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...

It's very possible. I had my flat completely emptied and moved into my new place in a day. 3 of us did it with 3 cars. The only things left in were my bed, settee and 2 bulky pieces of furniture. Which I'd hired a man in van to move for me. Every carpet cleaned, and the kitchen and hallway re painted by Saturday dinner time. The only thing left for me to do once everything was completely out and into my new place was to go back down, empty DCats litter tray and put him inside my car. He was already packed up ready to go when I came back. I did have a slight advantage that all I was doing was returning my keys to the estate agent so no one was moving in straight away and the property I was moving into had been vacant for 6 months so I was able to move a couple of boxes up and just leave it in the garage a few weeks before but even so I'd got the majority of my stuff packed up anyway way before I moved out. It just meant I was living out of boxes for a while. I had the same problem moving into my flat. Estate agent rang to say previous Tennant hadn't returned the keys yet so moving in would be delayed by a few hours. It meant I then had to ring the people who were delivering my new bed and ask them if they could hold off delivering it for a few more hours. Got inside to find the kitchen semi flooded cos they'd taken the washing machine out and not bothered to turn the water off. Of course by this point the estate agents were closed, it was the weekend so trying to get a plumber out was a nightmare. At the time we didn't know it was coming from the washing machine and we ended up taking it in turns to keep emptying buckets of water all whilst trying to un pack and put everything into each room. Thankfully at some point I managed to get hold of my ex bil and he told me what to do in order to stop the water coming out and we finally all managed to make to the pub for tea about 8:30 that night. I do find one plus side to moving though and that is I end up tipping shit loads of stuff that otherwise just gets shoved in drawers or cupboards for years on end.

We have a garage full of stuff! If we moved we'd need an empty garage to put all our stuff into.

Ahhh, sorry. Hadn't kept up to speed, just read 1st post. Will do better 😊

Sorry. Hadn't read all the updates. Still finding my way around MN

Think about how long you had been in that house accumulating that stuff, using it, putting it in corners, cupboards and so on and then think again about whether it would be surprising that it took more than an hour or two to get it all dismantled, sorted out, packed and taken away.

The final update...

One of my Dbro messaged me last night as his DP is apparently a MNer and saw this thread 😂 seems I am not the only one to have felt this way in the family!

Anyway, buyers were happy, Dsis is happy, sellers happy.... so that's the end of this tale!

OP that is hilarious that you aren’t the only ti feel this way!

I bet they weren't happy. Can you imagine trying to move in and the sellers are still only half ready? There are enough stories on here of people trying to move into a house that hasn't been emptied.

I bet the buyers have a different perspective on it - would be so funny if they posted their own version on MN 😆

I agree with this. The only report is from the one who caused the problem. I imagine them being 'fine' about it was actually them being resigned to it and agreeing through gritted teeth!

That makes it sound like you didn't start packing til moving day. Everything should already be boxed up, ready to go in the van - why would you be taking stuff to the dump then and not before?

Exactly. There won't be any surprises about the amount of stuff if you're fully-packed before completion day.

We're packing now and DH is busy chucking out the accumulated shit as we go.

Who does tip runs and storage runs on moving day??

Spent months planning for the move, couldn't afford movers, just little old me emptying a 5 bedroom house. There are a lot of assumptions in this thread. We all have different lives.
My purchasers were gracious, moving is hugely stressful for all parties, thankfully some of us can be humane about the process. Live with kindness.

As has been pointed out on the thread already, the ability to accommodate someone continuing to store their belongings in your new house is a luxury many people don't have. Your buyers, as well as being kind, were also privileged. Most people are simply not in a position to afford the 'graciousness' you set out here. There are also examples in the thread of sellers who did what you did costing buyers thousands of pounds with their behaviour. Hardly kind.

Moving is very stressful for everyone, but leaving the tip runs until the day of moving adds a lot of unnecessary stress. My vendors didn't or couldn't pay for movers so I had to pay my own movers extra because of the delay caused and the hours added on while we waited for (and helped!) them get their stuff out of the house. If they had been going back and forth to the tip to get rid of stuff they could have dumped prior to the day, or still packing boxes, my kindness - and willingness to take a financial hit on their behalf - would definitely have run out.

Why?

You were selling a five bedroomed home and couldn't spring £500 for a local man and van?

So you would have been assuming that I could pay extra for my removals team to wait for hours while little old you saved on your own costs?

Interesting assumption that doesn’t represent the actuality. Compromise made the day and nobody lost out financially.

Again, huge assumptions.

If nobody lost out financially, that still means the buyers belongings went somewhere. The reality is that plenty of people simply couldn't have provided you with free storage for several weeks, because they'd have needed the space for their own belongings.

@Carlosi456 You expect kindness and graciousness from people yet don't 'live with kindness' yourself. Moving is stressful for everybody, others manage to get packed up in much tougher circumstances. You had no excuse.

You were very, very lucky your buyers could afford to be gracious. In my circumstances I needed my stuff in the house, so the vendors stuff went in the garden in the rain. I'm not 'kind' enough to let my own stuff get trashed to save someone else's.

Carlosi456 - what on earth were you doing leaving it so late to go to tip....throwing yourself in the arms of your neighbours - what a drama larma and so unfair to the new buyers.

Dying her hair blue

You're misunderstanding the situation. 95% of belongings had been removed from the property to storage and dump and other places prior to completion. About 2 car loads were left. The purchasers moved in as I scurried about throwing stuff in to bin bags and into my small car. Jeez! Talk about polarisation! What I viewed as a light hearted incident has morphed into vilification.
Stay safe, be kind, it's no big deal. Enjoy life.