Shocked and furious after seeing my new home after completion!!

[aecorner12]

Wednesday was my completion day and I am now still really angry and glum.
I was told by my solicitor in the morning that the seller would move out 3pm that day , skip and a freezer would be collected the following day.
I collected keys from agent 5pm that afternoon, and took my kids to show them their future house. But the sellers were still there and the house was completely a mess! We were reasonable and kind so just told them please make sure they move out tonight.
The next day I went back only to find my house is in complete mess! It is smelly, dirty and disgusting. Broken glass, rubbish on the floor, webs everywhere. Garden is a jungle with hundreds of flies and a fox!
Today I went there again and there are still a fridge freezer and a chest freezer uncollected from council!

Thank god we are not moving in immediately and will do some building works！My son groaned that our future house is not as nice as our current one and I'm really furious that the seller is not being decent! Such a shame!
Is there anything I can do about it or I have to live with it and clean up by myself?

@Mildura I wasn’t meaning that you could claim against them for the condition the property had been left in; more that they’re not supposed to let the sale go through until they know that the property is empty. Or at least that’s what I was told when buying the house - that once we had got out of the property we would drop the keys off at the estate agent who would then notify the purchaser’s solicitor that the property was available and to transfer the money. Then once the transfer had gone through they would notify the estate agent that the purchasers could pick up the keys.

So although the op would have still had a dirty house to move into st least they would have had an empty house to move onto even if it was a day later than they anticipated.

And guessing it would be more a slap on the wrist from the regulators and being sent a bottle of champagne rather than serious money to provide recompense.

Happy to be told this is wrong too!

But also worth making a note to ensure that you get empty possession before the sale goes through if you buy another house!

Are you thinking of vacant possession? That just means that the people who were living there have left.

If you think that's bad you should have sene mine.

Half of the old owners property inside. Half empty wine bottles. 49 dead flies in each windows. Piss soaked carpets from the dogs. Kitchen cupboards were so dirty inside we decided to rip out and start again it was vulgar.

We literally removed a skip full of their stuff and they refused to pay so solicitor said all we could do was go to small claims which would cost £100 anyway so we sucke dit up and paid for the skip.

Also we had to move in immediately. They were supposed to give us keys at 12 and they didn't leave until 430 and we had to hire the van an extra day which thankfully the solicitor could get the cost of that from them for the extra day.

Oh and they left mounds of dog shit in the garden for us. It was beautiful

Disappointing I agree, when you are imagining moving into your lovely new home, but certainly not devastating. In your situation if you can’t face cleaning up yourself I would throw a couple of hundred quid at it in the form of one of those end of tenancy cleaning companies. That’s what would have happened had it been a rental - unfortunately this not being a requirement following a sale is one of the (very small) inconveniences of being able to afford your own home. To be honest, if you are planning building works anyway I’m not sure why it is such a problem and the cost of cleaning will be a drop in the ocean compared to the cost of building works.

I've bought 3 houses in my time. Completion and moving in day has always been a bit of a let down .

Me and DH have always chosen 'projects' though so more fool us really. However it's always taken me ages to settle and feel at home. One house we moved to had a really depressing vibe once the previous owners had moved out. Horrible badly built-in cupboards everywhere I hadn't noticed. Fusty, dusty bits everywhere. The downstairs toilet actually smelt of stale piss all around the floor and bowl. I remember gagging while scrubbing with bleach and disinfectant.
We ended up loving that house though. Had 2 children there and so many happy memories of it being clean, warm and happy.

The house we're in now was literally a building site. It's taken us 10 years but it's our dream house. I was quite down for a while but I wouldn't move now if someone paid me.

Moving is unsettling and it's horrible when things aren't left in a nice state. Your house WILL be gorgeous with a little clean and tidy up. You shouldn't have to but honestly, I've never moved house when I didn't need to deep clean.