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Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

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Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Property/DIY

Just completed! But seller won't go

27 replies

kerala · 15/08/2008 11:53

We have had a seller from hell. She is a recently divorced menopausal lady who took every question/us getting a survey as a personal and devastating insult. She even yelled at us and slammed the door in our faces. After weeks of stress we finally exchanged and have completed today. But agents just called to say she is still clearing out the property so we have to wait. DH took precious day off work. Just so cross!

Am having nightmares of having to live there with this loony. Anyone else had this?

OP posts:

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jimjamshaslefttheyurt · 15/08/2008 11:57

You could sue her if you wanted to be vindictive (I wouldn't but I might threaten her with it).

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prettybird · 15/08/2008 12:01

Did your completion not include a time? I am sure when I bought my house in Bolton many many moons ago (live in Scotland now, so different) the completion took place once the money had transferred - but had to be done by 12 noon iirc.

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claricebeansmum · 15/08/2008 12:01

OMG your vendor is related to mine! We were supposed to exchange last week but there have been so many problems and today another one has raised its ugly head.

When we arrived at property we are currrently living in we found the people still in it.

We called our solicitor who offered to call the police for us! Give you solicitor a call. The property is legally yours.

What we did was made them move everything out of house into garage so they could pack their van from there whilst we moved into the house.

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CountessDracula · 15/08/2008 12:02

She has to give you vacant posession on completion

Get your estate agents to threaten her with costs of hotel, removals men taking longer etc

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theyoungvisiter · 15/08/2008 12:04

I'm not a legal person but I'm pretty sure that what she's doing is illegal - she is living in your property!

See what your solicitors say, but I would either threaten to sue (as JJ says) or tell the agents that you will start charging her rent from x date.

It sounds like she is either living in la la land or else thinks you are a pushover.

The only downside to all this is that she may then vacate and leave you a property filled with furniture etc, but it sounds like that would be preferable!

What are you doing for accommodation btw?! I take it you haven't sold your own house?

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clumsymum · 15/08/2008 12:08

Is she ther actually packing a van? If yes, then ok, it's taken her longer than she thought (It took us until 3 in the afternoon, cos we had sooooooooo much stuff, and our buyer swore at our removal men, who deliberately slowed down). In that case you might as well wait.

If she is actually sitting watching telly with a cuppa in her hand, then it's police time !!

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kerala · 15/08/2008 12:09

We are very fortunate that we are living with my lovely parents so the pressure is off. Would be much worse if we were conventional movers ie sitting outside with all our things in a lorry and nowhere to go (have 2 year old and am 7 months pregnant).

I just knew the completion would be a headache - everything else has been with her. You would think as a seller in this market she would be bending over backwards to be pleasant and faciliate the sale (we certainly were with our buyer) but sadly she is a nutter. Annoying that now they have our money our leverage is gone and the agents who were previously smarmy and couldnt do enough arent really interested.

Dreadful business hope never to move again!

OP posts:

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jimjamshaslefttheyurt · 15/08/2008 12:10

Contact your solicitor. You can sue her if she doesn't move out on time - although unless the delay costs you money it's probably not worth the hassle. A phone call from your solicitors to hers may put a rocket up her.

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ShinyPinkShoes · 15/08/2008 12:10

Get your solicitor to call her's giving her an hour to GET OUT.

She is on your property now!

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theyoungvisiter · 15/08/2008 12:12

Can you go round to the property and check what she's up to?

My poor friend had this - she turned up at the flat she had bought with a vanful of stuff and rang the bell, only to be greeted by the seller holding a bottle of HP sauce saying "you'll have to wait a tick". When she looked up at the window she could see his partner sitting there at their dining room table eating a fry-up!

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GrabShellDude · 15/08/2008 12:13

Depends though - have you had confirmation that all the monies have gone through? If they haven't, then it isn't technically your property yet. If they have then yes she is being a pain! Just keep smiling through gritted teeth.

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prettybird · 15/08/2008 12:13

Your leverage hasn't gone: she is now squatting in your house. Tell your solicitors to tell hers (and her) that yuo will be charging for accommodation costs and the cost of your dh's (wasted) holiday.

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clumsymum · 15/08/2008 12:15

If she's living there with no intention of actually moving, wait util she nips out for milk, break in and be there when she gets back (locks changed if there is time, It's your property now).

Tell her you will give her a reasonable opportunity to get her stuff shifted (48 hours?), after which you will get it dumped.

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ilovemydog · 15/08/2008 12:15

Yes, you have the legal highground, but do you really want to piss off someone who is clearly vindictive keeping in mind you will be living in the consequences?

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theyoungvisiter · 15/08/2008 12:21

Good point that the money may not yet have gone through - when we moved the transfer was delayed for some reason so we were sat outside waiting for confirmation from the solicitors that it had all gone through before we could enter the property.

Also there are situations where it genuinely isn't the seller's fault (removal men not turning up on time, or not having enough staff to do the removal within the timeframe specified).

If she's a single lady living by herself she's presumably in the hands of her removal men and can't do much to speed up the process. It is only just midday.

But I think at the least, you can ask the estate agent for information on when exactly she does plan to get out. Or have they told you how late she's running?

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stoppinattwo · 15/08/2008 12:27

If you have completed then that means the money is in her bank account. she needs to vacate the property ASAP!! ie within hours. not tomorrow or the next day!!!! or she may get squatters rights!!!

Speak to your solicitor for advice good luck

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prettybird · 15/08/2008 13:26

Hopefully, no news means that there is some movement.......

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Fizzylemonade · 15/08/2008 16:27

We had this, the property was ours from about 1.30. We turned up at our new house at 4pm and they were STILL PACKING THE VAN!

We were livid. We'd driven over 3 hours to get to it and were tired and grumpy.

Fortunately because of the long journey we had arranged for our stuff to be stored overnight and delivered the next morning. Good job.

They finally vacated at 5.30pm!

Their excuse - they didn't realise it would take sooooo long to pack the house because they were doing it themselves with a piddling little transit and "some mates" had let them down with helping out. It was a 3 bed house and they had 2 kids, they were hardly minimalists!

We could see they were stressed out of their skulls so didn't do anything except wait, and do lots of big sighs.

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Jampot · 15/08/2008 19:04

has she gone yet?

i may be wrong here but being accomodating wont do you any favours here. If the house is legally yours and she wont go she will probably have rights or something - just make sure you get in that door

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claricebeansmum · 15/08/2008 19:05

Fizzy - your situation sounds like ours - completely unprepared.

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theyoungvisiter · 15/08/2008 20:30

hopefully the fact that Kerala is not on here posting means that she's busy unpacking!

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Seabright · 15/08/2008 23:12

2pm is the standard time in sale & purchase contracts, although it's often changed to 1pm or 1:30pm.

If she's not out by the time stated in the contract you can get your solicitor to issue a "Notice to Complete".

Weird though it seems, in a sale/purchase contract "time is not of the essense" (to use some jargon) until that Notice is issued. They then have 10 days (yes, really) to get out. They do, however have to pay all your extra expenses.

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bran · 16/08/2008 14:41

Any news Kerala? I'm hoping that you're in by now.

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LynetteScavo · 16/08/2008 14:56

Fizzylemonade, the same thing happened to us.

DH has mentioned we wouldn't be sleeping there that night...but it didn't mean we didn't have a whole load of stuff we needed to get in to the house that night.

MIL was in the house with her cleaning gloves on before they had even finished packing, and her DH was helping the family to pack. Maybe it was removng the toilet roll holders and towel rails that took them so long.

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nervousal · 16/08/2008 20:05

same thing happened to us twice. First time we were buyers - gor keys at 12, turned up at house to find it still full of stuff, two dogs and no-one in sight. Finally got in round 5pm.

Second time we were sellers - we couldn't complete our purchase until sale was complete. WE thought we'd be out by 1pm, arranged with our buyers that they wouldn't get possession til then. We were still moving at about 4 - despite trying our best to get out. In end it didn't matter as our buyers didn't need in until the next weekend.

In the grand scheme of things having to wait a couple of hours isn't the end of the world.