Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Original poster

WDYD when you've completed and vendors are still in?

451 replies

Lemonwords · 15/07/2016 09:16

So we've finally completed on our property. We're waiting to get the keys but vendors are saying there is an issue with their removal service and can't move out today. Solicitor says they have to. They say they can't. Literally what do you do?

OP posts:
Scarpetta1982 · 18/07/2016 10:32

Fingers crossed for you at noon

trafalgargal · 18/07/2016 10:33

You aren't a homeowner are you Stevie

My biggest worry would be the bank cancelling the mortgage if they got wind of the situation. They currently have no collateral so would be within their rights to do so.

Onesieisthequeensselfie · 18/07/2016 10:38

Stevie, that would be all very well in utopia but in real life, as trafalgargal points out, it can mean endless trouble legally. If anything were to happen in those few days, the OP would be liable. Not a risk worth taking for a bleeding heart.

blindsider · 18/07/2016 10:38

Frankly it is wishy washy people like Steve that cause unnecessary problems like this.

We have contracts for a reason!

luda · 18/07/2016 10:38

'Vacant possession on completion' - words have meaning, especially in a contract. Technically, the previous owners have not broken into the property and you are giving them the right to remain in the property - potential legal can of worms.

Both parties' solicitors should have ensured that the previous owners were positioned to vacate on day of completion; if not, any additional Conditions or financial Penalties would then come under the Conditions of Sale and you would not be in a position of being legally liable for a property you have no control over.

As completion did take place, previous owners and family should have been instructed to vacate the premises and sleep somewhere else for the night and you changed the locks, thus ensuring no automatic right of entry (and no risk of unwittingly creating any type of Tenancy). Furniture can be dealt with in due course but you take full ownership and control of what goes on in your own house - for which you are now fully, legally responsible. Because you are not sitting on the doorstep pulling your hair out waiting to get into your new home is your safety valve, not theirs so don't allow yourself to be lulled into a false sense of security. The previous owners may be very nice people but keep the pressure on until they and the furniture have gone and you can finally relax. Good luck in your new Home when you get it.

WhoTheFuckIsSimon · 18/07/2016 10:42

Well I asssume the developer will be compensating them for not having paperwork in place if it's their fuck up?

StepAwayFromTheThesaurus · 18/07/2016 10:43

It doesn't sound like they were stressed or overwhelmed. It sounds like they are just piss-takers plain and simple.

Stressed and overwhelmed people still manage to book a van and storage and book a hotel/holiday let because after completion they will no longer have anywhere to live. They don't just decide that the new owners don't need the house just yet.

It's perfectly reasonable to get rid off a previous owner's stuff in your house. They don't have any right to leave anything in there.

The OP has been incredibly generous. We'd have been there with a locksmith on Friday morning (if not before) and have organised emergency movers for them (at their own expense). And I don't think we'd have been nice about it either.

wowfudge · 18/07/2016 10:44

Probably not - the contract the vendors have signed is likely to be heavily caveated in the developer's favour.

BreakfastAtSquiffanys · 18/07/2016 10:45

Our new build completion was delayed by our useless builder.
We moved out so agreed, put our stuff in storage, and stayed in a holiday let for 2 weeks.
That's what decent people do.

The poor OP has had a stressful weekend because of their selfishness

Somerville · 18/07/2016 10:49

Has anyone ever heard of this happening the other way round?

The buyer not transferring the completion money on time, then turning up at the house anyway and moving in?

No? I haven't. And I think anyone would be astounded if anyone did it.

So why should vendors get away with the same bloody thing? Acting like the house is still theirs, when they've got the buyers money sitting in their bank account.

It's really very poor behaviour, and seems, for some reason, to be increasing in frequency.

Scarydinosaurs · 18/07/2016 10:51

That is so unbelievably rude and dishonest!

I hope the rest of your plans go far more smoothly.

JudyCoolibar · 18/07/2016 10:56

Why are people saying their solicitor must have known? There's no indication that the vendors told them. I suspect if they did the solicitor would have told them not to be so stupid.

Kr1stina · 18/07/2016 11:05

Im loving the suggestion that you shoudoshould just let them stay for a few to be nice.

So how does that work with the builders OP had booked ? I'm sure they will sit around doing nothing waiting for a new date. They won't go on to another job and fit in the OPs job in a few weeks / months time .

And what about the house insurance ? Remember you told your insurers that the house was occupied solely by you and your family? Is the OP supposed to go back and tell them it's now occupied by some randoms ? That will go down well.

And what if the people haven't moved out aftre the 4 days they agreed ? what if they haven't moved out after a month ?

LineyReborn · 18/07/2016 11:07

Something doesn't compute for me about the vendors' paperwork and mortgage funding not being ready. Their solicitor will have known that, surely, and discussed the implications with them?

So either the vendors lied to their own solicitor, or their solicitor didn't do their job properly.

clam · 18/07/2016 11:08

So they lied to you on Friday, in saying that their removal people had let them down?
They had every intention of doing this, which makes them complete and utter bastards (bollocks to being "stressed and overwhelmed") and I would be taking action of some sort against them.

throwingpebbles · 18/07/2016 11:15

You have been way to nice and they were totally out of order. They signed a contract saying they would give vacant possession on completion and they are seriously in breach of that!

Hopefully everything goes smoothly from now on!

GabsAlot · 18/07/2016 11:16

the EA shold have known all that abojut their house not being ready

regardless of having you dc thats not your problem

we had to stay in a hotel a couple ofnights when i was little didnt do us any harm and it was school holidays so it waslike anadventure

theyre pisstakers if they couldnt do this date they shouldnt have gone ahead with the exhange

LIZS · 18/07/2016 11:17

Why are people saying their solicitor must have known? There's no indication that the vendors told them. I suspect if they did the solicitor would have told them not to be so stupid.

The solicitor would know it was a simultaneous transaction and legally they needed to give vacant possession. If they didn't know at the time they certainly did by Friday when op was chasing for keys.

LineyReborn · 18/07/2016 11:19

clam you are right, they have changed their story over the weekend.

JT05 · 18/07/2016 11:24

We had a gap between selling and buying. Now I know why everyone involved asked nicely ( nosily ) where we were going in the interim!

Puzzledandpissedoff · 18/07/2016 11:50

They are probably a week or so off this point and were holding out for it

I'll bet they were - and as clam said, the story about being let down with the van on Friday was clearly a lie Hmm Still, at least it sounds like they're now actually moving out, thank god

On a perhaps selfish note, I'm now more worried than ever that this will happen to me. Not only am I not moving into my new place until I've done work on it, but the sellers can't move into their new house until they, too, have had work done. Guess I'll ask the solicitors to make sure they've made proper arrangements to move out on completion ...

MissSeventies · 18/07/2016 11:56

Hope it all goes well for you OP. It seems like they really were taking advantage. Although I do agree with Stevie's sentiments, all this nonsense about taking previous owner's belongings to the skip, a bit of humanity would not go a miss. If the whole chain completes in the morning realistically it is going to take until at least lunch time by the time everyone is moved.

P1nkP0ppy · 18/07/2016 12:05

hugely apologetic ? My arse 😡
They're totally taking the piss, I'd be absolutely furious. Wtf would have happened if you had nowhere to stay?
I really hope they are gone by midday.

Original poster
Lemonwords · 18/07/2016 12:06

Yes they did lie on Friday about the removal firm. My post about the payment missed out "not" before the 1k a day. I corrected it underneath. We did get a few hundred though and it was paid in advance.

I have spoken with my solicitor today and he, like most, thinks I am barmy. He doesn't seem to think the vendors solicitor knew about what they'd done. It wasn't tied in with us selling our property on the day as we'd sold a couple of months back so it was relatively easy from his point of view...

We exchanged and completed on the same day due to various issues that have been ongoing. We had a deadline for the builders coming in and also if it wasn't going to happen we needed to walk away with at least a couple of months on our mortgage offer in order to find another property. We stood to lose thousands if we didn't port our old mortgage within 6 months. I think that's where the pressure came from not to ask us to wait in between exchange and completion. TBH I was surprised it happened on the day we agreed last week.

They are about done. I've no doubt they're going now!

OP posts:
clam · 18/07/2016 12:06

And I've just re-read the OP and it seems they completed on Thursday, so shouldn't even have been there Friday morning.

I think you're being remarkably patient about this. I would be apoplectic, not least because of the deliberate intent and lying about it.