Advice please, sellers want 24 hours to move out after completion!

missprice

Our last house purchase, (we knew we couldn't move in as we needed to do so much work) was iirc completed at 11am and we were called to collect keys at 2pm.
Even knowing that nothing was in the house (probate sale) we changed locks same day. We both came up, I was left to wander about and meet any stray/nosy neighbours and OH took old locks out, went to a locksmith place, returned and fitted new. Took him half hour for removing old and fitting front door euro lock, took him around another hour to do back door mortice lock.
Cant stress enough to change locks soonest. We found out later that the previous owner had carers and multiple family all of whom could well have had keys, and the neighbour handed there set of keys to us saying they probably no use now.

headachesrus

Although completion is tomorrow, there is absolutely no definitive time of when during the day completion should take place. He can be in possession of the property until 11.59 p.m. and not be in breach of contract.


The usual procedure is for him to remove his furniture possessions etc, and either take his keys to the estate agents, or if it has been previously agreed, hand them direct to you at the property. You have to give him time to do this. Turning up at 9 a.m. is just going to antagonise the situation.


Sit tight at home, ring your solicitor as early as, to confirm legal completion has taken place, then keep on at the agent to see whether he has dropped the keys in and that the solicitors have released them, and you can pick them up.


And breathe!


Hope the move goes well, just remember a little give and take on all sides.

Kaos_2

headachesrus wrote: »

Although completion is tomorrow, there is absolutely no definitive time of when during the day completion should take place. He can be in possession of the property until 11.59 p.m. and not be in breach of contract.


The usual procedure is for him to remove his furniture possessions etc, and either take his keys to the estate agents, or if it has been previously agreed, hand them direct to you at the property. You have to give him time to do this. Turning up at 9 a.m. is just going to antagonise the situation.


Sit tight at home, ring your solicitor as early as, to confirm legal completion has taken place, then keep on at the agent to see whether he has dropped the keys in and that the solicitors have released them, and you can pick them up.


And breathe!


Hope the move goes well, just remember a little give and take on all sides.

That is music to my ears. We don't mind if it takes him until midnight to move out, we just want to have the long weekend to begin some work we want to do there, start moving etc. Mostly we just want it to be right and legal and have a roof over our heads in time for the date we have to move out of our rented one (the landlord is moving back from abroad after 14 years of us living here). We are happy to give leeway, we're just scared of getting something wrong

AnnieO1234

I could be wrong, but just as a brief aside, don't all items in the property become owned by the new buyer on completion?

Something is very dodgy here, especially if OP's solicitors have exchanged knowing that this is happening, and more importantly not asking OP for confirmation they're now willing to exchange. xxx

Kaos_2

DaftyDuck wrote: »

If you have now exchanged, it will happen - and yes, I know there are scare stories on here to the contrary, but they are so rare and so unlikely.

So, take a deep breath, and another. The guy is obviously a pillock (wonder if that gets edited out) of the first order. He will have pee'd off the estate agent, his solicitor and, in all likelihood, his ex- and your soon-to-be- next door neighbours. He will be out, and you will be in.Yes, it would be advisable to change the locks, but a good old-fashioned bolt will do while you are there.

I doubt you will need the police. We did on moving in here... not that I knew, as the agent dealt with it all... the daughter refused to leave, and handcuffed herself to the stairs. Where did she get handcuffs? Makes one blush!

Moving house turns some people into right ... well, the swear filter will delete all the choice words, but you get the picture. It's the "Englishman's home is his castle..." and belief that their "home" is something special, as are they. I've seen quite a bit of it, hopefully done none of it myself.

I would really, really not engage in any further conversations with the seller. If you have a phone or video, take it with you on completion and quietly (don't be inflammatory) record anything that happens. Audio will be fine. Always act calmly & politely (sounds like you would) and, if there are any difficulties, inform your solicitor.

Personally, I would be wary of granting any extra time, especially as the pillock seems intent to grab & take; give him an inch, he may take a mile. However, I understand it may be quietly politic to do so. If you do so, only do it with your solicitor guiding you.

Toolstation
do next day delivery, free for over £10, before noon for an extra fiver. That linked page has a sample of their door locks. You could always order a couple of probably-right ones. What kind of door is it, maybe in estate agent photos?

If he leaves tonnes of junk, it may well be worth taking pictures; you can chase him for costs, but I'd chalk it up to experience, and move on if you can.

But, hold the thought that this home will be yours. He's selling his house, you will make it home. Oh, and I'm guessing the neighbours may be very, very glad to see you!

Thankyou, I appreciate the time taken to write that. We're average (and I think) nice people, like you say we'll remain polite and we are happy to give a bit (although less now than 24 hours ago due to his attitude). The solicitors seem confident that it will work out and the EAs... well... I think they were oblivious but they're having to get up to speed fast.
We will ensure that we have phones available to record, big friends on standby, will take solicitor's advice, and will certainly be changing the locks once we're "in" (OH will sort it). I hope the neighbours welcome us and aren't like the sellers
This is a huge deal for us, we're in our late 30's and are buying our first house, we didn't think we'd ever get on the housing ladder and it's all happened so fast! 2 months ago we had no intention of buying a house! :eek:

cloo

This 'needs down payment from the sale' sounds a bit alarming to me! And in fact not a reason for you to wait to move if it's the case he's going into rented anyway.

Tixy

Because of what your seller has said so far and how they have behaved I would no longer be treating this as a normal scenario.

If you get confirmation that completion has happened by mid-morning then I would definitely ensure that you have access to the property and locks changed a good couple of hours before the solicitors close.

You might then still choose to let them have access for a while longer, but I'd want that to be only on my terms and only if I was certain I'd be able to access the property myself over the weekend.

Congrats on your purchase by the way, and hopefully tomorrow will all run smoothly and you can get on with the excitement of owning your own place.

Nick_C

Kaos, you said you've exchanged contracts today. You must make sure you have insurance in place today!! You can get instant cover on line.

You have made a binding commitment to buy the property. If it gets damaged by fire or flood tonight you are still buying it! And if you are getting a mortgage, it will be a condition of the mortgage that you have insurance in place from exchange.

I must say your conveyancer sounds useless. They should have made it clear to you when exchange was taking place and got confirmation from you on the day that you still wanted to exchange. They shouldn't have been asking for a deposit in advance of exchange either, although they would have needed cleared funds to be in place by the day on which exchange was planned.

Errata

Hope everything goes well and you don't end up paying a day's mortgage payment for a property you can't use.

Kaos_2

Tixy wrote: »

Because of what your seller has said so far and how they have behaved I would no longer be treating this as a normal scenario.

If you get confirmation that completion has happened by mid-morning then I would definitely ensure that you have access to the property and locks changed a good couple of hours before the solicitors close.

You might then still choose to let them have access for a while longer, but I'd want that to be only on my terms and only if I was certain I'd be able to access the property myself over the weekend.

Congrats on your purchase by the way, and hopefully tomorrow will all run smoothly and you can get on with the excitement of owning your own place.

I agree completely.
OH has just spoken to the EA and they suggested it would be easier for both seller and us if the key hand-over was done in person at the house as my partner works close to the house but the estate agents are in the next town (meaning both seller and OH would have to travel the same route to drop off/pick up keys). I've told him to tell them that's not acceptable now, with everything that's gone on in the last 24 hours. We knew the EAs had a reputation of being useless and they seem to be living up to it.
I just hope somebody somewhere is speaking to the seller as we're not any more. Their solicitors have a bad reputation

Oh, and thanks, it would be great to be able to celebrate a new house and not be frantically worrying that it's all going wrong!