Vendor wants to leave things in garage

Elle_Woods

freeisgood wrote: »

We did just that...moved ourselves and asked the new purchasers if we could leave items in an outbuilding for a couple of weeks....they said yes...we did, and collected the items two weeks later. Not everyone on both sides are mean spirited.

It seems a little unfair to imply that those who have advised against agreeing to the vendor's request are being mean spirited. Perhaps that wasn't your intention, but that is how it reads.

I do not think that our vendors were mean spirited for failing to be out on time or failing to collect their rubbish; just thoughtless and naive (in the same way that we were naive in agreeing to let them keep rubbish at our new home!).

It is excellent that in your transaction you both managed to come to an agreement that worked for you, and that both parties stuck to it. However, your scenario is slightly different because you left your items in an outbuilding whereas the OP has already confirmed that the garage is joined to the house. We also don't know whether the timescales are comparable because OP's vendor has not given them one yet.

My view is that a clean handover is better but I accept that other arrangements can sometimes work.

ThePants999

Not agreeing to something that would greatly help someone else, and barely cost/inconvenience you in the slightest, IS mean spirited, sorry! However, while being generous is nice in its own right, some people will take advantage of your generosity - so being mean spirited might be a good idea. Doesn't change the fact, though.

FWIW, I'd say yes, subject to a deadline and no liability.

Cakeguts

freeisgood wrote: »

We did just that...moved ourselves and asked the new purchasers if we could leave items in an outbuilding for a couple of weeks....they said yes...we did, and collected the items two weeks later. Not everyone on both sides are mean spirited.

You were totally in the wrong here. You shouldn't even have asked. People need to understand that once they have sold a house they are not entitled to leave anything there that they want even if the new owners say yes. The house outbuildings garage and anything else has to be vacant of all the sellers things on completion. That is what you signed to say that you were agreeing to do in the contract.

The contract is a legal document and agreement that you won't leave things in the house or outbuildings. You signed to say you would give vacant possession and then you decided to go back on that legal document and ask the new owners if you could not give them vacant possession.

Why did you sign the contract if you had no intention of keeping your side of it?

Cakeguts

To the OP ask your solicitor to remind the vendors solicitor that you expect vacant possession on completion which means that the house and garage must be emptied of all of the vendors possessions. If they don't agree to this they should not sign the contract to say that they do.

I get very fed up with the entitlement that some people seem to think they have. They sign legal documents but then feel entitled to do what they want even though they signed to say that they would abide by the rules of selling a house.

If someone can't get all of their belongings into their new house it is up to them to pay for storage not inconvenience the new owners.

phoebe1989seb

On a previous sale - where we were moving ourselves (long distance) - we left a few very large/heavy garden planters complete with equally large plants behind as they wouldn't fit in our removal lorry. We arranged with our buyers that they would be collected within two weeks. Before vacating the house we grouped these together in one part of the garden where they wouldn't inconvenience our buyers. DH was still working in the area so popped over in a hire van to collect these as promised within the specified time frame. We kept our side of the bargain and no-one suffered any loss.

Currently we are exchanged on our sale but have only just had an offer accepted on the property we're buying. We have little-to-no chance of tying in our purchase with our sale and have around a hundred filled garden planters - a couple are 1m in diameter - that won't be able to go into storage/the temporary holiday let we're probably going to end up in.

Prior to exchange our buyers very kindly offered for us to leave them here till our purchase completes* which of course they are under no obligation to do - but as it's been their delays that have dragged out the process it's something they have offered to do.

Our current garden is fairly large, so again these won't be in anyone's way - we've checked this with our buyers - and we wouldn't dream of taking the proverbial so will offer them something by way of thanks

* Edited to add - we are fast-tracking our purchase, so the plants/planters are likely to be here two weeks beyong completion at most.

Elle_Woods

ThePants999 wrote: »

Not agreeing to something that would greatly help someone else, and barely cost/inconvenience you in the slightest, IS mean spirited, sorry! However, while being generous is nice in its own right, some people will take advantage of your generosity - so being mean spirited might be a good idea. Doesn't change the fact, though.

FWIW, I'd say yes, subject to a deadline and no liability.

The problem is that we don't know yet that it will barely cost/inconvenience OP in the slightest; the parameters are not yet clear enough.

And I disagree that not agreeing to such an arrangement is mean spirited; it would be kind or generous to agree, but there should be no expectation that a buyer would. A buyer has no obligation (moral or legal) to do so that they would be in breach of by saying no. I think that it's a neutral act rather than an actively mean one.

I agree with the points you raise about generosity potentially being abused and the need for deadlines and exclusion of liability.

Cakeguts

phoebe1989seb wrote: »

On a previous sale - where we were moving ourselves (long distance) - we left a few very large/heavy garden planters complete with equally large plants behind as they wouldn't fit in our removal lorry. We arranged with our buyers that they would be collected within two weeks. Before vacating the house we grouped these together in one part of the garden where they wouldn't inconvenience our buyers. DH was still working in the area so popped over in a hire van to collect these as promised within the specified time frame. We kept our side of the bargain and no-one suffered any loss.

Currently we are exchanged on our sale but have only just had an offer accepted on the property we're buying. We have little-to-no chance of tying in our purchase with our sale and have around a hundred filled garden planters - a couple are 1m in diameter - that won't be able to go into storage/the temporary holiday let we're probably going to end up in.

Prior to exchange our buyers very kindly offered for us to leave them here till our purchase completes* which of course they are under no obligation to do - but as it's been their delays that have dragged out the process it's something they have offered to do.

Our current garden is fairly large, so again these won't be in anyone's way - we've checked this with our buyers - and we wouldn't dream of taking the proverbial so will offer them something by way of thanks

* Edited to add - we are fast-tracking our purchase, so the plants/planters are likely to be here two weeks beyong completion at most.

You don't understand do you? You can't do this if you want to keep those plants they have to be out of the garden at completion so before the money from your buyers go into the bank. If you don't do this they become the property of the new owners. Once the money goes into the bank account on completion your buyers own the whole house and the garden and anything left in it. Anything that you said was not included in the sale has to be removed by you before the sale. When you come to sell the house you will sign the contract and the contract which is an agreement between you and your sellers says that in exchange for money you will sell your property VACANT of all your property. It doesn't say that you will sell your property with your plants still in their garden for you to go round and collect when you feel like it. It doesn't matter that the pots are all down one end you don't have the right to leave them anywhere in a garden that doesn't belong to you. Once you have completed the garden ceases to belong to you. You are relying on the goodwill of your buyers to allow you to break the contract you have signed about vacant possession.

You say selfishly that no one suffered any loss when you left the plants last time. Well actually they did. Your buyers lost the ability to use part of their garden that they owned because someone who had no right to do it left plants in it until they felt like collecting them.

Why do you think that you are so special that you can store plants in a garden belonging to someone else?

If the plants won't go in the removal van on removal day then you remove them before completion day and find somewhere to store them. You do not use someone else's garden as free storage.

davidmcn

Cakeguts wrote: »

If you don't do this they become the property of the new owners.

No, the contract only includes the sale of the contents specified in it - it doesn't give the buyer the ownership of additional items left behind.

ThePants999

Elle_Woods wrote: »

And I disagree that not agreeing to such an arrangement is mean spirited; it would be kind or generous to agree, but there should be no expectation that a buyer would. A buyer has no obligation (moral or legal) to do so that they would be in breach of by saying no. I think that it's a neutral act rather than an actively mean one.

There doesn't have to be an obligation or an expectation for you to do something before it becomes mean spirited not to do it. I mean, there are different degrees of "mean spirited" - we're not talking Scrooge levels here. If the OP actually wanted to make use of that garage space immediately, I'd agree that it would be a neutral act to refuse to suffer pain/inconvenience yourself in order to avoid somebody else suffering similarly. If we're talking about a few days' use of some space that would otherwise be empty... yeah, I still think it's mean spirited to say no, even though I'd completely understand. (I'm pretty mean spirited myself in a number of ways.)

ThePants999

Cakeguts wrote: »

You do not use someone else's garden as free storage.

Unless, y'know, you ASK, and they say yes. I don't understand why you think it's so unreasonable when this was done with the agreement of the new owners. Obviously it would be totally out of line to do it without asking, or if they'd said no, but they said yes. That effectively modifies the contract that you value so highly.