaking I imagine I will just fire off an unpleasant legal letter and change every lock in sight.

(The last time I lodged a small claims court process was many years ago, against a landlady who decided repaying me my rental deposit was optional - this was before formal deposit insurance requirements became law. I got the money in the end but that was pre-children so I had more time to interact with idiots...)