Moving House Woes

[lavenderlux]

My son Graham and his partner Alison completed the purchase of their new home on Wednesday - but since then its been a tale of woe!
Hand over time, suggested by the sellers, was 12.30 - this was fine by them as they weren't moving in that day although they had arranged a carpet cleaning company to go in at 2.30pm.  Just before 12.30 they had a call from the sellers saying they were going to be another hour so;  come 2.15 my son phoned them to see if the cleaning company could go in - no - they still were loading, so the carpet cleaning had to be cancelled (cancellation fee to be paid).   And so they waited - and waited - and it was a few minutes before 6pm when they heard from the sellers that they'd nearly finished loading.  When he collected the keys, my son knew one of the removal men and it seems the people moving out hadn't packed a thing or got things out of their loft, although they were supposed to have done - and the removal men were pretty fed up at all their extra work too.
On getting possession Graham and Alison looked round and were horrified to find they'd been left with non working appliances, fridge/freezer, tumble drier, old electric fires and more (which they will have to pay to have removed);  also the garage, the greenhouse and a 10x8ft brick garden building were full of rubbish, and more rubbish from the house dumped on the lawn.

They (and us) spent all day Thursday and Friday afternoon clearing rubbish out - four trips with a large trailer to the dump plus bin bags in the car, and probably another two  trips today.  The sellers did take with them - and we don't think they should have done - shelves from a built in unit in the house and dug up two apple trees (laden with fruit) from the garden - and also took most of the rocks from the rockery!

In contrast, over the past few weeks Graham and Alison have been packing up their respective houses, make trips to the dump with unwanted items and packing possessions and cleaning their houses as they went, ready for their sales.

The house sale contract said all items were to be removed from the premises before completion by the sellers so they've asked their solicitor if they could claim against them  - however he's said his experience in cases like this is that the sellers ignore any correspondence.

[lavenderlux]

[shirlton]

Moving house is supposed to be one of the most stressful things you can do without adding to it

[Hector]

so sorry to hear this, moving is stressful enough :(

[Ishard]

Send the people a bill through your estate agent or solicitor (recorded delivery) telling the ex owners that they broke the contract to remove rubbish etc and tell them if it is not paid by * date them you are taking them to court. Allow only 14 days for payment.

On the bill you need;

cost of hiring a rubbish removal trailer (find out how much this would be by phoning around)

Hire of car for the time needed. (again phone around for costs)

Everyones time at £10.00 per hour.

Demand the rocks,apple trees etc back (or the costs of replacements)as they are in your sale as standard (things excluded from the sale would have been listed separately)


The small claims court costs you £30.00. for a £300.00 claim, but its cheeper to do this on line its £25.00 for £300.00 claim.
Google the small claims court in your area, its dead easy to fill in the paperwork and the people at the court help if you are stuck
Book a court date with the Court and send them a copy of the document detailing the dates etc of the court.

.

Trust me they have no defence, I buy and sell houses now for a living and most times the threat of court (along with a copy of the paperwork for the court date) scares the hell out of them and you get paid.
You then cancell the court.

[rosebud]

 How absolutely disgusting, take them to the small claims court as suggested i certainly would.

We are moving in September & all had better be cleaned out or it will be the court  trust me.

[taurus]

What a rotton thing to happen.  Were the people elderly?  Will be surprised if the apple tree's survive.  Its not as if there mega expensive to buy if you shop around.  As others have suggested I would take it to court. 
Lets hope this is the only blip and they spend many happy years in their new home. 

[1066]

and also took most of the rocks from the rockery!

Nooooooooooo!
and
why!
and
that is totally bonkers!

I wouldn't bother with the legal route myself I'd just try and concentrate on the good times ahead  :)

[betula]

Some people are so selfish.

My Daughter moved over the weekend,she has spent the last few weeks sorting and packing .Also several trips to the tip.She spent most of yesterday cleaning the place out so the new people have it nice to move into.When I last moved I literally hoovered myself out the door. ;D

Such bad luck,I would not bother with the law,enjoy your new home and put it behind you :)

[lushy86]

Some people are just vile!  It isn't a good start but I agree, the job is done now and its time to enjoy the new home or it will continue to cause heart ache and spoil what should be an exciting time.  Its one of those things you end up laughing about in years to come.

Lushy x

[flossy]

   lushy is right,  moving forward is the best option after an awful experiance like that  --

   absolute shame on them, it's a digraceful way to leave a house,       >:(

   We had to fill in a form stating what we were leaving right down to curtain rails and light bulbs,

    and nothing that wasn't on the form to be left on the premises .   Agents should follow up their

    house sales and make sure it's in good condition to move into, before letting money move

    around  -  in coordination with the solicitor !     

    So sorry for them

     floss xxx

   

[ceres]

When I moved here nearly 25 years ago I had a similar thing happen.  Supposed to complete in the morning, my solicitor called to say the money transfer had happened.  Called their estate agent to arrange to pick up the keys - he didn't have them.  He eventually established that they were 'too busy' to drop the keys off.  My furniture was arriving the next day and my mother had come to help me clean the place beforehand.  Multiple angry phone calls didn't do any good - they would drop the keys off when it suited them.  Ended up sitting on the doorstep for most of the day until the agent got the keys just before closing time.  Went and picked up a Chinese takeaway and my mother and I were sitting on the floor eating it out of the containers when the doorbell rang.  There was Mr Vendor (with his large dog) saying that he had left a bottle of toilet cleaner upstairs.  He (and the dog) breezed in past me as I stood there with my mouth flapping unable to say a word.  He went upstairs and the dog nudged my mother out of the way and started on the takeaway.  By the time he came downstairs I had regained the power of speech and I suspect his final memory of his former home was not a pleasant one!   

[betula]

Good for you Ceres. ;D

I had a house once.Turned up with the van,the place was empty as the old chap had passed away but son was in there and he expressed surprise to see us and more or less said we had not wasted any time in a funny way.I ask you.Some people.

[lavenderlux]

Thank you for your replies.
We've looked at sending them a bill for clearing up rubbish and then going to the small claims court if they don't pay, but they have moved 300 miles away and if they put up a 'defence' to the claim, they could ask for the case to be heard at at court near them which would be expense and time in going there - and more stress.
I spent quite a bit of time Monday tidying the very overgrown and neglected garden, and have found lots of lovely rocks buried in the overgrown rockery, think they are York stone. I also cleared weeds from an area which appeared to have been previously cultivated and its really beautiful soil - just right for a large strawberry patch (would be ideal for vegetable growing but neither of them like vegetables) and they love strawberries!  There's also a greenhouse been left - the sellers had said they'd sold this and someone would be coming to take it away but as they are now in possession they are not going to let anyone take it - it was neglected but has cleaned up a treat.
Its a lovely cottage, originally a two up two down farm workers cottage but its been extended and more than doubled in size;  it has a good size garden, a tall hedge at the back boundary with lots of interesting trees and shrubs in it, including what I think is a 'Kiftsgate' rose growing through the hedge.

They moved in yesterday and while there's lots of unpacking to do, its looking really nice.  There's a lovely church in the village and they are planning to get married next year - and so they are going to put this behind them and start enjoying their new home (and they are quite happy for me to help with the garden, which I am going to love - I won a good quality stainless steel spade and fork in a raffle a few weeks ago which I've given them and there's a place for my spare pair of wellies in the shed!)

[lushy86]

Well that all sound so lovely, how exciting.  I think its wise to just get on with enjoying the new house and concentrate on making it into a proper home.  Good luck to them I hope they will be very happy in their new home.

Lushy x

[1066]

good to hear you have somewhere for your boots  :D

[flowerofshona2007]

We had the same ! Day we moved in there where no keys ! asked and everyone in the area had keys to our house ! had to get lock smith in.
Kitchen floor was flooded where they took the washing machine out and the floor was wood which warped ! And the downstairs electrics where shot and had to get an emergancy electrician in !
In the 'garden' we had a 10x 10 shed which was almost falling down, that was full to the roof of car parts, the house was full of junk we had 7 skips in to clear it all BUT our solicitor had insisted on £2,000 being held back until we moved in and that came back to us to cover the costs (this had been pre arranged before we completed so i highly recomend this to anyone moving).
We have still not tackled the loft yet!

[dtw]

Maybe the rocks were of sentimental value.  ;D

[Digeroo]

Must say I like the sound of a retention. 

But it is nice that tyou are now finding things to be positive about.  You had better watch that greenhouse though it might suddenly disappear.

[1066]

Maybe the rocks were of sentimental value.  ;D

;D  ;D  ;D

or maybe they were of sedimental value  :P

[Kea]

Sounds like everyone's got worse stories than me though I was pretty *annoyed!* when I turned up at this house having collected the keys with my hired carpert cleaner only to find they'd only given us one key to the front door and not the rest of the keys (inside apparently!) and kept the other key to the front door and gone shopping in Cambridge for the day for things for her new house!

After about 4 hours her husband (called out of a business meeting!!!!!) dropped off another set of the keys to the estate agent. So why was he keeping them?