Buyer has entered property pre exchange and started renovation

[Iwishiwasjoking]

We were supposed to exchnage last week, then yesterday, now the proposal is exchange and complete tomorrow, all delays on buyers side told its mortgage company releasing fund.

property was vacated last week, but I removed the last items yesterday. Went back this evening to do a meter reading. Garden dug up, carpets ripped out, all windows open, lights on.

I am so shocked I have no idea what to do now …technically is burglary … but if this sale falls through I have a much less saleable house …

and before you ask how has he got in, there was a lockbox with keys in that the estate agents have been using … so either they’ve shared the code with him or he’s watched them and then let himself in.

The EA has been hugely unprofessional here. Most likely they allowed the buyer to enter. So many of them forget they are working for the vendor, not trying to please a (potential) buyer.

Your agent absolutely owes you a 100 percent discount!

How do you know it was your buyer OP?

If it wasn't the buyer, you could well have an issue exchanging tomorrow.

Exactly - I would be calling the police. If it is the buyers they need a fucking rocket, if it isn’t you do not want them pulling out because the house isn’t as seen.

Why would they leave the lights on and all the windows open??

You think as it's going to be their new home, they'd be cautious and careful and treasure the place, not leave it as an invitation for anyone to walk into!

What bizarre people!

Bloody hell

Fingers crossed for prompt exchange and completion.

Jesus!

This is awful OP. I hope the EA waives their fee if nothing else.

They could argue that they only decided to rip the carpets out after seeing the state of them so I wouldn’t bother complicating things further by haggling over the price again at this stage. Though they are CF. You want to Exchange today and it seems they are fully committed to that!

I would try to get some money knocked off your EA bill - they have acted wrongly in giving your personal details away. As long as Exchange goes ahead today I wouldn’t be doing anything hostile to the buyers though.

We had this when selling mums house. Exactly this. Went down the day before completion to find the door wide open too.

The buyer then wanted to not complete on the next day as it was holy day ( Friday) so we told the estate agent he asked for that date, had gaining illegal entry, left the house unsecured so could complete or fuck right off. Thankfully he did complete. I'd never trust a estate agent with the keys again. They had opened up to let him look around and keep the access he never shut the door. Unbelievable. It wasn't empty either! Don't even mention insured

Take photos of the electric meter.

Did that too. And gas and water

Awful…. Am guessing you don’t have a ring doorbell or similar for footage ?

I hope exchange and completion goes through smoothly today OP. Shameless place marking as I'm very curious to hear what excuses the buyers and/or EA come up with.

I’m intrigued as to what kind of excuse the fuckwit EA is going to come up with. This is next level.

I am here for the updates. This is gobsmackingly cheeky behaviour.

Thank you. I too am intrigued. The EA is at fault either way. Either they’ve allowed access or they were negligent when they took him on the pre exchange viewing and allowed him to see the code.

Good luck today OP.

It’s only shocking unprofessional behaviour by the EA if they shared the code, you said in your original post that the buyer could have watched them open the box so I would be very careful in making allegations you can’t prove. As for 100% discount, get real people. If the sale doesn’t go through tomorrow it’s a whole different ballgame (although you would still have to prove the EA allowed access in order to claim any damages from them) but if it does you won’t actually have suffered any loss so be furious by all means and rant on MN but there is nothing you can do, fingers crossed.

Nope no ring doorbell.

I agree take photos but email it today. Holding up a newspaper definitely won't work in proving a date in the past as it could be an old paper!

Get verbal advice if you can from solicitor
you don’t want the sale to fall through this morning 😬

This is shocking, really hope that exchange happens as planned today and that you get to the bottom of why the prospective owners thought it was ok to enter a property they don’t own!!!

you can see the date & time of a digital photo the metadata anyway so it’s a silly thing to say in this day and age.

OP that is shocking! You’ve done all the right things, make sure your solicitor is aware as well and fingers crossed it all goes through today 🤞