Is it common for seller not to be fully moved out on completion

DaftyDuck

{ I hadn't even noticed HappyMJ had quoted it before I resurrected it... oops} >>> Runs to optician...

benjus

PasturesNew wrote: »

Thanks to HappyMJ for quoting the initial post before the OP deleted it

Many people who are selling have no idea they HAVE to be out on completion day. And some think they can start packing once they get a phone call to say they've completed.

I was selling a house the other year, not mine and I was staying there with minimal goods and clearing it in the final week before completion. Morning of completion I woke up, having dossed on the floor in the empty house and was packing my final/personal items into my car when the front door bell rang. It was the buyer - he had only JUST found out that he had to be out of the house he was selling that day too! He thought he could wait for the phone call, then get the keys to my house, then go back to his and start packing.... he was in a right 2-and-8 and asked if he could bring his stuff over and stick it in the garage before the hour of completion.

As it wasn't my house/I didn't have a van that was being loaded in the driveway etc, it was no skin off my nose, so I just said "yes" and he nearly melted with relief in front of me, before dashing off in his van to round up his mates to go empty his house!

I don't remember details now, but I'm pretty sure I received a letter from my solicitor (both when buying and selling) telling me exactly what I needed to do, including closing/opening accounts with utility firms etc. It all seemed pretty obvious stuff to me, but maybe not to some.

Is this not standard practice? Or do people just not bother reading letters?

pinkteapot

To future readers, especially FTBs:

It's not that uncommon for a seller to still be moving out a couple of hours after completion. We completed at 11am and the seller trundled off with their removal truck at 1.30pm. We then got in.

While yes, by the letter of the law, it's yours from the minute of completion, legal/financial completion often happens relatively early in the morning and removers may well still be loading up afterwards.

It's irritating, and it's why your removal company may charge a fee if moving you in goes on beyond 6pm. It's because sometimes you roll up at your new house with your removal truck, and they can't start moving you in for a bit.

This is not that uncommon and you have to take a deep breath and wait. You can call your solicitor, who can call the vendor's solicitor, and ask them to remind their client that they're meant to be gone. But if they're moving out as fast as they can you have to ask yourself what this will really achieve.

With our move before last, we completed mid-morning and the seller didn't hand over the keys until 4.30pm as they decided to self-move instead of using a remover and totally underestimated how long it would take! Fortunately, on that occasion, we were in rented and not moving in on the day.

All that being said... It's MUCH less common (rare I would guess?) for a seller not to finish moving out on completion day itself. Leaving stuff to come back for at a later date is entering the realm of taking the wotsit.

Kynthia

benjus wrote: »

I don't remember details now, but I'm pretty sure I received a letter from my solicitor (both when buying and selling) telling me exactly what I needed to do, including closing/opening accounts with utility firms etc. It all seemed pretty obvious stuff to me, but maybe not to some.

Is this not standard practice? Or do people just not bother reading letters?

Definitely not standard practice. Just as it's not standard practice to warn the buyer they have to transfer the deposit to them before exchange of contracts. It's surprising the number of buyers that catches out too. It would be good if all buyers and sellers got a little guide at the start which included details like these.

sebadee

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

For god's sake, it shows how incredibly ungrateful some people are when they want a thread that could help others to be taken down.

Think of other people for once, and put the original post back.

I was going to put it back, but the taste of your butthurt tears are just too dam sweat. Also if you had half a brain, you would see someone quoted me anyway.

DaftyDuck

sebadee wrote: »

..... if you had half a brain, you would see someone quoted me anyway.

..... and you didn't notice the quoting yourself?

sebadee

DaftyDuck wrote: »

..... and you didn't notice the quoting yourself?

I asked for the entire thread to be removed, thus 'mods, please remove this thread' - why do you think I asked that? (answer, because I was quoted).

Either way let it stay, I wanted it removed based on a discussion with my solicitor, but everything is resolved now, just a bad experience I want to put behind us now.

Apologies to all if I have been 'bitey' in my demeanour, just had a stressful few weeks buying my first home (and did not have any experience to hand on how these things work unlike a lot of the old hands in here, who I think forget they might have been there once as well).

Davesnave

I think putting stuff like this behind you is a great idea, although I reckon in years to come you'll laugh about it.

Contrary to your belief, house buying is a highly stressful business for the 'old hands' too, simply because situations human, legal and physical are so infinitely varied, there is no way any of us could hope to envisage and deal brilliantly with all those dealt up to us. That's what makes this board such compulsive reading.

For example, our last move went pretty smoothly, with the keys being left under a brick, because we wanted nothing to do with the EA. The house was almost empty too.

It was all looking good, till we reached the back garden, where the huge, smouldering pyre indicated the vendor's inability or unwillingness to take everything....and a probable change in wind direction too. It must've been quite a conflagration, judging by the hundreds of holes in the polytunnel!

nearlyrich

Glad it all worked out well in the end OP. My DD and SIL are just in the process of selling her house and buying one together, it is a lot more stressful than I remember however I bought my first house from an executor so it was empty and we bought this one whilst I still had the other one so no rush to move out.

G_M

pinkteapot wrote: »

While yes, by the letter of the law, it's yours from the minute of completion, legal/financial completion often happens relatively early in the morning .

Hmm... yes well, if quoting letter of the law:

Standard Conditions of sale 5th edition (used in most of today's residential transfers):

6.1.2 If the money due on completion is received after 2.00pm, completion is to be treated, for the purposes only of conditions 6.3 and 7.2, as taking place on the next working day as a result of the buyer's default


6.1.3 Condition 6.1.2 does not apply & the seller is treated as in default if:
a) the sale is with vacant possession of the property or any part of it, and
b) the buyer is ready, able and willing to complete but does not pay the money due on completion until after 2.00pm because the seller has not vacated the property or that part by that time.

So actually, best advice is for buyer to visit property (before 2.00) and ensure it is vacant, then release payment (perhaps by transferring to the seller's solicitor earlier 'to be held to order').

Of course in reality this is impractical, so people just wing it in terms of precise time of payment, & time property is vacated, with the result there's lots of waiting around, lots of stress, and sometimes lots of agro!