Vendor is insistent on visiting after completion

Abbafan1972

Josiea said:

Oh and also, when he was clearing his things out of our garage whilst we were in the lounge, we heard talking and looked in the garage through the door (adjoined to the house) and he had invited someone he had ended up talking to on the street into our garage for a chat… it is our house now and he didn’t have permission to do that. It feels as if he is constantly crossing our boundaries. 

Well, that is bang out of order!  I hope you said something.

Have you checked the particulars of the sale?  Is there anything in there to say the previous occupant was included in the sale?  Lol!

Skiddaw1

teachfast said:

Both are reasonably well-known urban legends that occasionally appear in film (including recently on Netflix  no spoilers!)

Perhaps so, but as I say, the incident I referred to (a close friend) happened. Poor former occupant had significant mental health issues and thankfully his family came swiftly to our friend's rescue. I can see why it sounds like an urban myth however. It's not common (hopefully) to discover you have the equivalent of Bertha Mason hiding in your new attic.

GDB2222

Josiea said:

Oh and also, when he was clearing his things out of our garage whilst we were in the lounge, we heard talking and looked in the garage through the door (adjoined to the house) and he had invited someone he had ended up talking to on the street into our garage for a chat… it is our house now and he didn’t have permission to do that. It feels as if he is constantly crossing our boundaries. 

You sound like a really nice person, so don't let this turn you into a nasty one. You don't have to put up with a situation you don't like. Equally, you can handle this in a dignified and kind way. 

Just tell the guy calmly (again!) that you don't want him coming round for his post any more, nor will you be delivering it. You should acknowledge that it will take him a week or two to get RM to start redelivering.  During that two weeks, you will be happy to readdress any letters and put them back in the post. He needs to supply you with say 10 pre-addressed sticky labels for that purpose, please. 

Also, you can tell him that after the two weeks, you will bin the obvious junk mail and put the rest back in the post marked RTS. 

Bear in mind that RM redirection is a bit hit and miss. They don't catch everything that should be redirected.

This may help:
https://www.reallymoving.com/help-and-advice/change-of-address-checklist

Perhaps, you could print it out and give it to him?

yksi

teachfast said:

Both are reasonably well-known urban legends that occasionally appear in film (including recently on Netflix  no spoilers!)

Probably based on real-life events!

I have been sitting in my living room when a complete stranger walked in. I sat there in complete shock - I was breastfeeding my baby at the time and hadn't thought I needed to lock myself in. I think I said "Excuse me?" or something like that, and they said they were looking for such-and-such... I say, there's no such-and-such here... they ask if I am sure?

I had lived there for more than a year at that point and this person, having presumably not seen their friend for at least a year, still felt comfortable enough to walk into their friend's house unannounced.

So don't be so fast to insist that people you don't know wouldn't take inappropriate liberties with someone else's home.

Slinky

yksi said:

teachfast said:

Both are reasonably well-known urban legends that occasionally appear in film (including recently on Netflix  no spoilers!)

Probably based on real-life events!

I have been sitting in my living room when a complete stranger walked in. I sat there in complete shock - I was breastfeeding my baby at the time and hadn't thought I needed to lock myself in. I think I said "Excuse me?" or something like that, and they said they were looking for such-and-such... I say, there's no such-and-such here... they ask if I am sure?

I had lived there for more than a year at that point and this person, having presumably not seen their friend for at least a year, still felt comfortable enough to walk into their friend's house unannounced.

So don't be so fast to insist that people you don't know wouldn't take inappropriate liberties with someone else's home.

My dad told me the story of many, many years ago, his dad came home from the pub one night, let himself in the house with his key, went to hang his hat up on the rack, only to discover there was no rack. He was in the wrong house. This would have been back in the 1920s, door keys were way more simple then, and a neighbour's house must have had the same lock as his.

He went back out and locked the door behind him.

We rented our old house out, the tenants gave notice and moved out, we went up to the house after he'd gone and discovered he'd left the casement windows upstairs wide open. Would have been open all night if we hadn't gone there. The following morning (bearing in mind our car was on the drive) we were in the kitchen having breakfast, when the tenant let himself back in with a key he was supposed to have returned. Said he'd come to check for some post...... 

Marvel1

lincroft1710 said:

 Many years ago a neighbour came home to find the previous owner in his hallway.


"just called round to collect any post, I still have a key just in case" previous owner said jauntily.


Previous owner left rather hastily minus his key

And some posters wonder why the first advice to new property is change the locks.

Jumblebumble

Josiea said:

Hi All,

We completed on the purchase of our first property at the end of April. Firstly, when we collected the keys from him, it felt as if he was reluctant to give us them and did a full tour of the house all over again and it took over an hour for him to hand our keys over and leave the property. The vendor left the shed and garage full of his rubbish upon completion, our solicitor held money back from him until he had moved his items. It took him two weeks and multiple visits to move his stuff and even still, he had left a number of small things laying around which we overlooked.

 He has not had his post redirected and constantly shows up at our house to collect it completely unexpectedly and then calls our numbers when we don't answer the door to ask where we are. We either have to arrange for him to collect his post or drop it off to him every week or so. This proves difficult as we are both working full time and barely get any time to ourselves as it is. He constantly shows up on our street and talks to neighbours etc, which is fine but its becoming strange. 

We had to tell him to get a redirection, which he still hasn't and he seems frosty with us now. I don't want him to gossip to our neighbours about us. 

Where do we stand legally if he continues to bother us? 

Thanks

We had an old chap clearly suffering from dementia keep turning up at our previous flat insisting he lived there.
I imagine that  police involved social services which resolved the situation

firebubble

You do need to get the post thing sorted, as (worst case) your property could be used for fraud. I know someone who bought a property and the seller's wife wanted to keep her credit card bills coming to the old house, which also meant she started to be linked to my friend for credit purposes, and it took some effort to sort out - hard to argue that you don't know this person after they've apparently shared your address for over a year.

When I bought my flat, the seller asked for post to be 'temporarily' redirected. I was happy to do this but after a month or two it was clear he hadn't bothered with setting up redirection (nor had a number of historic tenants). Initially I put the post back in the post box marked RTS, but I don't think it gets to many companies, so a few months later I started opening the post and phoning the companies to say that they were sending it to the wrong address and that person doesn't live here any more. That did the trick. No one is going to prosecute you for opening letters which are deliberately misaddressed (which is what this is), and most companies are grateful someone has let them know.

Also change the locks (including the garage!) for peace of mind. 

Agree with everyone else to suggest you block his number and stop him calling you - if he asks, pretend you changed your phone. It won't necessarily stop him coming round, but again, he has to actually take the trouble to come round to chat so it just puts that little additional barrier in place.

If he turns up and invites someone into the garage again, politely say, oh, I'm so sorry - I need to do some work here so you'll need to leave, then guide them to the kerb. Keep repeating that you need them to leave to stop their conversation from continuing, and if they start talking before they've left your property, interrupt them politely to reiterate that they need to leave as you have things to do. 

Another thing is to change the external appearance of the house - change or paint the front door and the garage, change or add net curtains, alter the garden planting, get a new number or name plate, add a gate. Anything you can think of to underline it's not his property any more.

hazyjo

firebubble said:

I know someone who bought a property and the seller's wife wanted to keep her credit card bills coming to the old house, which also meant she started to be linked to my friend for credit purposes, and it took some effort to sort out - hard to argue that you don't know this person after they've apparently shared your address for over a year.

Just to confirm, they wouldn't be financially linked. Debt and credit are linked to individuals, not addresses.

That's not to say it's a good idea to let them share your address 🤣

london21

I would be firm because if you do not set boundaries this behaviour will continue.
The seller is emotionally attached to their property but once sold they will have to move on.

communicate your concerns to them.

block their number.

I will say start writing return to sender and put back in the post box, over time the letter will reduce and stop.

change the locks 

Do not care what the neighbours or others might think.