Completion tomorrow, vendor has full skip in the drive.

[ZealAndArdour]

Hi all,

Due to exchange imminently tonight, if not then simultaneous exchange and completion tomorrow.

Tonight DP has driven past the house which is seemingly empty but has a full skip in the driveway.

The driveway is at the bottom of the garden and opens out onto a main road and a bus stop, the driveway is our only place to park and also for the movers to put the lorry.

Front of the house wouldn’t work for moving as it’s right on a fork in the road of two busy main roads and couldn’t park a lorry there and then expect movers to schlep all our stuff down the front garden and into the house.

I’ve just made my solicitor aware of the skip, and of course, it might be collected tonight and be gone for tomorrow morning, but if it isn’t, where do we stand?

I know skip companies take the piss and if they don’t need the skip then they’ll leave it there until it’s convenient for them to collect it, could be a week or two potentially. If they do that, are they trespassing on my land once we’ve completed? Is it fly tipping?

What are the legalities of them leaving it there when they don’t have any contract with me? Would it still be classed as vacant possession if it’s left there past completion?

If anyone can give me a clue or has been in a similar situation then I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks in advance!

I think you're panicking over nothing, the house isn't yours at bang on 8am, it's most likely booked in for collection tomorrow.

Not sure if the legal stuff but our neighbour had one collected the same morning the new neighbour moved in at lunch time

I totally understand as to why ur worrying. I moved once and the mess and stuff they left behind was immense. And we had to clear it up and cost us money.
They did leave a huge dog outside thing though and we sold that for nearly £1000 so all bad.
Nothing u can do until tomorrow but I do understand ur stress. I’m moving next Friday and I would be worried the same

I guess this is one of the many downsides to exchanging and completing on the same day or very near.

Normally you exchange, then have a month or some weeks to arrange the removal company, empty out the house, have a skip etc. Until you've exchanged anything could happen and on completion day the house is normally yours once the funds reach solicitors, generally lunchtime ish.

Its the vendors responsibility to get it removed before completion but they are at the mercy of the skip hire people.

What did your solicitor say? Did you take a note of the hire company?

Ring the skip people and give previous owners name and ask when it’s being collected. I wouldn’t wait until it’s still there in the morning.

@Paranoidandroidmarvin Did they leave an actual dog, or is that a typo 😱

talk to your solicitor and say you don't want the money transferring until the skip is removed

@fruitbrewhaha

I know this re exchange and completion, but it really hasn’t felt like I’ve had any control over that, at all. Every single part of the process has been like pulling teeth as the vendor has opted to use a remote “online” legal firm where they have a “case handler” rather than an actual solicitor. They don’t respond or pick up the phone unless it’s something they need. So it’s been a nightmare truth be told.

I offered on the house mid May and it’s taken till now to get to this point. None of the solicitors seemed to be interested in our transactions until the last week or two as is it wasn’t being dictated by the stamp duty deadline so I’ve just had to suck it up.

Ha. Sorry. Dog cage. Damn phone

I've hire a skip plenty of times and phoned them when it's ready to be collected its always been collected a few hours later so just phone the skip company up.

If it’s still there after completion then it isn’t trespassing / fly tipping, it’s breach of contract. Which means there’s not much you can do unless you sue.

Talk to your solicitor, I wonder if there is any way you can have the lawyer hold money in escrow until the skip is gone. Probably arguing about this would cause delays which would be more trouble than the skip though. But if you literally can’t move in without the skip gone then arguably they haven’t given you access to the property and shouldn’t get paid until they do.

Sounds incredibly stressful exchanging and completing at same time, I wish you the best!

I would have thought it was unusual if I hadn't seen two neighbours with skips on their drives in the last couple of months. They both had them collected early on the day they moved out (before 10am), hours before the new owners arrived.

Where are you in the chain? When DH sold his flat exchange was 11am, we then had to wait until 1pm for exchange on the house he was buying and permission to collect the keys. I worked with the solicitor doing the conveyancing and know he was moving as fast as he could to get it done but it still took a few hours.

Just an update; the skip has gone.

Turns out my worries we’re entirely misdirected.

We got the keys at 4pm only to let ourselves in and find the vendors cat and a very large quantity of their belongings still in the house.

I spoke to my solicitor and the EA and was told how apologetic they were and to just give them an hour and they’d be back round to get the rest of it once they’d unloaded at their new property which they’d only just had the keys for.

It’s now 7.20pm and the lorry and their other vehicles are still in the drive and all the lights are on.

They’re a lovely family but I do think this is taking the piss a bit now.

How did they lock up, take keys to EA without their cat and a load of their stuff 🙈
Sounds like they've had a stressful move

@Sweettea1

I've hire a skip plenty of times and phoned them when it's ready to be collected its always been collected a few hours later so just phone the skip company up.

Depends where you are. Here they generally take at least a week (if you're lucky) after being told to collect it.

The EA literally took a single front door key off them earlier in the week and that’s what she presented me with this afternoon.

So they still have keys? Looks like you might need to change the locks.

Have you got them out and removed all keys from them now?

We sat outside the house stalking for a bit while they gradually switched off more and more lights in the house, then saw the vendor run across the road to OneStop for a pint of milk so we decided to go for another 10 minute drive round the block to will them away and when we returned they’d gone. A Luton van, transit and a cars worth of stuff later.

We let ourselves in the front door, and there were four back door keys in the kitchen (one of them posted through) so I assume that’s all of them.

We have a lock to change the back door ourselves tomorrow, and have bolted the front door. Just couldn’t face scratting about trying to change the back door lock tonight in the dark and cold but there’s nothing in the house so if they come back (I don’t think they will) there’s nothing in it for them. They left an apologetic note on the back of a moving card for us and a bottle of gin.

They’ve also removed a built in wine fridge from the kitchen leaving a big gaping hole which they said they were leaving, and I’m sure on the fixtures and fittings form they indicated they were leaving it too. The gap in the units is on the wrong side for us to even put our tumble dryer there which is really annoying. But like someone mentioned above, unless I’m gonna actually sue them for breach of contract, what can I actually do about it?

I’ll get my facts straight by Monday and speak to my solicitor but I’m guessing we just have to suck it up.

It’s a really good job we weren’t moving today. Part of me wonders if the estate agent knew all of this was going to happen, and just took a hasty photo of us with her marketing board and a warm bottle of Prosecco, handed us one single door key and then fucked off for her weekend. She’s struck me as an absolute grifter all along.