Our seller is a widowed hoarder - how to handle

[fancyaflatwhite]

Our buyers have been hanging in there since Spring, as we've had trouble securing a house to buy.

Now we have found somewhere - offer has been accepted early August. The agents made us aware the seller has had a difficult time as she sadly lost her husband some years ago, and has been hoarding since.

The seller's agent tells us they're recommending a removal/sorting service to help her sort her stuff. It's not like the house is stacked to the roof, but there is a lot there for her to go through, including two full outbuildings.

Agent told me she's "having to remind the seller what vacant possession means", which got me worried. She has instructed her solicitor, but it's now nearly a month and our conveyancer (who we've instructed and paid to start searches) is still awaiting the draft contract pack to get cracking. One good thing is, she's chain free.

Our agent has asked our seller for an exchange/completion timeframe that all parties can agree to. Our buyer, however, is starting to get quite uneasy that it won't go through.

How long could we be looking at if our seller is slow to get packing? What's the best way to handle this and get things done efficiently?

My ex neighbour is a hoarder
it’s taken almost 2 years to clear the house out so that I can be sold
Every time I thought that’s it ( huge clear out )
a few months later another van would arrive and do another clear out
it was pretty much all rubbish and junk but they clearly couldn’t let go
even now there is still a sofa that probably belongs in a museum in the front room

It might be worth considering selling, putting your own stuff into storage and moving into a rental while you wait. Having personal experience of elderly parents with hoarding tendencies they were incapable of dealing with the volume of stuff. Unless your seller has family help there is no knowing how long it could take. Also be prepared for the need to hire a skip if you do eventually proceed.
Are there any family members you could speak to who might be able to give more info?

I’m amazed that your buyers have held out this long , even if you find somewhere else that could be a few months before a move , if I were your buyers I’d be asking you to find a rental or something . I wouldn’t pin your hopes on this woman moving any time soon .

I think you've 2 options

A) Walk away and find something else

B) If the house is absolutely incredible/ Totally Unique/Perfect for your needs/An absolute bargain, then make some sort of legally binding agreement that she has to be out by a certain date and you're prepared to pick up the pieces in terms of clearance, a skip etc

I'd agree with going into a rental in order not to lose your buyer.

I don't know and it's why I asked why she was moving?

Crass as this may sound, she doesn't have to agree to the professional clearance, she just needs to exchange, agree a completion date and leave on that date. You would deal with the clearance people and whatever she leaves behind.

Exchanging would also give your buyers reassurance (and tie them in) so if the sticking point is vacant possession, there is a way around this.

Possibly also, the stark reality of a deadline might focus her attention?

(Conscious I'm starting to sound a bit blunt, I imagine this is hard, but if she's decided to sell then she needs to get on with it).

how great/ unique / a bargain is the house?

if it’s one of those, then go into rented to keep your sale as selling is going to get hard this winter.

if you think you can get something else quickly then do that.

but don’t rely on this sale (all this from the perspective of someone who went into rented and whose mother is a hoarder…)

I'm not convinced.
Try it, but be prepared to walk away from the whole thing if the vendor won't agree.
Having known a hoarder at close quarters I know what a complex disorder it is.

I didn't mean a professional cleaner she sells to you thinking the stuff is going to a good home you might use it ( slightly less traumatic than seeing it binned) then once you own the stuff you skip it sell it etc
or it might be just overwhelming to deal with, so you saying you'll take the house as is might be an encouragement on the other hand you could be right that she will want to check every single plastic bag / box, torn tea towel, laddered pair of old tights etc herself and it will take months while she procrastinates , if she has a real mental health issue with hoarding it will be the later, if she is just overwhelmed by making multiple decisions over years worth of collected possessions the former may well work

If your buyer has been hanging on since the Spring I can see why they are getting a little impatient OP, but I doubt that's down to the property you have offered on because it must only be about 3 weeks since your offer was accepted. If your buyers want to own your current property soon, would you be willing to move out and break the chain?

Fancy, you NEED to look around again for a PLAN B. This hoarder's house may not be cleared out within your preferred time frame.

I would pull out personally. I've witnessed enough to know that sorting through a house of hoards with the hoarder themselves, is not a simple task nor is it a quick task - even in a time sensitive situation, such as this.
Not to generalise too much, but quite often they refuse to engage or refuse to dispose of things that very much need to be disposed of etc. I'm trying not to stereotype but that is how it very often goes.

I agree - people are making this all about the seller's hoarding problem, on hearsay, but have you tried the usual procedures first? Did you suggest a timeframe to exchange when you made the offer? Have you had the surveys, enquiries and mortgage confirmation through? Has anyone asked the vendor when she wants to move out?

I would see if she's willing to agree a date, get on with your end of things, and hold the other possibilities mentioned here in reserve. And yes consider renting, because it sounds as if you are looking for an unusually quick turnaround to keep your buyers. But three weeks is nothing.

But even agreeing a timeframe to exchange is not binding and may not be sufficient motivation to clear it out.

Also my ex neighbour hoarding was so bad that he never fixed a leak in the roof which meant the buyers had to pay for a whole new roof and staircase
They obviously didn’t do a survey as they assumed they were getting a bargain but I reckon the roof and staircase alone didn’t leave them with much change out of 15K maybe more .

if you hire someone to clear it it can easily cost a few grand
I cleared my late parents house last year and that was pretty straight forward and no garages / sheds and that was just over 1k

She won't clear it, so you need a plan to deal with that.

Firstly, on no account plan to move in on the day of completion. You will almost certainly need to complete, then clear the house.

Secondly, no matter what anyone tells you on MN, you can't just chuck her stuff into the road, even after you complete. You need a plan to clear the house, agreed through both sets of solicitors. This could be either that removals company takes everything to a storage unit (to be paid for by her but insist that her solicitor provides proof that the arrangements have been made), or that a house clearer disposes of it all.

It very much depends how motivated she is to leave and what form the 'hoarding' takes. If it's personal papers/important post layered in with junk mail, empty plastic bags, clothing, household items, new stuff, old stuff and everything in between all mixed up it's bloody hard going and takes an age (can you tell I have some personal experience of this). When someone is still alive it's so much harder to get help in because there are so many more issues to be dealing with than just taking stuff away. There's a carefully constructed system in place generally and a huge amount of emotions and mental health at play. If your buyers are getting a bit tetchy you might be better off looking elsewhere.

Doesn’t sound great does it, I agree with PP’s, I don’t think this lady intends on moving, she will probably find it too much and pull out of the sale.

Oh dear...my neighbour who is a hoarder now has to clear her late mums house who was also a hoarder....progress is very slow ....the executor has given her a firm deadline as house is to be sold and she will also benefit from proceeds....i told her to look ahead to the money as will help her out a lot....advised her to get skips....its the fastest way to clear junk that charity shops etc wont take....i would pop over and check progress....it takes longer than you think to clear...and remember that price of skips has gone up....350 to 400 each for a medium size one now....can you hold back 2k for clearance costs..??...just in case..?

Total nightmare. Give her a deadline for exchange of contracts and stick to it.

I was shocked to see someone I knew in the 80's on a hoarding programme recently. They helped clear the house out, and sadly, there was some damage to the property.

Hopefully the vendor will agree to a packing service, and will be able to take all of it with her to sort when she moves.

Speak to your lawyer, and show any written evidence from the vendor's agent that he suspects the hoarder might fail to empty the property when she leaves. If that happens you can instruct a houseclearance company to clear the propery, and charge it to the vendor.
Your lawyer might withhold a token sum from the purchase price so you don't get stuck with that expense.

If you know and accept that the house will need a lot of work, I would plan to go into a hotel for a week/airbnb and arrange a house clearance person to go in a day after completion and just take whatevers left

Yes you will need to spend some time ripping out and cleaning up but if the house is what you want and need then its easily done

The difficulty will be if others are right and she pulls out near completion day.

@ChicCroissant yes, I think we'll definitely need to consider breaking the chain and renting/air bnb-ing to keep our (very patient) buyers. We definitely want/need to move as it's to be in distance of a school.

@Mangledrake yes that's true. i's only just under a month since the seller accepted our offer, so it's not like they're bring slow or difficult. It's definitely on us too to get this through to the quick timeframe we're looking at. But the agent's comments have made me think this'll be a tricky process altogether.

Once the house is yours the contents are yours, surely