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?

This happened to us, we were the middle of the chain and all the money had cleared. We had moved out of previous house so we were homeless for a few hours, the vacation time was 2pm and at 2.30 the owner of our new house still hadn't packed! The garage was full of her stuff. We were now the legal owners of the house and had a child to put to bed that night so we needed to put furniture together. We just turned up and moved out stuff in around her...our solicitor told her she had to hand the keys over so she did. We told her she could leave some stuff in the garage and come back to collect it whenever she could. Basically...you don't have to be an arsehole but they have to get out and you have to put your foot down!!

OK if we are comparing stories. My Poor Dad literally passed away on the day of moving - he was half moved in - only supervising but his heart gave out - think ambulances x 2 and air ambulance. Horrendous day for my 2 sisters moving him but they were able to be with him at the end.

Movers repacked everything and took to storage, no issues at all. A big advantage to using a larger reputable company and something to think about moving elderly folk.

We then had to sort out the not yet signed over old house (Need probate first so that was fun in lockdown) we managed it in two weeks paying a fee for not signing on the day which they enforced even though it had been delayed by months due to buyers incompetence and dithering.

Surely you would be intelligent enough to arrange for someone to look after your animals for the moving day and drop them off the night before...SURELY.

This.

You plan well, well in advance. Plan for the worst case outcome even if it costs you a fortune.

We had the horses booked full livery on a friend's yard for two weeks over completion and moving day so we didn't have to deal with them while we sorted everything, and we had two weeks to sort anything if shit went wrong.

Dogs were staying with family, cats were booked into a cattery for the same two weeks as the horses. Reptiles were kindly boarded by a local exotics pet shop after we asked them wtf to do with reptiles while we were moving and possibly homeless over the weekend.

You don't just wing and a prayer it on moving day when you have a menagerie!