Completion at 10:30, got keys at 2:30pm. Cheeky?

[SunnyV]

And to add insult to injury, the house was filthy and the vendor left tons of junk behind including a mattress, bedding, garden furniture etc.

Am I right to be annoyed that she didn’t surrender the keys for four hours?

Midday is the aim but it can slip particularly in a long chain
2.30 is not too bad
You have a theoretical claim given the state they left the property in,but if they don’t pay up on request you would have to take them to court which would not be worth the time and expense
Put it down to experience and focus on your new home

Ah I always win this one. Completed 11am
on the Friday, got the keys about 2pm but were told there might be an issue.... in that the elderly vendor hadn't realised how long it was going to take to pack his family house of 60 years...

He moved out two days later, and about 3 weeks after that his son finally took the last bits from the garage where we had put them.

luckily we were staying with family and had planned to renovate before we move in but still...

We had a similar thing happened to us last year. Completed at 11am but the vendors didn’t leave the house until after 4pm. We were told that they needed a bit of extra time to
clean and we could get possession at 2pm but when we got there at 2pm they still had one removal
van to fill which took ages and when we did finally get in the house was absolutely filthy - they didn’t even make any kind of effort to clean. Hopefully they are cursed with bad karma!

Well 1030 is very early maybe the removals people weren't finished. Filthy is bad luck but belongings left is illegal I believe and I had the same - gave him 2 days to remove it!

Two days later! You definitely win the prize.
We once had to spend a night in a hotel (while all our stuff stayed in the removals van overnight) because the house wasn’t ready to move into until the next day. But 2 days is something else.
After that experience I’m more philosophical about house move delays and think as long as you get in on the right day, it’s a win!

i agree as long as you get in on the correct day it’s fine. The problem as a vendor is if you exchanged late it or the same day it delays packing.
I expect a house to need cleaning it’s not a rental. It’s just part of the process
i didn’t leave the last one immaculate and they complained but the one I was moving to was absolutely filthy and I’ve still not got it all clean after 3 months.

we had this. completed at 1030am , i went around at 1.30 after not hearing anything and was told off by seller for turning up, despite the fact I had owned the house for 3 hours! she made us unload into the garden until 3pm when she decided she wanted to leave.

Our first house was like this. They left tonnes and tonnes of shit, both belongings and actual shit. The floors stank of wee; it was vile.

I thank my lucky stars my mum let us stay with her whilst we cleaned. Every day for 6 weeks until the smell had gone. Of course we contacted the solicitor but nothing at all happened.

we even had to pay for an engine lift to remove engines from the garage.

God this breaks my heart a little. (Not you obviously, you didn’t do anything wrong, just so sad on the surface of it.)

Yeah I agree - it’s sad the son didn’t help his Dad with the move - especially on the day - or at least book a packing service for him. The old man was obviously completely overwhelmed.

We had this. Completed on the Friday. Both parties agreed moving day would be Saturday, it suited us all better.

Saturday morning we had everything packed and van loaded by 9.30. People is house I was buying didn’t leave until 4ish. We were sat in the car freezing as it was January.

the house was a disgrace. Ashtrays full even in bedrooms. Clearly hadn’t been hoovered in a very long time. Every room filthy, obviously very dirty people. And to top it off they left dog dirt all on the garden which got walked into the house while carrying furniture in.

I wouldn’t care but these people are very well thought of regular church goers.

We had similar years ago with a flat - vendor had taken the afternoon off to pack and move, but the flat was ours from Midday. Her removal men were standing about while she packed - she hadn’t paid them to do the packing. She was extremely annoyed when DH turned up at 2pm ready to move in, and let himself in
She kept telling him she was an extremely busy business woman so of course he should wait.
She sent her mum round a few days later to collect all the crap she had left behind. Clueless.

House being filthy, yes, it's annoying.

Late keys are not uncommon - we completed in the morning but due to some confusion, the agents couldn't find who had the keys and we didn't get them until about 4pm. Luckily, we were literally moving on the same street, and the owners let us start taking our stuff in once they'd cleaned up, so we just left the front door open and one of us in until the agents got hold of the keys!

It’s common. Usually because people haven’t hired professional movers are have a too small van and have under estimated the time and effort it takes to pack up and move, especially when they need to do multiple runs.

Its such a false economy after all the costs of moving. Professional movers can have you ready to go by mid day latest with time for cleaning.

In reality, people won’t a,ways get the keys the minute the money arrives. It could arrive at 9.01 or late afternoon. There’s no knowing. Unless it’s stipulated that people vacate the day before, when it happens on the day there will always be some time for it to happen. Mid day for being out is considered the norm, but if people aren’t gone, there’s not a lot in reality you can do except feel pissed off.

As others say, it’s done now. You’re in. Forget the annoyance, have a drink and enjoy your new home.

Bought a house several years ago, it was filled with crap, including the garden and was also filthy.

Never got anywhere with the solicitors. They said it wasn't worth pursuing a claim.

It’s funny how on MN loads of people have experienced the late movers and those who leave the houses filthy, but none who post here have ever been guilty of those things.

Who are these people?!

I think the reality is that lots of people move very rarely and simply don’t properly appreciate the time and effort needed to pack, clean and get out. They don’t really plan ahead and then on the day, time catches up with them. I’m not making excuses, but I think it’s what happens. People leave all kinds of crap, especially in garages etc as they just don’t get round to transporting it to the tip or wherever. Many intend to clean, but time runs away with them. Most people waiting outside with their van would rather they clear off and leave some dirt than slowly clean it over another 3 hours and they sit there. Of course, it would be better and right if they planned ahead and got some help so they could be out on time and leave the place decent.

The final thing is that when you move furniture etc, dirt often appears that you weren’t aware of. Walls look dirty where furniture rested against them, kitchen gaps which had washing machines etc in look dirty. Many places will look a bit dirty or just a bit sad when empty of everything. Again, no excuse for dirty kitchen cupboards or other filth people find.

Sometimes people decide not to clean because they have become passed off with the moving process. Delays, price changes etc mean they feel aggrieved and no longer co-operative. However, again,it never seems to be those on MN who decide to leave the house a bit dirty because their seller over-charged them for fittings etc!

2.30pm is good ime - we had 5.30pm (house was empty so we were waiting for our seller’s shitty solicitor to tell agent to release the keys)! Current home was closer to 4pm - again, house empty as they’d moved out the weekend before (current house was also dirty). I wouldn’t whinge about 2.30. I’m pretty sure our contract said 2pm (Although that meant nothing in reality). Even though we were fully packed it still took our removal men about 4 hours to load the lorries.

What would be fair on moving in ? My son just moved into his flat . Got keys at 4pm Lots of damage on walls with things like Shelves removed ( not filled or made good) bath had flooded under bed and floor /carpet damaged , bath itself damaged , broken freezer shelves sitting on side. Pretty dirty .
None of this visible at viewing ( flat described as immaculate )

We completed (after an incredibly stressful process which I won't go into here, but we were very eager to just get into our house by this point) and I went to the estate agent to collect the keys. They hadn't been dropped off, because the previous owner thought he would stay behind to give us a handover of the new house! We had a massive moving van full of stuff and 2 young children with us, why he thought we would have time for a tour of the fuse box and boiler I don't know.

He soon got out when we arrived with everything and realised we weren't in a position to stop and chat.

All monies transferred, turned up with removal men, they were still moving out!

You can't do anything about the key delay - ours was 4.5 hours because the vendor hadn't finished clearing and packing.

But it's meant to be clear of stuff that wasn't agreed in the fixtures and fittings form so go back to solicitor about that. Ours got £500 back from the vendor for us to pay for house clearance.