Completed but vendor is still in the house!!!!!

[MummyPigLovesAppleSauce]

Just picked up these keys and popped by the new house ( not moving until tomorrow) and the vendor is still there!!! Apparently he is cleaning it but there is a load of stuff still left in the garden and he has no way of moving it. Just rang the EA and they said they will call him but I'm now freaking out! Do I go back and demand the keys?! I don't want to be a dick and I'm rubbish at confrontation!
Help!!

Yes totally demand keys back, they should be with ea and handed over. Worse case scenario if he sets the place on fire are you insured....

Get on to your Solicitor. They are good at confrontation!

Spoke to EA again and they've said give him half an hour and then he'll post the keys back through the door. They have left their elderly cats locked in what is now my baby's bedroom and need time to round them up!!!
The house is disgusting though so we are going to have to go back and scrub it tonight.
There is still bits of furniture and fence panels etc in the garden. What do I do about them? What if their cats have weed in one of my bedrooms?!

I'd go and sit in the ea office.

My advice is just bin what you don't want and move on. The stress of suing them will not be worth it. It isn't right that people behave like this though.

Contact your solicitors

if you are anything like our buyer you will contact the EA and threaten to sue us.

We had left behind paint used to paint house, and spare kitchen panels.

Their cats have lived there for years - if there's any likelihood of weeing, I think it will have happened before now, unfortunately. It sounds as if you already know the house is a bit of a mess, so realistically, gobhabe a cup of tea in a cafe until they leave, and maybe consider renting a Travelodge room for a couple of nights while you clean and move in, if its bothering you this much before you start?

It's really hard to claim for rubbish removal/cleaning costs.

I agree with just getting rid of what you can for now. Can you mobilise a few friends to help you clean?

I've spoken to some friends and one set is going to look after our DC and another set is coming to help us clean before our things arrive tomorrow.
Calmed down a bit now I know they have left the property. I don't think the vendors think they have done anything wrong!

You have my sympathies-our first house was left full of rubbish and disgustingly dirty.

We moved into a really disgusting house in the 1970s (it was cheap and big).

My parents got a skip, stayed at friends, and put the furniture in the middle of the ok rooms, then everything was skipped (several) and scrubbed with Jeyes Fluid Then it was gradually decorated etc.

We stayed at Grandma's.

Nostalgic

And make sure you change the locks immediately !!
I've always changed the keys and the toilet seats straightaway
(I'm a bit OCD about toilet seats....)

I moved once arrived at the house with the removal can and the lady answered and said ' oh I didn't know it was today we hang packed a thing or cleaned anything ' !

yes to changing the locks! I'd do that anyway, but with more urgency given the situation! Book a locksmith while you're waiting - don't forget the back door!

Pleased they've gone now. Good luck cleaning up.

Liz - you change toilet seats? I've never thought of doing that ...

This happened to us! And to my DSis, and to a friend of mine. It's amazingly common.

We were meant to hand keys over at 1pm - I dropped ours off at the EA, and travelled to new house - only to find them still packing up - stuff everywhere - and the house absolutely filthy. We had a removal van full of stuff waiting to go in. Our removal men were fantastic - but it was a nightmare.

My DSis and BIL ended up helping their vendors pack.

I hope this has now been resolved OP. If not, solicitor on Monday morning. We had similar drama when we completed a week ago. Hugely stressful. You have my sympathies.

We had this when we moved. Travelled quite a distance with dd who was 10 months. He was still there, house was filthy and he had let the oil for heating completely run out.

We arrived at our new home with the keys from the EA to find them sanding a wooden bedframe in the front garden. Only one room was packed, nothing had been moved out. Apparently they had got distracted.

Hi all,
We are in! Vendor finally left around 6pm last night and my god, did they leave a mess! Cat litter in the bedroom floor, smashed glass all over the bathroom floor, kitchen thick with grease, plus the built in freezer doesn't work!
Going to wait for my dad to come and see if he can get it going but if not, I'm going to contact our solicitor Monday morning!
Not a happy bunny! Thanks for your sympathy and well wishes though

Yes we had this. Our removal guys helped them move some of their stuff out and had to call up back up to get ours in super fast before day light went. It was disgustingly filthy and the boiler and cooker were kaput. Happy times.

Good luck with getting anything out of them. When we moved last time the cooker was broken and we had to drill out locks because keys were missing but we couldn't get any money back via solicitors

I feel for you. Friends recently moved into a fabulous house, unfortunately very elderly previous owners had clearly been losing the plot for a while, and the place was a midden, filthy old mattresses, broken furniture everywhere, an aga that took three days to clean, dust and rubbish inches thick in all the rooms. The vendors had seven children , but apparently none of them had been keeping an eye, or helped their aged parents with the move.

But the house is / will be gorgeous, their bedroom has a marble fireplace, floor to ceiling windows , original mouldings and a chandelier.

There should be some deposit scheme like renting to cover this shit. We left our house spotless when we left and moved to a house which was full of discarded crap and hadn't been cleaned at all.