Completed on house this morning but previous owner still hasn’t left!!

[BlueFireSmokey]

Got the message from the solicitor to say we had completed at around 11am this morning. Told the house was now ours and we could pick up the keys from the estate agents. Phoned estate agents and arranged to pick keys up at 3pm. We were very excited as it’s our first home!

Got to estate agents no sign of keys no one seemed to know where they were. They phoned the vendor who said she wasn’t done packing!! And would be gone in a couple of hours. Estate agents told us they shut at 5:30 so to get the keys we would need to go to the house and get them direct from the vendor.

We then left it a couple hours before going to our lovely new home. Fortunately, we have several weeks left on our tenancy so we aren’t actually moving all our furniture in today (vendor doesn’t know this). Anyway they are still there! They said they will be another twenty minutes.

We are gonna find some dinner somewhere then head back and see if they are gone. They gave us a key but they still have keys they said they will put through letter box. This isn’t how I imagined today would go!

It's surprising how many people do not understand the house moving process. I sold my house recently to a buyer who was selling hers to first time buyers who currently lived with their parents. My buyer casually told me that she was only going to move into my house the day after completion as her buyers weren't actually moving in just yet and she thought she'd have another night in her old home to finish packing. She hadn't discussed this with them, she just assumed it. I had to explain to her that once we all completed within the chain, we each had to leave our properties immediately, having already packed and loaded the removal van,it didn't matter who was moving in where and when etc the minute that money goes through you no longer own the house and you have to vacate it ASAP.

Go back right now, use your key and get inside the house. Then tell the vendors to give you the other keys and get out; your lawyer will deal with anything they haven't yet packed.

Read the meters, they probably haven't done that either.

My Ds and bil had the same issue. When they finally got into the house, they discovered that their bath tub was full of the previous owners fish 🤦🏼‍♀️😂
They wanted to leave them for a few more days 😳

It is annoying but surprisingly common.

It’s your house, id be spitting feathers they have had tim to pack surely before now

They are trespassing in a house they no longer own despicable behaviour your solicitor should fire a shot across their bows.

Glad you got there in the end OP.. Enjoy your new home!

I had the opposite problem purchaser said funds would be available at 12pm then 1pm then 2pm, you get the picture! We'd loaded up all that we could (van was supposed to make 2 trips easily done as we were just moving a couple of miles. We were doing both exchanges (buying and selling) on the same day. Our solicitor got the buyers money at 5:10pm but obviously the house we were buying wasn't ours so we couldn't move in so we were left with a van full of furniture in the van and a van load in the garden waiting. Buyer turned up at 5:30pm with her friend demanding to know why we were still there being very arsey a out it. She wasn't at all bothered that we had no where to go and had incurred more removal fees. She had requested a tank full of hot water and some other bits and pieces, what I did was very childish but I instructed my daughter to empty the boiler of hot water and to remove the window lock keys and place the similar front and back door keys (about 20 of them) and put them all in 1 bag and just handed her them saying there you go one of them your front door key and ones the back door key... Get on with it!

On completion day, the sellers should vacate the empty house before noon, leaving spare keys in the property and giving a set of keys to the estate agent.
There is also one thing I cannot get my head around.
How are the sellers still in the house at 17:00 if the keys should have been with the estate agent 5 hours earlier?
Any competent solicitor I worked for would make sure that the estate agent had the keys and the property was vacant, prior to completing and transferring funds.

Anyone can drop off a set of keys.

Keys and vacant possession are two different kettles of fish. Unless a sol personally checks the property, vacant possession can't be guaranteed.

Just to point out you don’t vacate on exchange, you vacate on completion. Once upon a time, when we were in a better world exchange happened a week before completion, people could then be more organised. It’s stressful moving, and yes she was in the wrong, but you don’t know what had happened to her that morning to make her run so late. We moved 4 years ago and were literally chucking stuff in the back of the van as I knew we needed to be out imminently, it was very stressful

@Beastieboys

I had the opposite problem purchaser said funds would be available at 12pm then 1pm then 2pm, you get the picture! We'd loaded up all that we could (van was supposed to make 2 trips easily done as we were just moving a couple of miles. We were doing both exchanges (buying and selling) on the same day. Our solicitor got the buyers money at 5:10pm but obviously the house we were buying wasn't ours so we couldn't move in so we were left with a van full of furniture in the van and a van load in the garden waiting. Buyer turned up at 5:30pm with her friend demanding to know why we were still there being very arsey a out it. She wasn't at all bothered that we had no where to go and had incurred more removal fees. She had requested a tank full of hot water and some other bits and pieces, what I did was very childish but I instructed my daughter to empty the boiler of hot water and to remove the window lock keys and place the similar front and back door keys (about 20 of them) and put them all in 1 bag and just handed her them saying there you go one of them your front door key and ones the back door key... Get on with it!

I don't understand? Your buyer turned up after you had received her funds and wanted access to what was then her house? And you emptied the boiler and buggered about with the keys? Why would you do that? It's not her problem that you weren't able to move into your new place. You should have had your stuff gone and you should have been on the way to a hotel. If I'm understanding your post correctly, your behavior was appalling. And yet you seem quite proud of it?

My exBIL tells a very amusing story about arriving under duress to help my exH and the OW move house and finding they hadn't packed a single thing, this was the day they were moving and not one box had been filled.

In contrast when he arrived at my house to help exH move his things he found everything boxed and in the garden waiting to go.

I'm planning to put my house on the market next year and I've already started going through cupboards and drawers etc.

@Anordinarymum

When I moved, the new buyer wanted the keys to the house on the minute of completion. They had no house to sell as they were renting it out. They knew we were moving out and they knew we could not commence until I got the keys to my new place. We had removal men here and a van of our own. All my family helped. I was busy cleaning and washing carpets and they kept phoning and phoning.

They knew I was up to my eyes in it and still they kept on nagging for the keys.

They got them when I was ready and not a moment before but the stress of moving was bad enough without them mithering at me.

Because they were phoning all the time I left precious things behind in the loft and never got them back.

I will never do this again. I will find another way of doing it.

“I left precious things in the loft and never got them back”

If they were that precious you should have had them down and packed before hand shouldn’t you?

“I will never do this again. I will find another way to do it”

Hear that roar? It’s a collective cheer from MN that they won’t run the risk of buying from you.

@Beastieboys

I had the opposite problem purchaser said funds would be available at 12pm then 1pm then 2pm, you get the picture! We'd loaded up all that we could (van was supposed to make 2 trips easily done as we were just moving a couple of miles. We were doing both exchanges (buying and selling) on the same day. Our solicitor got the buyers money at 5:10pm but obviously the house we were buying wasn't ours so we couldn't move in so we were left with a van full of furniture in the van and a van load in the garden waiting. Buyer turned up at 5:30pm with her friend demanding to know why we were still there being very arsey a out it. She wasn't at all bothered that we had no where to go and had incurred more removal fees. She had requested a tank full of hot water and some other bits and pieces, what I did was very childish but I instructed my daughter to empty the boiler of hot water and to remove the window lock keys and place the similar front and back door keys (about 20 of them) and put them all in 1 bag and just handed her them saying there you go one of them your front door key and ones the back door key... Get on with it!

Next time hire a bigger van.

When we moved into this house, the money went through at 10.30 that morning. The vendors were still there at 9 at night packing up! I've never seen my husband so angry, I thought he was going to hit the man. They were hopelessly disorganised, no sense of urgency. It was in the contract to clear the garage and attic. The garage was OK but the attic was crammed with crap and masses of new storage boxes as if they'd been going to start a business! We gave some away, kept some and took rest of crap to the tip.

When we last moved we were guilty of this. Although we were just moving down the road our removal people had worked their legal hours and went home with out removing all our goods! Our vendors were also renting & weren't moving in straight away. I did drop the keys off. They emptied our stuff & left it outside the house where it get wet as it poured down with rain. We ordered a skip but they wouldn't let us have it outside the house. It was a private road so the skip went where you could park cars. The owners of our old house ripped out the kitchen & put in our skip. We had had a job finding a removal firm as the original firm who were going to remove us couldn't to the date at the last minute.

There is also one thing I cannot get my head around.
How are the sellers still in the house at 17:00 if the keys should have been with the estate agent 5 hours earlier?

@andyoldlabour Exactly. This is what annoyed me the most! We spoke to the estate agents on the phone and arranged with them to collect the keys between 3-4. They should’ve called us to say the keys were not there as it was a complete wasted journey (and used up lieu time at work). Then when at the estate agents no one seemed to know where the keys were. We had to wait ages for them to establish the seller still had them. They weren’t sorry about it at all.

I had a car accident the day I was moving house - a van drive into the back of me in stationery traffic anyways I got whiplash immediately and it slowed me down massively. My vleanera got yo my house before I'd finished packing and it way mayhem. Tgey were putting all sorts of stuff in my boxes that were for the new owners. We completed at 12pm. I finally left at 5pm. It was awful. Sadly thses things happen. My buyers were golden about it - like you they were ftbs and still have 2 weeks left on their rental. I felt terrible cos no way was the house as clean as I wanted it to be. It just took so long to sort everything after the accident. Just awful. Vowed I'd never do that again. Have to admit it didn't help tgat I'm a widow and my teenage kids hardly helped pack anything, even their own stuff and I was unable to get time off work so it was a nightmare.

Anyways hope you're now in and getting settled.

Oh come on have a heart!

The job of clearing out was a lot bigger than they thought, maybe someone let them down who was helping? Maybe something else happened?

Luckily you didn't need to move in that day!! Leave them for a couple more hours (say you will leave them one more hour so room for manoevre).

They are not nasty, just disorganised fgs!!

My mums house buyer kicked off that a piece of furniture was left in her garage. It was my mums mums sideboard. She buyer moved it outside and it rained on it, which upset my mum 6 months later the buyer had died. Its really not that bad.. ?! Good luck in your lovely new home! 🏡xx

@Anordinarymum

When I moved, the new buyer wanted the keys to the house on the minute of completion. They had no house to sell as they were renting it out. They knew we were moving out and they knew we could not commence until I got the keys to my new place. We had removal men here and a van of our own. All my family helped. I was busy cleaning and washing carpets and they kept phoning and phoning.

They knew I was up to my eyes in it and still they kept on nagging for the keys.

They got them when I was ready and not a moment before but the stress of moving was bad enough without them mithering at me.

Because they were phoning all the time I left precious things behind in the loft and never got them back.

I will never do this again. I will find another way of doing it.

You should have been packed up and the house empty before completion. You can’t move into the new one until you complete but completion is the end of the vacating process not the signal to begin

I’m so so glad we bought a vacant property.

Although our vendor did keep a set of keys, so she could pick up her net curtains apparently.

She was stood in our doorway while my movers were trying to bring stuff in 2 days later.

Same. Sellers delayed us completing and picking up our keys because they went on holiday for two weeks. Everything finally went through and we got the keys to our first home; packed everything up, drove the 50 miles to our new home in an area we didn't know and she was still moving stuff out. We had no where to go and had to sit in the car, with a van load of our belongings until she was finished.
Eventually got in and it was disgusting. She hadn't cleaned anything. Kitchen was dirty, I found a mouldy chip pan in one of the cupboards.
Carpet hadn't been hoovered.
Bathroom was a little grotty and dusty.
Luckily I had been buying cleaning products for months and had everything I needed to clean everywhere before we started actually moving in.
Wasn't the best start but ultimately we made this house our home. The rest is just history.

When we bought our house, we

My in laws did this! They didn't seem to get that once they completed, the house was no longer theirs.

They hadn't parked a lot of the house when removal arrived at their house on morning of move (removal firm had said they would help but didn't expect so little to be done).

On morning of move told me they would be driving back next day to get the rest of their belongings and then ignored me when I pointed out they can't do that ad they won't own the home anymore. I had to get my dh to ring his mum to make sure she realised she had to take everything.

At 4pm when I finished work I rang to see how they were getting on. Mil complained that the estate agents wanted their house keys by 5pm... 'well we are still un packing so they will have to wait!' I said I would take them, arrived 20 mins later to find they didn't have the keys ready or sorted and spent 10 mins waiting while she rooted through pockets and bags to collect loads if keys, took keys off keys rings. Non were labelled, I was sent away with a pocket full of loose keys. It was only after I left the estate agents I realised they hadn't given me the fob to get into the garage!

They were really lucky that their buyers were using it as a second home and didn't plan to move in until work was done on kitchen etc. Can you imagine if someone had bought their home after selling their own and wanted to be in?

Thankfully in laws bought a bungalow so shouldn't ever need to sell again 🤞