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

510 replies

competion · 26/11/2023 12:29

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...

OP posts:
Zonder · 26/11/2023 14:29

Has she got somewhere to move to? Please tell me she doesn't have 3 kids, 2 dogs and a tortoise!

Growlybear83 · 26/11/2023 14:30

What a ridiculous position and to go out for the afternoon is beyond belief. If your sister isn't going to be able to clear the house on time, it presumably also means she won't have time to clean it for the new occupiers😳😳

Windywuss · 26/11/2023 14:30

When I bought my house, I was told I could collect keys from the agent. I did and turned up at my new house to find it full of people still dismantling furniture. It was 7pm before they left.

Luckily I was in a rental and didn't book the van until a few days later.

BrimfulOfMash · 26/11/2023 14:30

Ummmm, is she buying the place she is moving into? Because if so there is no point at which she owns / has legal access to both houses. She can’t do a relay / shuttle back and forth with one van. She needs to empty her whole house into van/s , and then I load once completion has happened.

I am another that on finding my stupid vendors not moved out slung all their stuff outside, behind the front wall, rain or no. Havjng had a long drive / early start our removal team were on a clock and I wasn’t prepared to pay extra per hour due to vendors incompetence.

MagentaRocks · 26/11/2023 14:33

Momtotwokids · 26/11/2023 13:55

Anyone remember the lady who was mad at the new owners who wanted in the house and her family was having a picnic inside and she wasn't happy?

I was about to post the same. The OP was so unreasonably annoyed at the legal owners being annoyed at them for not being out of the house.

ithinkmyheadiscavingin · 26/11/2023 14:33

competion · 26/11/2023 13:07

I have little goodwill as I moved myself a few months ago with a small baby and toddler and no offers of help from her. And this sort of unprepared and dramatic behaviour is very characteristic of her and it wears thin over the years.

Leave your phone at home and go out tomorrow morning.

Don't answer your phone or any messages from her tonight.

She's going to take the piss and you know it. OFf to soft play when she's not even close to being ready to move tomorrow. What an arse!

BeautyFromBad · 26/11/2023 14:34

Goodness, there’s some nastiness on this thread. Calling people twats and saying you’d throw a vendors’ belongings. How about a bit of compassion? You have no idea what’s going on in people’s lives. Moving is stressful. And hard work.

Ap24 · 26/11/2023 14:35

It happened to us. The house was disgusting, but to be fair we were expecting that (lots of cats and dogs). After a few hours of moving stuff onto the front garden they gave up and didn't come back for the rest. Everything else ended up in a skip. Luckily we weren't moving in but renovating.

Tiedtoatwat · 26/11/2023 14:36

competion · 26/11/2023 12:52

I'm sure this message will come when they're back from soft play 😂

Off to soft play??!! FFS.

The answer to her request is a big flat NO!

I had this happen years ago. I had a toddler, worked full-time. I diligently packed our belongings, leaving H to do his and the attic.

On the day, the removal men were left carrying the contents of the attic, one by one, not packed, to my fury and that of our buyers.

They got their own back. They said they would dump the last of our rubbish, probably to get rid of us, and they did. Fly-tipped it at the side of the road!! Cue a visit from the council as there'd been something in it that identified us... Fortunately they accepted our explanation.

TopOfTheCliff · 26/11/2023 14:36

This happened to me when I moved at 37 weeks pregnant with a toddler in tow. We arrived at 12 and sat outside with our van waiting for completion. That happened at 2pm but the vendors didn’t leave till 5pm. Our removal men were lovely but very fed up as they still had to drive back after emptying the van around 8pm. We just assembled the beds and went to sleep! It’s very frustrating that other people can be so inept and disorganised.

MagentaRocks · 26/11/2023 14:37

BeautyFromBad · 26/11/2023 14:34

Goodness, there’s some nastiness on this thread. Calling people twats and saying you’d throw a vendors’ belongings. How about a bit of compassion? You have no idea what’s going on in people’s lives. Moving is stressful. And hard work.

Moving is stressful, we have all done it, but we plan ahead and start packing up in advance so that it isn’t a rush. It is hardly a surprise that you have to be packed up and moved out by the time you complete and no longer own the house.

MinnieMountain · 26/11/2023 14:38

The standard contract terms say she will be responsible for their additional costs. She might also be clobbered for £150-200+VAT for the notice to complete that some firms add to their contracts.

DomingoinLittleOakley · 26/11/2023 14:40

Your sister sounds like my vendors, who went on holiday to Spain for a week, returning the day before completion having only packed up a few boxes. Literally most of their possessions were still in situ when we arrived with our van, and they only had a mate with a small transit helping to clear a 3 bedroom house.

We sat outside with the removals van for an hour, then went inside and asked what the fuck they were playing at. It was chaos - two dogs running around, boxes everywhere, they were sitting there drinking tea!

In the end we just told our removals guys to take our stuff into the house and they kindly helped out by removing the vendors' possessions to the front garden. They took bloody hours - we were fuming, it was 10 days before Christmas and freezing cold and dark by the time they finally cleared the garden and left.

Cheeky bastards hadn't cleaned anything, the place was thick with dog hair, fag butts all over the garden, and half of their kitchen stuff still in the cupboards, things in the loft and garage.

They turned up a week later asking for some specific kitchen items, not even everything they had left behind, and said they had forgotten to clear the loft, could they 'just pop in'? I told them we'd assumed they hadn't wanted anything left behind and it had all gone to the tip (it had). They also hid a set of broken ladders behind a neighbour's garden fence which wasn't discovered for weeks!

We received post for them for 8 years because they hadn't redirected anything.

Absolute nightmare - I'm still angry about it 19 years and two houses later!

Lucytheloose · 26/11/2023 14:40

BeautyFromBad · 26/11/2023 14:34

Goodness, there’s some nastiness on this thread. Calling people twats and saying you’d throw a vendors’ belongings. How about a bit of compassion? You have no idea what’s going on in people’s lives. Moving is stressful. And hard work.

It's hard work for everyone (which is why you need to get organised in advance) but it's no harder for the people moving out than for the people moving in.

Charlize43 · 26/11/2023 14:41

You'll have to buy back all your items from Ebay from the new owner.

It might be best to ask if they intend to start selling off stuff before or after they have redecorated.

LaurieStrode · 26/11/2023 14:42

Neveraga1n · 26/11/2023 12:39

if I was moving in I would start chucking your stuff out of the door/window-i wouldn't care of it got broke its now my house. presumably you have had however many weeks /months that this was coming as it was for sale, someone had put an offer in, you accepted, exchanged etc. You need to start boxing it up and getting ready to have it out tomorrow.

Really? How childish and petulant. So many scolds on this thread need to calm down.

This is not uncommon, OP. Just let them know. You can offer to pay a day's rent or something if necessary.

BeautyFromBad · 26/11/2023 14:42

MagentaRocks · 26/11/2023 14:37

Moving is stressful, we have all done it, but we plan ahead and start packing up in advance so that it isn’t a rush. It is hardly a surprise that you have to be packed up and moved out by the time you complete and no longer own the house.

Of course. But things happen. My friend’s dad died three weeks before her move. So she was dealing with that, planning a funeral, packing all hours. After the move and the funeral, she had a breakdown. She did her very best and it broke her.

I just don’t see the need for name calling and viciousness.

UsingChangeofName · 26/11/2023 14:43

BeautyFromBad · 26/11/2023 14:34

Goodness, there’s some nastiness on this thread. Calling people twats and saying you’d throw a vendors’ belongings. How about a bit of compassion? You have no idea what’s going on in people’s lives. Moving is stressful. And hard work.

Yes, it is extremely stressful for the people expecting to be able to move in to their new home tomorrow afternoon too.
The OP has said her sister is mid-chain. There will be a family somewhere who have packed up all their stuff, cleaned their house, taken the keys to their EA, and be sitting in their van, waiting to start emptying their stuff into the OP's sister's current home, which, by that time, will be ^their home. It is completely unfair on them, not to be able to get in on what is an exhausting and stressful day for them.

The whole system of house buying and selling and moving in the UK is completely ridiculous, but that is the system we have, and it relies on everyone doing their bit to make things run smoothly.
It isn't a surprise to the sister that she needs to be out in the morning. Most people will have decluttered before even putting it on the market, then started packing things they won't use from the time the offer is accepted. By the afternoon before, everything but overnight stuff and stuff for one days worth of food and drink, should be packed.

PhantomUnicorn · 26/11/2023 14:43

we hired professional movers, but we're disabled so despite best efforts, there was still stuff unpacked on moving day.
They basically just packed what was left for us and chucked it in the lorry, we had to sort it this end.

Gillypie23 · 26/11/2023 14:44

You've probably had ample time to pack. Get your arse moving and get it done

Choux · 26/11/2023 14:44

@BeautyFromBad that's very difficult for your friend but nothing like that has happened in this instance. They aren't planning a funeral, they are at soft play!

Choux · 26/11/2023 14:45

Gillypie23 · 26/11/2023 14:44

You've probably had ample time to pack. Get your arse moving and get it done

You clearly haven't read the thread. The OP isn't the one moving.

CrispsandCheeseSandwich · 26/11/2023 14:47

I don't understand - she hasn't hired a van/movers? How is she ever going to get everything out? I mean, what's she even working towards, squeezing the furniture into her car??

ChocolateCinderToffee · 26/11/2023 14:47

BeautyFromBad · 26/11/2023 14:34

Goodness, there’s some nastiness on this thread. Calling people twats and saying you’d throw a vendors’ belongings. How about a bit of compassion? You have no idea what’s going on in people’s lives. Moving is stressful. And hard work.

And most of us manage it, in some cases on our own and with no help. I’d say the OP has a fair idea of what’s going on in her sister’s life.

BeautyFromBad · 26/11/2023 14:48

I’m not talking about this specific incident though. I’m talking about some of the nastiness displayed by other posters. Last time I moved, the vendor wasn’t quite done when we got to the house. I wouldn’t have dreamt of calling her a twat or feeling entitled to break her belongings.