What happens if I can't empty house by completion day?

[competion]

What happens if there are still things in the house when the new owner arrives? Going as fast as I can but unlikely to be done by tomorrow...

Me too!

I am comparing to myself moving (a mile away) owned/rented. I have 3 weeks overlap to get the old place sorted, bring as much as I can in the car before the movers bring the furniture and allow time for a proper clean after!

At this remove it does look like a deliberate choice to maximize the drama. I would be so ashamed to do what they are doing, and cringing that she might see them again afterwards- at the shop; school gate; anywhere socially really.

Half an hour until the potential completion takes place… Any updates, OP? 🍿👀

They can charge you for the cost of removing or storing the items. They can charge you for any associated costs they incur, such as bring charged extra by the removals company for waiting or storage etc.

Hopefully the OP is out with her kids blissfully unaware of the situation!

Indeed. But a few panicked texts from her selfish sister would be quite satisfying to hear about…
I’m in a petty Monday mood.

I had (now ex) friend like this - she booked a local removal firm who only had a small van so wanted to start loading the day before as they would need two trips (ended up needing four) to the new place. Expected to be able to leave stuff in the garage to collect the next day 🤷‍♀️ Friend (who didn't work and had plenty of time to pack) had half heartedly assisted her husband (daily 2 hr commute to London plus 50 hour week) empty the loft and put some clothes on hangers into hanging boxes.
Night before completion, me and another friend were helping bth of them pack - children had been fed and looked after at my house. Came to 7.30pm and I'm cleaning her fridge, oven and cupboards and she announces that she's done and buggers off to a jewellery evening down the road leaving me elbow deep in oven grease!

Next morning begs for help, like an idiot I put a stew in the slow cooker for them then spent the day helping them move stuff - she spent almost two hours on her knees scraping limescale off the en suite toilet with a teaspoon! Didn't even get a glass of the champagne she was liberally filling her glass (and that of clearly her 'proper' friends who had dropped round to the new house) with.

We are completing on a house today, just waiting on the estate agent calling about the keys. We did a drive-by of our new house at the weekend and there was a removal company there packing a van (thank god!) Our removals are booked for Wednesday as we wanted a bit of wiggle room as we've moved quite a bit and know the disasters that can arise at a seconds notice!

I'd be sympathetic to things that are out of peoples control, like the poster who said her removal men turned out to be cowboys. But just plain stupidity and lackadaisicalness would enrage me. I consider myself a really laidback person, but some people are just fucking horizontal!

I have no update

Is that good news or bad news?

Ha ha. I am curious too.

Perhaps they are too busy flinging stuff in boxes to text 😄.

Good news for you that she hasn't tried to get you along to help.

Also curious for an update OP! Glad you didn't get roped into helping though, whatever happened!!

Sister is too busy to even look at her phone. Or has turned it off so the solicitor / estate agent can't ring to ask what they are playing at.

Jeez, what a shit show

Good news from your point of view!

I'd guess no update means they are running around like loonie toons trying to pack!

I can be bad for needing pressure to get things done but this is ridiculous. The soft play yesterday!!

I think she has gathered that I am not impressed so will try and hide what a shit show it is, and just update me this evening with a picture of a glass of Prosecco (or non alcoholic equivalent) in the new place so that she can make out that I was over reacting the whole time

Can't believe they went to soft play! I'd have some sympathy if they were trying their best but struggling, but they're mad!

After a very stressful move where my ex and I had a hired van to move us and enlisted friends and family to help, I swore I would never move on my own again and I haven't. You're supposed to have the entire place emptied as you only actually own one property at a time - there's no overlap period to be going backwards and forwards with one small van.

A removal company isn't cheap but my god it's worth every penny!

Last house move I did, they turned up at 8am (I'd boxed everything up beforehand) and the house was empty by 10am, including them dismantling large pieces of furniture.

I then had a very boring 3 hour wait for the call to say completion had gone through, so the people that bought my house got a very clean one, as I had nothing to do but clean!

Unfortunately we then turned up at the new house, to find the previous owners still loading up (they'd gone down the hired vans and friends route) and my removal guys had to wait for a couple of hours more before they could offload and rebuild all the dismantled furniture. I was lucky it was just within their working window, or they'd have been entirely within their rights to just drive back to their warehouse with all my stuff and charge me extra to deliver it another day.

I also definitely did not end up with a clean house as it was filthy! So I'd spent all morning cleaning my old house and the whole of the first evening in my new house cleaning that one too! The oven was awful - I'd bought a frozen pizza to have for dinner and smoke billowed out of it, it was so disgusting. Even the oven cleaner we had come round shortly after said it was the worst one he'd seen. And don't get me started on the rats nests and dog shit in the back garden. If you'd seen the pictures of the house online you'd have thought it was immaculate, but those pretty pictures and rugs were hiding all sorts of DIY disasters!

Best of luck to her buyers then OP. I always swore I will never move without a proper removals company. I swear they are actual magicians with the way they get furniture into and out of rooms.

Many years ago I was a conveyancing/family solicitor. I always used to think (and still do) that there should be a deposit held by solicitors of around £5000 for these sorts of situations. I think it would focus people’s minds more

I couldn't agree more; it's amazing how readily those who "can't" get themselves organised manage it when their own money's at risk

They're fine. The buyer apparently was happy for them still be in and out until this evening so no drama.

(And so next time they'll be just as lax again!)

Shame. A disappointing lack of consequences.

Or if the system is set up that way there will be ways to deal with it, involving storage facilities.

The last time we moved, we weren't moving far. We put half our stuff into storage over a number of weeks and hired a small van the day before completion. The van was half full overnight (we kept valuables in the house) and we loaded up in the morning having dropped DS at nursery. Just the two of us.

Even then we ONLY just did it by the 10am completion time. Only for us to have to wait until 4pm for it to eventually go through.

Luckily the house we were moving to was empty.

But I would make the point that you'd struggle to fit a 2 bed house in one small van in one load...

You don't realise how much junk you have until you move. I got screamed at by my older sister because I refused to have her husband borrow his work van. It would have meant us not being able to get it all in in one go. I got accused of being ungrateful. He had no say in it he obviously didn't want to. I didn't see why he should have to take a day off work.

You’ve had at least probably 12 weeks to prepare for your house move and you’re worried about clearing the property the night before moving.

OP - there is no one else to blame apart from you and your lack of organisation.

If it was me, I’d have started decluttering the property before even putting it on the market - and then as soon as it has sold start packing room by room - so come the day of moving you are pretty much ready to go and not faffing about getting some cake tins into boxes or wrapping your expensive antique vases…..
Once the sale has completed then you do not legally own the property and therefore you should have already vacated.