An audacious buyer?

Adly812

Sold my flat to my neighbour. We exchanged last week and we are due to complete Tuesday. So he emails me and asks if I wouldn't mind if he placed some furniture into my flat on Monday, the day before to help out his moving ?!? He did say he'd move it out if there way any problems or delay on completion... But I found this request completely comical due to the audacity? Anyone agree?

kinger101

Don't ask don't get. If you're not happy with it (not sure I'd be), just say no. I don't know what your relationship with the neighbour is like though. If I classed them as a friend, I might be a bit more open to it (assuming the place was already empty).

ThemeOne

It doesn't seem comical at all - it's just a request. You don't have to agree to it if it doesn't work for you.

Adly812

No I politely refused and stated that if it were any other situation I'd say of course, as I generally love helping ppl. But due to the legalities of the sale, I'd be really nervous to take such a big risk. I mean if the sale didn't go accordingly it would be problematic that he's already moved in. But just wondered if it was legally allowed that someone moved into the place before a complete sale?

GrumpyDil

Well as you have exchanged and presumably have a completion date the only real issue I can see would be if e.g the items were damaged and there was disagreement over when it happened. Any issue over non completion would not be affected or made more complicated by storing property.

ThemeOne

The neighbour himself is not moving in, just asking to move a few pieces of furniture in advance. Now he's exchanged, he's legally obliged to complete.

You could always ask your solicitor if you're nervous about it, but since completion is on Tuesday there's probably little point changing your decision now.

ACG

You have exchanged contracts, you are both legally bound to complete.
We had loads of delays with the house we were buying earlier this year, mostly my buyer, but partly the vendor of the house I was buying (between the 2 of them, they held everything up a month). It got to the point my gf was due to be induced on the thursday and we were due to complete on Friday.

I asked the vendor if I could get my dad to bring a couple of big bits of furniture in the garage on the thursday just to make life easier on the firday as I had a lot going on - they refused. Life goes on.

I dont really see the audacity. Its a stressful period and I would like to think most people would make things as easy as possible for one another, I would have let my buyer put stuff in the garage the day before completion if he would have asked. I would have just told him we are not liable for any damage/theft and if he was ok with that, I am ok with him putting it in the garage.

But I dont see the issue, he asked, you declined.

Muttleythefrog

Agree with the above advice given you've already exchanged... in fact for my house purchase (now over a decade ago) despite having frustrations with the sellers they were happy for me to access it as I pleased in the week before completion (which was the week following exchange). Wish they'd mentioned the alarm though! Anyway you've taken your decision and well within your rights to take it as you have. But I'd obviously suggest as above.. these are stressful events and have lots of practical difficulty often associated not least with timings.. so I would view the request as quite regular.. if not in frequency certainly in the scheme of things and they seem to have asked pretty nicely. They're not as such moving in... that would concern me..lol. You could always change your mind and email back and say "buy me a pint and I'll help you move it"..lol

davidmcn

Smb3088 wrote: »

But just wondered if it was legally allowed that someone moved into the place before a complete sale?

What do you mean by "legally allowed"? It's a contract between two parties, you can agree to vary it in any way you like. And storing some furniture isn't really "moving in", is it? You're still occupying your respective houses.

It would be audacious if he just turned up expecting you to allow him to do it, but a request seems fair enough to me.

kilby_007

In my opinion you've been a bit anal not to allow it and I don't see how it's audacious. They would have no legal reourse if you damaged any items that they had placed in your house before it was legally theirs.

ACG

kilby_007 wrote: »

In my opinion you've been a bit anal not to allow it and I don't see how it's audacious. They would have no legal reourse if you damaged any items that they had placed in your house before it was legally theirs.

They would, unless you had something in place to state otherwise.