Help - buyer wants to stay on after completion??????`

Becks045

My friend completed last Monday on a house and it was a direct sale so no estate agent involved. My friend isn't actually moving in properly until this weekend.

The vendor called her and asked if he could stay on until Tuesday (i.e. an extra day and night) even though they'd completed and the house was legally my friends. She is far too nice and said YES!

When she went round to the house on the Wednesday he had left various bits of rubbish in every room and the white goods which she bought from him (dishwasher/fridge/freezer/freestanding cooker) hadn't been cleaned for months and had mouldy food inside!!!!

A lot of the fixtures that were supposed to be staying such as shelves in the kitchen, a bathroom cabinet etc. were gone.

So thats what you get for been nice. Personally I would never let someone stay in a house after I'd completed.

Good luck.

atrebor

I@m fully expecting the house to be a bombsite now I've narked them off but actually don't care if they take everything including the lightbulbs........Theres nothing like a good clean to lighten the soul and make a house your own!

atrebor

paddy's_mum wrote: »

C'mon atrebor - I've got a dinner to eat and grandchildren to get ready for bed.

What happened? What did your solicitor say? My curiosity is killing me!!!!

sorry, am staying with various inlaws and only some of them have the internet!

Nicki

Atrebor, what are you going to do if the keys aren't dropped off by 4pm on Friday? By the time you discover this, your solicitor is unlikely to be able to do much about it until the following Monday, and if your vendors aren't out by Saturday (or indeed Monday) you are going to be left standing on the pavement. You really really don't need this with two kids and a broken arm (or even without!)

If there is any way at all you can do so, I would in your shoes pick up the keys from them at 9.00 on the dot (or as soon as the money has moved). If you can't do it personally, get someone else (the agent springs to mind) to do it, from their work if necessary. If this is completely impossible, I would ask your solicitor to make it explicit to their solicitor that the keys must be available to you from 9.00 am on the day of completion and that an amount of money equivalent to the amount a locksmith will charge will be held back until the keys are released. If the keys have not been released at the time you wish to move into the property, they should be told that you will use a locksmith to gain access, change the locks and will dispose of any items left on the property. This is tough, but completely legitimate and reasonable and will protect your position in the event that these people are trying it on.

littlesos

Sorry haven't read whole thread, but just wanted to say we did this and it was a good solution all round.

We were due to complete on a Monday and our purchaser wanted to bring it forward to the Friday. We couldn't get a removal firm for love nor money on the Friday in question and with a new born baby and a toddler there was no way we were moving ourselves. We spoke to our purchaser and he said he was happy for us to stay in the house on the Friday night and move on the Saturday (we found a removers who were willing to do it for an overtime payment).
The packers came in on Thursday so everything was ready to go and we were out by 12.00 on Saturday morning.

It helped that our purchasers had already moved out of their house so all their stuff was in storage and they were going to move in bit by bit.

irnbru_2

atrebor wrote: »

Due to various reasons (including small children and broken arm) I will not be able to pick the keys up until 4pm from the estate agent and we have said - to them via both the estate agents and solicitors that they must be out by then as I am planning to occupy the property by 5pm.

Get a courier to collect the keys from the EA at 0900 and deliver them to yourself.

atrebor wrote: »

If they dont' buck their ideas up I will move heaven and earth to be on the doorstep at 9am and demand (rightfully) my possetion then.

No-one else available to go round before 4pm?

atrebor

Nicki wrote: »

Atrebor, what are you going to do if the keys aren't dropped off by 4pm on Friday? By the time you discover this, your solicitor is unlikely to be able to do much about it until the following Monday, and if your vendors aren't out by Saturday (or indeed Monday) you are going to be left standing on the pavement. You really really don't need this with two kids and a broken arm (or even without!)

.

If the agents don't have the keys on Thursday night the solicitor will have all day friday to deal with it - thats the hope. but he says he can't threaten anything until we've actually completed so as long as the agents have the keys by thurs night or friday am then we're happy.........I want' to pick the keys up from the agent , because right now I have no wish to be that close to the vendor!

atrebor

irnbru wrote: »

Get a courier to collect the keys from the EA at 0900 and deliver them to yourself.



No-one else available to go round before 4pm?

Really complicated.........Logistially its awkward. DH and myself are both 100 miles away from the house we're buying (but actually 200 miles apart) so I need to catch trains etc via my mums so she can look after the children. We're not actually moving in properly until next weekend, We want to move our stuff in and I want to get the childrens rooms looking lovely for them when they first see them - they've been through so much tooing and froing that I really wan't them to recognise "home" so if it all goes pearshaped and the vendors don't move out then the only big whoop is that DH only has this weekend before christmas to help move so if they default we will be chasing them for the cost of removal companies and all the rest of it.



I'm really trying not to get stressed about it as I don't want any negativity associated with this house (I know stupid and girlie but thats me) So Serenity all the way (ha ha;) Now to the hospital to pursuade them to remove my cast.....

paddy's_mum

atrebor - I understand that you are between a rock and a hard place but .. has your solicitor, as a matter or urgency, spoken to their solicitor? With the sellers' now hostile attitude, this has all taken a worrying downturn, in my view.

You wrote earlier today that he can't threaten "until we've actually completed". The point is, they will have your money (where you can't get at it to recover it) but you will not have the house. In my view, that is NOT completion. One party to the contract has failed to deliver!

I do not know the technicalities of it, but could you ask your solicitor if you are entitled to withold part of the money until they have actually left the property? Probably not, but perhaps worth asking.

Where are you going to sleep that night if they haven't moved out - although I suspect that if all the money has gone through, you would be fully entitled to break the door down or smash a window to gain entry to your own property. What are the sellers' going to tell the Police, should they arrive?

I think you need to drop your niceness even more and start threatening to kick the solicitor's backside too. How much effort does it take for him to ring their solicitor and give him a word to the wise as to what his clients are risking? Other than that, I'd make sure I turn up at 5pm with a gang of mates, brothers-in-law, helpers and make it very clear that I am coming into MY house, whether they like it and agree or not!

Nicki

If the agents don't have the keys on Thursday night the solicitor will have all day friday to deal with it - thats the hope. but he says he can't threaten anything until we've actually completed so as long as the agents have the keys by thurs night or friday am then we're happy.........I want' to pick the keys up from the agent , because right now I have no wish to be that close to the vendor!

[EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com?subject=Reporting post http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=7066721"][/EMAIL]

Really? That's surely the whole point of a retention, which is used rarely but in this precise situation where a vendor has hinted that they will breach the contract. Has your solicitor explicitly considered this option?

I would have a locksmith lined up to be at the property at 4.00pm just in case to be honest, and also make sure they know that their property must be out on the point of completion, otherwise they lose it so that you can move in at 4pm as planned. I suspect you will want to change the locks anyway when you move (most people do) given that the people you are buying from seem to be nasty pieces of work, and may hold back a set or not get all their sets back from others who have them, and that is a security risk. I suspect it is far cheaper to book a locksmith in advance rather than do an emergency call out, and it means that whether you have the keys or not you can still get in.

Hope the move goes well, and that despite this you enjoy your new home.