The money has all cleared but we don’t/cant have the keys!

[Mykittensmittens]

DM is completing today and it’s getting a bit fraught. The onward sale is moving to a new build and DM is bottom of the chain.
DMs money cleared at 10.30am and she had confirmation that all was well so she is now the legal owner of that house. Contract states midday vacating.

However, the vendors purchase hasn’t gone through so they are not budging. DM has spoken to the agent who has now said because their onward purchase hasn’t been confirmed, they need to sit tight as they have nowhere to go. The situation hasn’t been updated in the last hour as they are now not picking up calls from the agent.

DM is going nuts (she’s very anxious, this is all as a result of a difficult split). Shes trying her solicitor again now but the agent is now saying DM is being ‘difficult’ and this is normal protocol. If it was 5pm it would be an issue but as it’s ‘only’ 2.30 it’s not.

is it normal?? I think that the fact that their onward purchase isn’t confirmed as paid is nothing to do with my DMs situation, and not her problem? Her part of the chain is complete and they need to vacate?

Your mum’s solicitor needs to be quite firm with the vendor’s solicitors that she will pursue damages if she doesn’t gain VACANT possession now.
At 5pm on a Friday she needs to insist on the keys. They’re legally trespassing.

Sorted!!

staged a sit in at the agents. Boss lady went into a back room when we went in and apparently was ‘unable’ to come out. Could hear her on the phone. 10 mins later the keys arrived! Have left her there getting her head round her new place and i’ll go to her shortly.

turned out okay in the end but it’s an extra level of stress we didn’t need!

Great news!

This.

The money has cleared so the house now belongs to your mum. The previous vendor’s delay is their problem to solve, nothing to do with your mum.

Brilliant - well done, the sit in worked! Hope the rest of the move goes without a hitch and your mum is very happy in her new home

Good for your Mum - hope she enjoys her new house.
Moving can be a nightmare. DH prior to me knowing him, had a fun one. Vendors had been flaky throughout and on moving day he turned up ready to move in and they hadn't finished packing and the husband had gone to work because something had come up! They basically tried to say it's not convenient for us to move today. DH had the keys from the agent and said, tough, out you go.
His movers were very bullish and basically started putting the stuff in the house. Husband finally came back, huffed and puffed a lot but did get their stuff out.

Ignore the agent. Deal with the issue through your solicitor or just go around to your mum’s new house. It’s legally hers now. If she just goes to wait for the keys, the previous vendors may not drop them off.

go and get the locks changed asap

Glad it's all sorted 🍾🥂

Ah good! I like a happy ending.

A similar thing happened us many years ago. It was the vendor’s solicitor who had gone AWOL.

I hope your mum enjoys her new house.

Glad it's all sorted @Mykittensmittens but it shouldn't have taken your mum doing that to get the keys. I guess the estates agents and other people knew your mum was staying at your house, so not really having to rush, so they wrongly thought that gave them more time. Hope she enjoys her new home after everything💐

the agent has said ‘please don’t do that it would not be appropriate’.

Yeah, I think I would have hissed in response.

Glad she is sorted :)

Good stuff ! Sometimes you just have to put your foot down firmly 😊

All's well that ends well and I'm glad the sit-in at the estate agents worked.

Loving the fact that you had a sit- in!

Hope you’re getting sorted now, and have a nice bottle of chilled bubbly ready to open.

About time estate agents earned their commission- good on your mum!

We had this. I got the keys at 2pm to turn up and find they hadn't left plus they needed to I loaded the first and come back. I got in at 8pm. The wankers also shut the water down and emptied the water tank later found out it leaked and I think they probably caused the damage on emptying the property. Oh and the integrated fridge freezer didn't work.

Pleased she's in ok now.

Appropriate is one if those funny words that means anything that anyone wants it to mean.

@Mykittensmittens glad it’s sorted by the vendors were being entirely unreasonable and not sure why the estate agents weren’t sticking up for your DM. They get commission once the house completes, the status of the vendors onwards chain means nothing to them after that point.

I had relatives who moved from a house to another house on the same street - they hired movers and a van despite the fact the van didn’t actually move, it was just used to hold their belongings so the house was empty at the agreed upon time. This is what is expected, it is unreasonable to not vacate by the agreed time. I’d be inclined to suggest she doesn’t do any favours for the vendors if they call round for any forgotten items or missing post!

Am I being a bit dense, if your mum was the end of the chain and is currently living with you with all her stuff in storage, why would it matter whether they vacated at 12pm or 12 midnight?

I get that it's now your mums house, so she should have at least be given the keys, that bit isn't on, but it's not something the sellers have control over, they were being messed about and held up as much as your mum was, so why force people to put all their wordly belongings on the street, when it wouldn't matter to you one bit whether you moved in today or next week?

It all seems a bit pedantic to me, surely a bit of tolerance and patience is needed when you are purchasing as part of a chain.

I can never believe how stressful moving is. I'm glad your mum is in op. When we moved to this house we were the middle of a lonnng chain. Got the call, the money had cleared, come and get the keys, fine. We collected them from the agent maybe about 3pm, got to the house, and the vendors were still here... They were packed up, but insisting they weren't leaving until their purchase cleared as there was some sort of delay, and then some highly patronising shit about how I'd misunderstood the process. She didn't have an answer when I asked her why she had given the agents the keys (about 5 sets!) then. DH was on the phone to the agent and solicitors before I'd even got back in the car. She pissed off in the next ten mins but she was Not Happy 😆 As I said, I can't believe there is not a better way to do this!

My dad was a removals manager at Pickford's, mum a conveyancer, worked in both offices as a kid, so well versed.

The vendor should vacate, if it goes too late for the removers to offload (they generally will work pretty late, I can remember us doing jobs well into Friday night on overtime!) then the removals firm will simply store the goods until Monday morning - it creates mayhem with scheduling, but good firms allow for this to potentially happen in the planning.

The vendor then goes into a hotel until the next day, assuming they have nothing to move into.

As soon as the deal is done the buyer is the owner and the vendor must be gone PDQ

The house is no longer legally theirs. They have agreed to vacant possession or all of their stuff out by (usually) noon. Most people put their stuff in a van in the morning then wait for the financials then move in once all that’s happened. Anything else eg waiting around until you feel like emptying the house is both illegal and morally wrong.

This sounds very much like what happened to us. Our movers had a word with them and made it very clear that they would be invoicing them for any overtime required. They were amazing.

Sellers ended up moving all their stuff into a neighbour's garden and loading their van from there. We heard them going to and fro throigh tne night, and they ended up putting stuff in their garage for a long time. They thought they could fit 30 years of junk in a transit van(!) going 300-odd miles in a single journey...