Seller has asked for keys back from estate agents

[seriouslydonewiththisnow]

Hi everyone, not really a mumsnetter but in an odd situation with a house I’m buying and wondered if anyone else has had the same thing.
We’re a few days from exchange and two weeks from completion, and the seller has just asked for her keys back from the agents. My solicitor and my mum (who’s moved several times) both agree this is really weird behaviour. Any advice/suggestions as to why she may have done this/what to do now? It’s been a very drawn out process and she’s been quite unhelpful through the whole thing, keeping lots of information back for a long time.

I get this
the EA won’t be showing anyone else around so has zero need for the keys

We can’t tell you why. Maybe she needs the spare set? Maybe she wants to hand them over to her solicitor.

Was it a vacant possession. They could simply forgotten something.

Or if they still living there maybe they lost a set of keys.

Don't the estate agent ask why

Well considering it's still their house at the moment there could be plenty of reasons.

Two possibilities I can think of:

1. She intends to pull out and remarket with other agents; or
2. The agent had keys to allow viewings. House is sold STC so no more viewings and she doesn't want the agent to have the keys.

Why would the EA need the keys FGS?

How do you know?

Perhaps they've heard horror stories of the EA giving keys to the buyer before the money has changed hands and wants to prevent that? It could be any number of sensible reasons. Maybe family is staying with them to help move and they need another set of keys.

We never gave our estate agent keys as they didnt have capacity to do viewings so we did them. but it does seem logical now your close to exchange that they would want their keys back.
had we had given the estate agents any id have wanted them back the moment we were sold stc. We’ve only three sets, one is spare - spare goes to cat sitter , etc when we are away.doesn’t seem sus to me

Aren't the keys left with the EA for the new owner to pick up on completion ? So regardless of viewings the EA would usually have a set to hand over to the new owner, wouldn't they?

so the vendor will drop back down closer to completion

If not living at property maybe she wants to do final meter readings, pick up post and make sure everything is out

Could be many reasons. There have been threads on here in the past of buyers letting themselves in and doing work to the property before completion. Maybe the seller has been advised by someone to get the keys back to prevent this.

Totally fair enough, estate agent has zero need to have the keys now and so they’ve requested them back.

More odd to me is that the EA even has the keys in the first place.

They want the keys back so the agent can’t do any more viewings and they’ll hand them all back together after completion? They’re going away for the weekend and need the spare for the cat sitter? If they’re not living there they need them to do final metre readings etc. Could be any number of reasonable explanations, I don’t get the issue personally.

Wasn't there a post on here recently from a seller who was going to ask for keys back because the EA possibly let the buyer in?
If you aren't being sneaky, OP, I dont think this is anything to worry about.

I wouldn’t be at all concerned. There is zero need for the agent to keep hold of them, and there could be a whole host of reasons why she wants them back. It is ultimately her house until you exchange and I’m puzzled as to why the agent would even tell you this. If you wanted to visit the house again the agent would need the permission of the vendor anyway.

Maybe they're just paranoid something will happen to the house to ruin it for you. A lot of people are paranoid about people having keys unnecessarily. It could even be insurance related. I think the other posts in the thread are all reasonable explanations too.

Why do you even know this happened? Were you trying to get in early?

Why would the estate agent need the keys now?

Even if the house is empty, the estate agent doesn’t need them if there’s no one to show round.

They, currently, own the property.

Even if they left the set the EA have they would need to hand over their sets on completion.

Can you explain why your solicitor and mum think it’s odd?

They would hand them over on the day.

We took our keys back from the EA as there was no need for them to keep them and we wanted to make sure all keys were handed into our solicitors in plenty of time for collection on completion day. Apart from that I had cleaners go in to deep clean the property before completion date and they needed the set the EA had.

Last time I moved I had family help. I was selling without an onward purchase. A lot of my stuff went into storage (family member needed keys to let the storage co. in to pack), the weekend before we’d taken some stuff in a hired van to various family members’ houses (keys needed to be available for family to get in if I was in the van at someone else’s house).

Plus the good reasons mentioned above.

Has it been made clear to you what the arrangements are for handing over the keys on completion day? That's what I'd be wary about.

In all house sales I've experienced keys have been collected from the agent as the seller will have (hopefully) already packed up and be headed to their new house when funds change hands. One time the sellers "weren't ready" to leave the house and we were able to have strong words with the agent who had to release the keys because we owned the house by then! I would be a bit concerned about that happening again especially if the agent had no keys!

My solicitor and my mum (who’s moved several times) both agree this is really weird behaviour
I think it's your solicitor and your mum who are being weird. There are plenty of normal and entirely mundane reasons they might want them back.