Help! nightmare buyers!

greenway70

We put our house up for sale 3 months ago and have had nothing but problems and demands from our first time buyers ever since.
We have spent out so much money that we are financially in trouble ourselves, so we need our house to sell.
In amongst all our paperwork we were asked about an idea of when we would like to complete by, we said to our solicitor by the 27th would be nice as that's 3 months since we accpeted the offer. Last monday we had a quick phone call to say our buyers were thinking of exchanging and completing on the 27th, I work nights my husband during the day and we have young kids, so all last week I spent a considerable amount of fuel money going to the house -(we inherited a house so don't live there) cleaning and removing as much as possible, at the weekend we removed almost everything from the garage, Friday came and our solicitor said the buyers were now trying to complete today. We have not received anything official stating a completion date just a phone call.
I was told the buyers would go past the house and make sure they were happy and if they were would exchange etc, I received a phone call saying that our solicitor had received their money so I went and handed in the keys to the estate agent but in my joy forgot to ask how much money! My husband rang them back whilst I was out and was told that the buyers have founds lots of rubbish in the garden and expect us to pay to have it removed! The black bin out the front of the house is also full from my cleaning but we didn't get much notice for me to put it out, it will be cleaned this wednesday, I can guarantee they'll moan about this aswell, bins are collected every 2 weeks and the house is very far away from us.
Our estate agent has gone and agreed with the buyer, being there's at least a skip full of rubbish!!! but when I asked what was left we didnt get much of a response
So tomorrow I am going to ring our solicitor and find out what money is received and what's been signed etc
Where do we stand if they've only exchanged and what happens if they've paid the full balance but not completed bearing in mind the buyers said they went past and into the house before agreeing to the sale.
We tried to offer to pay for someone to come have a look and clear it as we know someone in the skip business but they wanted us personally to do it or arrange it themselves.
Sorry for the long post but I'm so stressed!

motherofstudents

Try not to be too stressed about it. I know that's easy to say. If you have offered to send someone to clear the rubbish, I don't really know what more you could do or what else they want you to do.

It is fairly common for some rubbish/belongings to be left and most people will just get rid of it. If it is a subtantial amount they probably would expect the vendor to move it. As you have offered to do so, they don't really have anything to complain about.

You need to speak to your solicitor and find out exactly what has happened. Have contracts been exchanged ? Did they exchange and complete on the same day? If they only exchanged, the sale must go ahead so you don;t need to worry about that. It will all be sorted out in a few days so don;t lose any sleep over it.

greenway70

Thank you for your kind words, the biggest problem is we don't know what they are classing as 'rubbish' except for one rubbish bag which I realised I forgot and the full black bin so we don't understand where the need for a skip has come from unless they expect us to landscape the garden! It's an old property with a large garden that's pretty much stayed the same since my husband moved in, the house needs a lot of things like carpets and an updated kitchen so we suspect they are trying to get us to get them a free skip, hence not letting someone we send round, come round or they are messing us about so they can try to get us for breech of contract as it's a vacant possession? Sorry I've never sold a house before!
What gets me is we've never forced a completion date, we just suggested last Friday as it was end of month etc and they never officially agreed, just got the phone message they were 'thinking' of exchanging and completing on the same day. Then late Friday afternoon it was a case of 'oh yes they are doing it Monday, after the buyer had been round to check the place'
So if they were unhappy why would they sign papers and hand over their money, then demand we get them a skip for stuff they won't confirm needs moving?!!
Can't even face ringing the solicitor tomorrow.

Blackpool_Saver

If it was me i would pay it, I know you shouldn't have to but it will get the place sold

Davesnave

So, you inherited a house, found a buyer, sold it inside 3 months and now you are hitting the roof over the price of a skip?

Am I missing something?

Hiccups like this in a sale are very common, but they are far worse if they happen before exchange. Stay calm, find out exactly what the problem is and then decide what's reasonable.

If that means you returning at a convenient time and taking whatever it is away, then the buyers will probably settle for that, no matter what they say now.

kingstreet

You are not a passive bystander to what is happening.

Exchange can only take place when both parties agree to a completion date. So, you are going to be part of the decision making process on that.

Once exchanged, the completion date and purchase price are set legally and can't be broken (without a messy, expensive breach of contract) so you need to establish if that has happened.

The only things you want to hear are;-

- we've exchanged with completion set for xxx
- we've completed and full purchase monies have been received.

You need to establish with your solicitor exactly what is happening.

How you deal with the rubbish issue is then up to you.

greenway70

Davesnave wrote: »

So, you inherited a house, found a buyer, sold it inside 3 months and now you are hitting the roof over the price of a skip?

Am I missing something?.

Yes lol The house for sale isn't the one we inherited, it was our family home, so we know there's no 'rubbish' at the house, not really worried about the price of a skip, we've already offered them one, just to get rid of them.
We've had a long list of things they've been demanding! They wanted us to get our boiler serviced which was serviced 11 months ago, which we said fine, fair enough and then they didn't like the colour of a wall so expected us to pay to have it professionally painted, then there was a fixed plant pot they liked and wanted filling with flowers??!!!! This is why I'm stressed! Constantly looking like :huh::)
Roll on 9am!

irishcol

greenway70 wrote: »

Yes lol The house for sale isn't the one we inherited, it was our family home, so we know there's no 'rubbish' at the house, not really worried about the price of a skip, we've already offered them one, just to get rid of them.
We've had a long list of things they've been demanding! They wanted us to get our boiler serviced which was serviced 11 months ago, which we said fine, fair enough and then they didn't like the colour of a wall so expected us to pay to have it professionally painted, then there was a fixed plant pot they liked and wanted filling with flowers??!!!! This is why I'm stressed! Constantly looking like :huh::)
Roll on 9am!

No offence, but you should have told them to do one.

You've bent over so many times already that I'm not surprised they are taking the **** over soemthing else (the rubbish).

DRP

greenway70 wrote: »

Yes lol The house for sale isn't the one we inherited, it was our family home, so we know there's no 'rubbish' at the house, not really worried about the price of a skip, we've already offered them one, just to get rid of them.
We've had a long list of things they've been demanding! They wanted us to get our boiler serviced which was serviced 11 months ago, which we said fine, fair enough and then they didn't like the colour of a wall so expected us to pay to have it professionally painted, then there was a fixed plant pot they liked and wanted filling with flowers??!!!! This is why I'm stressed! Constantly looking like :huh::)
Roll on 9am!

Although you may consider doing these little jobs in order to ease through a sale, none of those things are your responsibility. Especially if you/they've exchanged .

As a previous poster mentioned, find out the exact situation from the solicitor, and if you have exchanged then a small amount of bagged rubbish outside their house isn't your problem

maninthestreet

So the sale has been completed and you.ve handed over the keys, but you are not sure how much money the buyers have actually handed over? Assuming they have paid what the contract stated, ignore any further demands these buyers make of you, unless the contract states othewise. It's their house now, so it's their responsibility.

J_i_m

Indeed, you're selling a house not running a hotel. They want flowers? Tell them to do it themselves as I highly doubt flowers are on the fixtures & fittings list