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?

The weren't waiting till they 'felt like it' though were they, they were literally sat there with nowhere to go until their keys were released, it seems to be a common problem from the sounds of it.

My point is though, OPs mum didn't need to vacate her premises and move all her belongings on that day as she would if she was part of a larger chain, because all her belongings are in storage and she is living with her daughter, so it really didn't matter in the grand scheme of things if the keys were released at 12pm or 5pm. She could have got the keys, allowed the vendors the day to vacate then gone in the next day to start sorting things out for moving in.

All seems a bit pedantic for no real reason.

I’m glad you went to the agents, the absolute
balls of them to say it’s not appropriate. ‘Actually giving me the keys to my own house is the only appropriate action here, I’ll be there waiting for you to remember that’s how selling a house works’

Of course it’s not just being pedantic! There are massive legal implications if the house is occupied by squatters which the previous owners are as soon as the sale has gone through. Literally everyone who is selling and buying at the same time moves out in the morning and sits around with all their belongings in the van until the onward purchase is complete. The issues arrive when cheeky fuckers don’t move their stuff out as legally required!

Exactly, @MonsterMunched. Everyone in the chain needs their movers round first thing and to be out ASAP. Then there's a fair bit of sitting round if you're near the top of the chain, but that's what pubs and coffee shops are invented for!

The moment the sellers stay beyond the time in the contract they become squatters and gain rights.
Once the time in contract passes the property is insured as your home and the insurance doesn't cover damage squatters may do.
The analogy is you go to Tesco and buy a bottle of champagne, but Tesco say no you can't take it away as we have not yet had another one delivered.
It is a totally normal accept part of UK house buying that if you are in a chain you will be homeless for a few hours, but there is a risk of it being over night or over the weekend if you complete on a Friday. I once completed on the Friday of a bank holiday weekend and we were the top of a long chain. When the date was set the solicitor warned us there was a small risk of us being homeless over the weekend.

I had this once. Turned up at 2pm (money had gone through at 12pm) and the previous owner hadn’t packed ANYTHING yet. I had an 18 month old to occupy whilst also carrying boxes. It was chaos. Some people are happy to inconvenience everyone around them it seems.

A similar thing happened to us. Our solicitor told us all to be reasonable/flexible to each other. We all waited until everyone had the keys.

It is not appropriate she will be told when to expect it and she should go from there

And the bottle of champagne just cost you hundreds of thousands of pounds and has legal implications when in the hands of the previous owner.

OP how has it turned out?

We had a chain of 5 or 6 houses and we didn’t get the keys until about 5.30 pm even though we had vacated by mid morning! We were second in the chain. It was STRESSFUL lol

What happens if you have cats and dogs to move? We cat carry ours on the day and the dogs are in our car. Also we have horses to move (equestrian property) I would be in a right panic 😱

Imagine rocking up to the hotel with my mob!

In the USA here, but we had to spend a week in a hotel when we bought our house due to the difference between when our apartment lease ended and when we actually closed.
It is unfortunate that theirs is not ready yet, but that is on them. DM shouldn't have to be put out or have to find somewhere else to go until they are ready to get out.
And if someone is above them slowing things down, then that goes for them as well.
We knew there was going to be a difference from when we moved out to when we could move into our house and we made arrangements.

Honestly cannot be as worse as when we moved 😂

For two weeks we didn’t think it was going to go through. Only to find out at 430 the night before it was happening the next day. We hadn’t packed much because that week our buyers were threatening to pull out.

Late night packing and get a phone call at 1pm the next day to say the whole thing was going to fall through (as we’ve got both cars loaded and a van with all the big things in) because the previous owner owed the council a huge care bill and this had to be paid before the house could even be sold.

I was 7 months pregnant, waiting outside the estate agents and it got sorted at 455 🙈 The removals van only ended up doing one run for us because they didn’t work late on a Friday and luckily the people buying ours let us have the keys until 12pm on the Saturday because of the delays. We were moving until 2am on the Saturday with a 3 year old and me being heavily pregnant but are very grateful that they let us have our old keys for longer because of how late it had all gone through 😂

So glad you're sorted. I had a similar issue when I bought this house. The vendors were moving South to far North and the property they were moving to didn't complete so we were left waiting for hours. I think it was 5 pm on the Friday before we could go in. Our Money had cleared at lunchtime. So very very stressful, especially when you just want to get the basics done so you can at least have a bed, food and find your bearings. I wish we had a better system in this country. It's well overdue an overhaul.

The majority of people book a removal company who usually offer storage if there is an issue. They need to go as they are technically squatters.

I did one DIY move and helped with two others and vowed never again leave it to the professionals. On the last one a friend's cousins who promised to help on the Saturday never turned up having got lashed and we had to work like |Trojans all day. It took me two days to recovernas I was totally exhausted and aching all over.

Thanks for continuing to post.

she absolutely wasn’t being a pedant. Yes her stuff was in storage, and she was living out of a suitcase at ours but very temporarily as in sofa sleeping. However, she’d completed her sale super fast to keep her buyer happy, which wasn’t ideal. She’s been through a horrendous, acrimonious split which has been incredibly testing and the house she was buying….well, it needs a little work, and to compound the couple selling had also split and the resident half and new partner had made it clear she didn’t want to leave, so we were on edge anyway.

legally the property was hers at 10.30am. I think 6 hours ‘grace’ was bloody generous. And given the agents were due to close at 4.30, and the solicitors at 5, and it wasn’t a working day the next day either (again she didn’t want to complete on a Friday but the seller insisted - as that worked for their onward purchase).

it did work out but the house does need a massive clean and some things have been left - example - things in kitchen cupboards and a few other things, and it’s far from clean, but she’s happy to take care of that herself.

Surely you dont think you should get to stay at a property you no longer own?!

Of course not. I wondered where people put their animals in a situation where they have to go to hotels.

I think the former owners are the ones who aren't being appropriate. Your Mum should be the one calling the shots as the house and everything in it now belongs to her. I'm sure she's a reasonable woman who would let the former owner arrange a time to come to her house to collect the rest of their belongings but at this point this should be at your mothers discretion

Exactly. Isn’t it the norm to have no where to go for a while - or at least just sitting in an empty house for a couple of hours with the van ready to go ? That’s what I have always known on moving day. We once had to go back for a fridge and I felt bad enough about that, even though it was a couple moving in who had been living with parents and likely wouldn’t have been moving in that actual day and needed to buy furniture etc.
Our sellers were nice and unlocked our new garage so our van could start unloading in there to help speed things up while we all waited for the money side of things.

I'm reminded of a thread on here which was posted from the CF vendor's side of things. She was saying they'd all stopped for a picnic lunch instead of just GTFO of their purchaser's house. He started to rip the kitchen out around them, IIRC! 🤣

Oh yes I remember that thread … funny image of them enjoying a picnic lunch with apparently no cares

The problem occurs when something goes wrong or gets damaged.
What if a pipe bursts, what if they decide to become squatters etc.? The insurance issue would become a nightmare.
Let’s also think about the removals company, maybe their workers want to get the job done and get home at a decent time on a Friday.

Sadly, sh1t happens.

I was involved in a car accident on the day I sold which delayed the removal considerably (we'd been stationery for a minute or so in the middle if a long queue and the guy behind just ploughs into me for no reason).

I let the buyers know via the agent. The cleaners arrived at 12pm but as the house was just being cleared, it didnt get cleaned like it should have been for the new buyers. We left at 4.30pm. An absolute disaster and all because I didnt want to fill the wheely bin with rubbish so decided to do a quick tip run that morning. 🙄

We were moving into a rental 15mins away. That's a whole other story about a useless estate agent cos we were finally let in at 6pm after agreeing not to use the gas.

I hope she got in OK @Mykittensmittens