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Vendors breached contract
first78
Posts: 1,050 Forumite
After 6 months of waiting, we finally moved house last Friday...it was not the smooth move I'd hoped for!!
We completed on our house at 11.30am, we were packed and the first van full of removals was loaded by then and drove over to our new house a couple of miles away. I felt good knowing that once that was unloaded it would only take one more quick trip to load the rest of our stuff.
The estate agent advised us an hour later that our onward purchase had exchanged...great I thought!! The estate agent said the vendors were waiting on getting the keys to their new house before handing their keys in to the estate agent...again not a problem I thought. Two hours later we were still waiting...I called the estate agent and they said our vendors were still moving their stuff out of their property...I asked if we could start moving our stuff in if there was an empty room, just so we could vacate our old place. Estate agents asked our vendors who declined this.
Meanwhile at our old house the new owner asked us if he could start moving in; we agreed and he and his family helped us move the last of our stuff downstairs and he moved his stuff in upstairs.
At 4pm our vendors were still in the property...I called our solicitor and 30 mins later they agreed to give us access...they have blocked the front door and hallway with their stuff but we had access round the back to one small room where the removal guys started unloading our stuff.
The vendors did not vacate the property completely until after 6pm and we ended up paying our removal men until 8pm.
I have sent an invoice to our solicitor to pass on to the vendors as I believe they should pay the additional hours our removals took. Has anyone else been in similar circumstances? Is there anything else I should do in terms in compensation/reimbursement? The whole day was hugely stressful, more than it ever needed to be. We have 2 young children and my elderly Mum...the day was particularly difficult for her as well as being exhausting for us.
We completed on our house at 11.30am, we were packed and the first van full of removals was loaded by then and drove over to our new house a couple of miles away. I felt good knowing that once that was unloaded it would only take one more quick trip to load the rest of our stuff.
The estate agent advised us an hour later that our onward purchase had exchanged...great I thought!! The estate agent said the vendors were waiting on getting the keys to their new house before handing their keys in to the estate agent...again not a problem I thought. Two hours later we were still waiting...I called the estate agent and they said our vendors were still moving their stuff out of their property...I asked if we could start moving our stuff in if there was an empty room, just so we could vacate our old place. Estate agents asked our vendors who declined this.
Meanwhile at our old house the new owner asked us if he could start moving in; we agreed and he and his family helped us move the last of our stuff downstairs and he moved his stuff in upstairs.
At 4pm our vendors were still in the property...I called our solicitor and 30 mins later they agreed to give us access...they have blocked the front door and hallway with their stuff but we had access round the back to one small room where the removal guys started unloading our stuff.
The vendors did not vacate the property completely until after 6pm and we ended up paying our removal men until 8pm.
I have sent an invoice to our solicitor to pass on to the vendors as I believe they should pay the additional hours our removals took. Has anyone else been in similar circumstances? Is there anything else I should do in terms in compensation/reimbursement? The whole day was hugely stressful, more than it ever needed to be. We have 2 young children and my elderly Mum...the day was particularly difficult for her as well as being exhausting for us.
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Comments
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If there were no other costs, then the removal costs will be all you hope to get. There's no supplementary payments for children or parents.6
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Moves are usually difficult and stressful for some reason, but your compo is limited to your actual financial loss which you have rightly claimed. Even that will not be worth pursuing if the vendors don't pay up voluntarily.3
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Thank-you @Deleted_User and @anselld for the replies. I'm out of pocket by £240 for the additional removal time, all I want is to have this money reimbursed. How long should I give the vendors to respond after I sent the invoice to our solicitor yesterday? Obviously Christmas is coming up so I'll probably need to give them a bit longer. If they don't pay then do I need to do anything further before going down the small claims route?0
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Ask your solicitor to chase it up in the new year. Unless you're paying him additionally for this, in which case leave it.1
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Unless it was specified that the Vendors vacate before a specific time then they haven't breached a contract2
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No guarantee anyone completes around lunchtime. I've had one at 9.30am and one late afternoon. Sorry but I'd put the fault with you for not planning one trip from your old place. You should never really think more than one loading of a van is acceptable on move day.
I also never advise agreeing to be hourly price. A day price is much better for the exact reason above.2024 wins: *must start comping again!*6 -
Didn’t the contract state a time you had to vacate by, likewise same for your vendor? I’m sure mine said 1pm, our vendors also vacated by 1pm and we just had to wait, 2-3 hours until we got a call from solicitor that money had gone through and we could collect keys. We were one of last in chain so knew it would be after 3pm before we had access.2
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This. Especially in a chain...hazyjo said:Sorry but I'd put the fault with you for not planning one trip from your old place. You should never really think more than one loading of a van is acceptable on move day.
You cannot complete on the purchase until you've completed on the sale.
When the sale completes, you lose access.
When the purchase completes, you gain access.
The only time you have access to both houses simultaneously is if you can afford to OWN both simultaneously, having broken the chain.
From the OP...
The OP appears to have committed the exact same breach of contract they complain of from their vendors.first78 said:We completed on our house at 11.30am
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only take one more quick trip to load the rest of our stuff.
...
The estate agent advised us an hour later that our onward purchase had exchanged... (12.30)
...
Two hours later we were still waiting... (2.30)
...
Meanwhile at our old house the new owner asked us if he could start moving in; we agreed and he and his family helped us move the last of our stuff downstairs and he moved his stuff in upstairs. (Another hour? So 3.30 against 11.30 completion)
...
At 4pm our vendors were still in the property...I called our solicitor and 30 mins later they agreed to give us access... (4.30 against 12.30 completion)
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The vendors did not vacate the property completely until after 6pm and we ended up paying our removal men until 8pm.
By their own timescales, they did not give access to the buyer until three hours after completion, and full vacant possession until another hour or so later.
Meanwhile, their vendors did not give them access until about four hours after completion, and full vacant possession until an hour and a half later.
There may be a cry of "But that's our vendor's fault!" - well, no, not entirely because the OP's intent was never to give vacant possession on completion. Because they had that second load...
I suspect the root cause is complacency born of the close proximity of the houses - "Well, it's only a few miles, we don't need proper removals. Man + Van is just fine - but they can't fit everything in... Oh, well, we'll do a second trip."16 -
The OP's sale completed at 11.30, and their purchase at 12.30.anselld said:
Standard conditions of sale state 2pm. Hopefully the OP checked the contract first.JamoLew said:Unless it was specified that the Vendors vacate before a specific time then they haven't breached a contract
The time of completion can be varied far more easily than the requirement for vacant possession on completion.1
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