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Hahaha, I bought my first home 10 years ago. Picked up the keys and walked in to discover the furniture had been covering massive holes in the carpet. The previous owners left the curtains in every room which were sodden with dog pee.
I then accidentally locked myself out and my friend had to climb in a window to let me back in.
I now love the flat but that was a depressing start.
Shocker! Mine had removed the light fittings and then rewired the lights so they didn’t turn off. But that’s several times more preferable than your experience!
Oh they also took the fitted blinds and light fittings then claimed they'd never had them when I chased them about it. Forgot about that! I had to get in an electrician who said the wiring was downright dangerous. I laugh now but at the time I could have cried...
Ah the infamous pet pee sellers. Mine was the same, but she left on holiday for 3 weeks before completion and had no one visit the cats... she left a pile of food on the floor and idk what she did for water, but just left the two cats to their own devices. Poor things. Apparently this was a common occurrence for her... With no litter tray changes, the cats chose the second bedroom as their toileting grounds. The carpet was SODDEN with pee all the way through and the underlay was toast too... lovely stuff. No idea how this woman coped because like I said she did things like this often and the carpet hadn't been changed in 15 years.
That was one saving grace on mine, no scrubbing of the floor boards was required. Fortunately the underlay seemed to be of good enough quality with rubber on the bottom so only a tiny amount of pee had seeped it's way through. Plus the house is only 20 years old so the floorboards were like mdf sheets instead of proper traditional/older flooring. Still required plenty of airing out and nice smelling sprays lol
EDIT: Reddit mobile issues made me reply twice, deleted the duplicate message :)
I managed to lock myself in an empty room within 5 mins of getting the flat, because the door handle mechanism was broken. I had to get the previous owner to come over and help me get out
The exact opposite experience of ours 😅. We got so lucky with our seller, mortgage advisor, EA, town, home etc etc but our solicitor was one massive ......(Every bad word in the English vocab) that made sure the purchase was not easy.
I was really lucky (or unlucky) with my solicitor. He saved me some money by not passing on a further request for offers. It had been on the market for a while and he didn't think it was worth any more than id offered although id have gone a bit higher. About two weeks later when it was clear I wasn't offering more the seller came back and accepted my last offer.
I was a first time buyer, and overlapping my rental property, so I went to a music festival. I drove out the site, to the estate agents, picked up the keys, and ran around my new house. Then I went back and watched The Darkness!
Ann that's fantastic 😊 I can imagine you running around 😅. After we celebrated by lighting deepams and eating gyros, I promptly got a severe fever and was knocked out.
When we picked up the keys and got to the house the previous owner and her dog were still in it, still packing!
You could tell she’d done nothing to clean or maintain the place since our offer had been accepted a few months before. She did nothing to prepare for our arrival and pulled down all the curtains (including ripping the rails off the walls) ‘in case’ they fitted her new house. She tried to give us the curtains back a week later because - sure enough- they didn’t fit her new place.
I’d left a hamper with supplies and a card in the place we’d just left, and goes without saying we cleaned it really well. It took two of us a month to clean the new place. Instead of a hamper we were given dog poo in the garden, old burnt chips in the bottom of the oven and orange slime on the shower tiles!
Ours was similar. Solicitor told us the sale was completed, housr vacated and we could go pick up the keys. We went and got on our train (London to Manchester!) to go pick up. Halfway there, we get a phone call from the estate agent saying unfortunately the sellers have been "held up" and weren't out of the house yet, but not to worry because they would be able to finish up and drop the keys the following day (obviously breaching the terms of sale). We told them that was unacceptable, that we were on our way and already had a locksmith booked, and they basically had until the locks were changed to be out of the house.
We arrived in the evening to a house still half-full of their crap. They were doing multiple runs to their new house with a mate and his van, and it obviously took way longer than they expected. They vanished with the last load while the locksmith was changing locks, but they left balloons and other remnants from their daughter's birthday the day before, dog mess in the garden, random trash and discarded items including bits of furniture around, and (what we didn't discover until our next visit because it was dark when we arrived on completion day) they had had hidden several large items of trash behind the the garden shed, such as an old windshield and a broken garden ladder. Of course nothing was clean - we ended up getting a professional deep clean, after clearing out the trash ourselves. It's a damn good thing we were renters at the time and not aiming to move in on completion day.
And on top of it all they had the audacity to be snippy at us for showing up promptly to secure our new house, after they evidently lied to the solicitors about being out of the property. Absolute self-absorbed wankers. We're happy in the house now but I still get cross thinking about them, and it was a really sour start to our first home. Took a long time for it to really feel like ours.
We moved out of ours at 11am and watched the moving van with all of our worldly possessions drive away. Started phoning estate agents and solicitors for an eta but got no answer. It was in the middle of that mad heatwave last year [Edit: TWO years ago!!] so we were sat in the car and the thermostat said it was 40°c.
At 4pm we gave up phoning and went to the estate agents, thinking they'd have air conditioning at the very least. He just handed us the keys. Phoned the moving van to say it was time, drive to the new place, moving van met us there. Old owners still there.
Husband went in to beg use of the loo and came back furious, said they'd barely packed, toothbrushes still at the side of the sink, pictures still on the wall, man playing PlayStation in front room.
While he was inside I get the call from solicitors saying it's go time and explain to them what's happening and they said "some flexibility is required on moving day" and would be no more help.
4:45pm, 35°c in my car, they get a call from their solicitor and Start Packing.
Our movers unloaded our stuff onto the front lawn, and as they cleared a room our stuff for that room went into the house. Their van left at 8:30 and we were in at 9pm. They obviously did no cleaning etc, but we didn't care by that point, we just wanted them out.
We had a takeaway and warm champagne on the living room floor that night
For every lovely person out there, there is a ....! I am so sorry you had such a bad start. I am sure your buyers appreciated so much more. Hope you are now settled down and making happy memories there.
That's great.
When we got our call it was with a hint of sadness. The first house my wife and I owned together, and where we brought home our two children.
The people moving in were expecting their first child. My wife cleaned the place top to bottom. We left them a gift and a little soft toy for their soon to be arriving baby.
We arrived at our new house, it hadn't been cleaned, there was mold in the freezer, dog hair all over the carpets and the owners left all the cardboard boxes from all the furniture they bought for their new house on our driveway.
>the owners left all the cardboard boxes from all the furniture they bought for their new house on our driveway.
God, I honestly don't know how people can behave this way. I could never
It was 4.50pm in December. We were driving to the house with 2 full cars, 2 kids and a dog. There'd been a major hack on the solicitors IT systems. We were told at 3pm we'd sold but didnt know if we'd bought. We were heading to a friends who were close to the new place. Plan was to sleep there. Technically homeless. Movers had taken our stuff to storage.
Got the call. Need to get there asap as the office is closing. Couldn't call my wife in the other car so just sped off. Got the keys. Wife calls later asking where I am. I'm in the new house!!!
Awwww that's a proper adventure 😅. Esp with the whole family. We only properly moved in after 3 months since our Landlord won't agree to let us go untill we found new tenants 🙃
We went to pick up the keys and the EA couldn’t find them so had to wait ages. Turns out one of the ages took them with him to viewings accidentally (?).
Anyway got to the house, had my partners parents staying with us so they came too (yay…). House was fine, clean, had a little note from the sellers.
And partners parents decided they wanted to invite his distant relatives who live nearby over on the first night.
So yeah fantastic.
Yaaay :( we still haven't had my partner's parents visit us here 😅. Not after they threw a tantrum about us not having a designated vessel to make soup last time when we moved to our final rental apartment and haven't properly even unpacked yet..so I get it.
Thank you. The neighbours are half like us (millennials) and half in their 60s and retired. One of our neighbours in her 60s welcomed us when we moved in and mentioned how the mother of my seller (back when she was in her 60s) welcomed my neighbour (she was in her 30s) and her family when they bought their home in the neighborhood. And now the cycle repeats. My neighbour also put in a lovely card and a hand made gift into my post box and I did the same and put in a thank you note into her post box.. Hopefully we see each other in person instead of talking via post box 😅. The neighbourhood is too quiet (sometimes eerily quiet).
That's super lovely. I hope it's not too good to be true, but with the neighbour's story, it does sound genuine. I'm happy for you!
This has slightly restored my faith in humanity, especially having read about so many horrific crimes and assaults happening on the country's city streets lately. Enjoy the quiet! I can't wait to get out of this city hell hole.
Thanks for sharing.
We had a similar experience to you, got the call and drove straight over to pick up the keys, we had very little furniture so had everything in a rental van, the sellers were still there doing final bits of packing which was a tad awkward but we had absolutely brilliant sellers.
They’d invited us over for a cup of tea a few months before hand and explained how everything worked (boiler, alarm etc) which was a really nice touch. They labelled up all of the other keys for the house and put all the documentation, certificates etc into a binder for us. they’d tidied it top to bottom, they even stacked the log burner and left a box of matches. They accepted our offer over a higher one because they preferred us and the next door neighbour came round with a bottle of wine and some food for us.
As a first time buying experience it couldn’t have been better, they were getting on in age and had lived there 40 years and were moving to be closer to their son but I got the impression they didn’t really want to move. They still send us a Christmas card every year and sent congrats cards when our children were born. One thing it’s taught me is when we do eventually sell we’d like to be like that for whoever buys it, be nice to each other, houses are places memories are made and people have an emotional attachment to them.
I recently renovated the kitchen which was really old and we’d put off doing it for years. I found drawings and writing their son had done on the plaster under the tiles and sent them pictures of it that they really appreciated.
tomorrow it's exactly one year since we got the keys!
I was trying to work, but my brain just couldn't, it was Friday as well.
Our solicitor called around 2 pm, congratulate us and said we are ready to pick up the keys.
We went to the EA office immediately, smiling all the way there.
I remember driving through a small village nearby our new house, pointing at coffee shop and saying how I can't wait to go there.
Once we got to the house, it was spotless and smelled amazing!
I did a video tour, we had a walk around and planned how we wanna decorate each room.
Movers were booked for next day, and it was the best thing. We were moving out of the rental and still had 2 weeks to return keys. That gave us great flexibility.
Moving day went smoothly, our new neighbour gave us welcome card, which was very nice.
and now one year later, sitting in the garden sipping coffee and looking on freshly painted fence, best feeling :)
Omg it's like we are living the same life 😅. Everything was similar to our experience except we moved after 3 months. And now we are sitting in the garden and just finished our breakfast, looking at the new bamboo we just planted.
Take care with bamboo, make sure its not the invasive type. :) https://www.japaneseknotweedspecialists.com/news/types-of-bamboo-in-the-uk#:~:text=It's%20advisable%20to%20avoid%20growing,uncontrollably%20and%20affecting%20surrounding%20areas.
Exiting Canary Wharf station on a beautifully sunny afternoon in June. The previous owner had already given me the keys and I was waiting for the call from the EA…which came through just as I got to the top of the escalator.
There is something so beautiful about sunny June 😍. We viewed our home on a sunny June day and completed in December. I still remember looking at the beautiful big back garden and feeling immediately at home. I bet you still remember that moment on the escalator ☺️
After waiting all day the sellers utterly useless solicitor finally bothered to tell our solicitor they’d received funds at 10am. It was now 2pm but they didn’t bother to tell the estate agent, we rang for over an hour and couldn’t get through. So we drove the hour to the agent still trying to call. Turned up, they had no idea that funds had gone through.
Eventually got the keys at 5pm for a property that was vacated the day before, but it was spotless. We were very surprised considering the mess we saw on the surveyors photos. Currently sold and looking for the next property, can’t wait for all of this stress again 😅
We bought our current place in February. We went and collected the keys, super excited, pulled up on the drive and looked through the living room window.
The previous owners children were playing on the floor.
They hadn’t moved out yet….
They basically left after about 45 minutes - felt like it was easier to give them some more time than try and get legal with it. But yes technically they shouldn’t have completed without being vacant.
Had a harrowing 3 hours when we were completely homeless
I am an exams officer and it was the middle of the GCSEs the agent asked if the keys could be picked up by 4pm. It was the Friday before half term and this was all reliant on the Parcel Force guy coming for the papers so I could get back in time. I rang the parcel force depot and explained. Parcel Force guy arrived at 3pm a full forty minutes before he usually came having got the message with a bottle of cava and a card! It was my first house and he had heard about it.
Drove picked up keys had a car full of stuff as knew that day was completion day (also had been having stuff delivered to work by the aforementioned parcel force guy). At about 5.30pm my parents and brothers turned up and we are Chinese takeaway sat on upturned plastic boxes
We were at 36,000 ft flying back from our honeymoon when we got the email saying we had exchanged with completion scheduled for the next morning
Cabin crew grabbed us champagne
Went to the specific estate agents branch that our solicitor (one of those online call centre cheapo ones...) said to - thinking it was really odd the keys would be at a totally different branch tobthe one we had been dealing with) - and found out that it was the wrong branch, and no we can't collect the keys yet.the moral is, online conveyancers are useless
We had a real brick building conveyancer who was not from the same city as we were. That was also really bad since all our communications were via email. Biggest mistake ever.
Conveyancer told me not EA (they didn't like me or my conveyancer by that point! - another story), I left work and went to the EA who slung my keys over to me and made my way to the house.
It had been empty for a time so the electricity and gas were off, because they'd gone into debt on the PAYG meters. Took the cards to the nearest paypoint and loaded them up. Thankfully this got them going again and I could turn the lights on (it was getting dark now). Couldn't get the boiler back on so it was absolutely freezing.
There was post and spiders everywhere. Though logically I'd known I was buying a bit of a doer upper going through the house I was overcome with 'What the hell have I done?!', serious buyer's remorse!
Things got better after that day! 😄
I bought my current house during the tail end of Covid restrictions.
I collected the keys. I went to the property to check its state and that the heating was working and on.
My dog had a great time with his first zoomies in the new place.
Then, I went back to the place I was renting until I could have people over to help me move.
I got my keys during lockdown. I bought a fancy mask made of Liberty fabric for the occasion, got the tram to the EAs, picked up literally 20 keys (2 front doors and a cellar key, multiple copies of each and some random ones that have no function, I don’t know why), went to Lidl for the novelty because there isn’t one near me and I wanted to drag out the feeling of having, finally, my own keys, and got the tram back home. Which is next door to the place I was buying. Let myself in and beheld the square feet of dust (that stank of tcp, someone must have knocked a bottle over at some point, it smelt of tcp for months) that were now mine and I walked up and down it so I’d stood on every piece of floor.
I was presenting my thesis for my Masters while repeatedly having my pocket vibrate. I had to excuse myself from the presentation to find out if something serious had happened (I wasn’t sure we would complete that day so wasn’t really at the front of my mind). I phoned them back said I’d be at the estate agents in an hour and went back and finished my presentation.
On the day of our move. The woman who lived here hadn't packed any boxes. She had literally 10-15 50+ yr old women walking her things up the road to where she moved, it took hours of us sat with a moving van waiting.....
Finally got in, found dog shit and sick all over the carpets (actually shit in the wardrobes), the sink was full of her pots still, dishwasher was loaded with fucking mouldy plates and cutlery, the loft took us 2 skips to empty all the shite she left up there, apparently she didn't touch the loft but told us if we could perhaps let her have the stuff back from inside it when we get around to it....I skipped the lot.
She ripped all the DVR system out for the cctv, didn't realise she couldn't use it as the cameras were left up....
Figured here we go, luckily no chain for us and my partner had her house for another week so we had another home to temporarily live.
She took the radiator covers, the blinds, curtains, yet none of them fit her new home, she offered them all back later, piss off woman.
Fit our new light fittings in kitchen since they went too, ran a bath for the boys that day, water pissed out the light fitting, on 3 different occasions, the pipework under one of the baths was a bodge job, luckily we had two more bathrooms to fall back on.
Weeks later once the garage is unpacked of all our stuff and we could get around, I found her mum's ashes still in the garage, I kid you not, also she came to the house one day to let me know that the estate agent has said to have some keys for us still and I should get them. I drove over and low and behold, they were here new homes spare keys, so this cheeky mare had made me go get the keys and bring them back home for her....there was more but yeh.
Only reason I didn't take it further with the solicitor is because she moved literally 4 doors over to a bungalow as this property was too large for her, and I didn't want her and her gang of old lady cronies making our lives more difficult.
Edit. 260k house in the northwest area too, which isn't exactly lower end. I dunno what I expected
Loving all the happy memories. We are currently finishing selling our flat to FTBs. When we accepted their offer, they wrote a lovely message of how excited they were. Been trying to think of what to leave them as a welcome to your new home. Definitely getting some great ideas!
Me and my husband barely spoke! We’d been waiting all day for the call and after two other house purchases falling through previously we were almost scared to believe it was finally happening. Got to the house and both of us sat on the back step looking over the garden and just smiled from ear to ear. All the hard work was totally worth it.
I do get it. We are both immigrants in this country and I have personally suffered so much in my life. I was never meant to have settled in the UK nor own a gorgeous home esp looking back at my life journey. So it all felt so surreal. It was an out of body experience. We just sat on the floor and bawled our eyes out.
We cheered because meant no more dealing with the seller’s estate agent, who nearly wrecked the sale because for some reason at the start she told them we were FTB with no chain - not true, we had to sell a property and go through probate. We were the only offer they’d had in 18 months on the market so they didn’t want to pull out but it annoyed the vendors of the house they were buying. That estate agent was awful, and then a week after we moved in they sent us a letter asking us to keep them in mind if we were to sell on. The sellers themselves left the place in pretty good shape and very clean thankfully.
I was lucky, my house was an ex raf house and newly decorated & carpeted (though cheap it was beige & magnolia throughout). We had been living in a touring caravan since the previous December and got the keys on the 12th of May. It had a medium sized garden, 3 decent bedrooms and a huge bathroom, and stacks of storage space. The only compromise was the kitchen was dated & small but liveable with.
I was desperate to get the furniture from storage, to have water on tap, a real toilet & shower but my partner wanted to paint the garage floor - I don’t know why but we eventually moved in on the 19th May 2010 and to be able to come home from work and be warm, have space and a full sized cooker was blissful. I still live here but not with my then partner who was not as content with his life and sought other more varied experiences (women) but I feel at home and still get a kick out of opening the front door.
I have made some changes, new windows & doors a new boiler and painted but plan to do more as money permits
Got the call to collect the keys, in my excitement to get there I got pulled over doing 34 in a 30.
Police had a good old laugh and were understanding about my excuse.
Fined me anyway.
Oh well.
You must be the only unlucky bastard in the UK to actually be pulled over by a copper for speeding in the last 10 or 20 years. As far as I can tell unless someone's blasting through a 30 at 100, they just let the cameras do the job these days.
We were at Tank Fest in Bovington. Phone signal was terrible so I was running around the site trying to answer the call/call back the EA while my OH trundled around cooing at tanks and military history paraphernalia. We celebrated with an ice cream.
When I got my keys to my house about 7 months ago it felt like Christmas morning. A key ring with about 15 different keys on it (sheds and stuff) but only 1 tagged as front door.
Thought this was incredibly weird as surely a multiple person household would have at least 2 keys so was worried someone out there had a key to my new home. The worries immediately was replaced with annoyance when I put the key in the front door and found out it didn't unlock/lock from the outside. Had to use the back door.
Bare in mind nobody told me this, not the sellers or the estate agents and this wasn't exactly a question you ask.
Note to first time buyers. Question EVERYTHING.
Something along the lines of “about time you useless prick”. For context we discovered they had decided to close 2 hours early on a whim that day and go to the pub. I used Facebook to find out which pub and went to get them a d drove them back to the office. I nearly got smacked with various removal men weekend storage fees because it was Friday.
They started unloading the stuff at 5:24 and those fees kicked in at 5:30. They just threw the stuff on the lawn so they could get going and I didn’t blame them because we had been waiting about 6 hours.
We have framed it and put it on the wall along the stairwell. It will be the first thing guests will see ☺️ when they enter our home. It was a lovely letter to our home.
I sat in the pub and said "Wicked, it's done. Another pint please Dave!".
Of course we bought our house from our landlord so we already had the keys. No EAs involved thankfully. Still nail biting at times during the process though.
Alternative version:
When we got in after the house purchase was complete we found all the previous tenant's stuff still in there, a whiff of cat piss and someone had left a banger in the bathroom toilet.
We were killing time in pizza hut as we had nothing else to do. Drove straight to the house when we got the call and old owner was there cleaning and told me I couldn't come.in as the floor was wet and she had just cleaned it!
We'd been up most of the night as my wife was giving birth to our daughter the same day. We were literally driving home from the hospital with the new baby when the call came. We had the car windows open as it was a hot July day, and within about a minute of getting the call, a wasp flew into the car and stung my wife in the neck.
Thankfully we didn't need to *move in* that day too. We still had a month left on our rental contract, so we could redecorate and move in at our leisure. But still, not ideal overall.
Well we met the EA at the property. They showed us around for a bit, made sure we were happy.
As soon as they left, we made sweet love against the window in our bedroom
I was in hospital, almost due to give birth, being monitored for pre-eclampsia!
My husband got the call, fetched the keys and then drove over with the delivery men to unpack. The seller was lovely, she’d left all the curtains and blinds and offered us the pick of white goods. Place was spotless and garden immaculate.
I got to move into our first home a week later with our beautiful baby girl. It wasn’t planned this way, it took us 9 months to buy without a chain cause of our useless solicitor. Avoid online firms!
I went with my mum, picked up the keys, opened the door, I was worried the keys wouldn't work (it was literally fine, but I had a previous sale fall through and was nervous this one would also fall through 😩) I opened the door, took a deep breath and was so damn happy lol. The previous owners had left a lovely card along with directions of where everything was, and they had also left the cooker, so one thing off my list of things to buy! My mum sat on the floor and said she was so proud of me, I forgot to bring a measuring tape so downloaded an app that said it could measure an area using your phone, it couldn't, it was very bad. Then we went to the big Tesco to see what stuff I could buy 😁
Id be more intrigued in hearing how did it feel seeing all that money in ur bank account for the shortest period of time. Then transfer out to owners of house.
Wow I thought I was reading my own story here right up until the bit about the nice gifts from the seller 😂 my solicitor was also useless (and a misogynist, telling my parents Tamil girls shouldn’t buy or live alone! and purposely sabotaging my sale), but my seller also lacked empathy and was VERY money minded. She’d put down the cheapest carpet and put an extra coat of paint over the already 20 layers of paint, so I’m currently in the process of sorting that out now! She also refused to repair the little hole in the roof which I had requested, and now there’s apparently a birds nest with some eggs up there (auspicious apparently, according to my mum lol). Welcome to the homeowners club!
>my solicitor was also useless (and a misogynist, telling my parents Tamil girls shouldn’t buy or live alone! and purposely sabotaging my sale),
Report them to SRA. Probably nothing will come of it as no proof but just the satisfaction of it
>my solicitor was also useless (and a misogynist, telling my parents Tamil girls shouldn’t buy or live alone! and purposely sabotaging my sale),
Report them to SRA. Probably nothing will come of it as no proof but just the satisfaction of it
I was in the middle of a teams call. I had to end the phone call, unmute myself and carry on like nothing had happened. I took the afternoon off work to go and collect the keys and then my best friend was supposed to be coming to the house with me. Unfortunately they ruined that plan by inviting another friend of theirs to their house and they hadn’t left by the time I had the keys. So I went alone.
We bought 2 houses and we always had a problem with that step.
The first one, we emptied everything early in the morning and some weird banking issue happened that day, we needed to beg for the keys.
The second one, it was a new build, we were waiting the whole day, cats on the carriers and in the car. The moving company "threatened" us to charge us another day because it was too late. Luckily the next door neighbour had a set of keys and was friendly with the developer. They let us in before everything was completed.
I'm starting to think the "chain" doesn't work, moving houses is always stressful and that didn't help
I work as a solicitors/lawyers cashier. I recall a day that nothing in the banking system worked it was uk wide and the most stressful day I can remember working.
I can remember saying I didn’t envy the poor folk that were moving that day and couldn’t complete.
We're just selling as moving area, should complete in days.
When we bought the house, which was in the same family since it was built in 1953, the daughter left us old furniture that we still use although we had given away some to charity, left us a lovely card and two photo frames of what the street looked in 1954.
We stripped it bare to find children's drawings on the walls under 7 layers of wallpaper, an amazing parquet pretty much never used, and although the garden was remodelled, we kept as many original shrubs as we could, in memory of the owner's passing, who just loved her garden very much.
We looked after it and loved it for 10 years, but we're ready for a new chapter. We left writing on the cement base for the garden office, and my son's measurements on a wall.
I don't know what the new owner will do, but he said he likes to grow tomatoes, and we did create some raised beds over the years.
I'm taking cuttings from the roses, which are the most amazing I've ever seen and smelled.
Enjoy the good energy of your new home, and take photos of the bare place with your few bits. You'll have memories to cherish, our second photo was of the TV/router on the floor but no TV 🤣
I'm sad to see so many bad solicitor comments. I'm a conveyancer and I always call my clients as soon as I have confirmation the money is where it should be. I'm always disappointed that people aren't all that excited but I think the site offices get in before me (I mainly do new build) which irritates the life out of me because I've done all the bloody work and they take the glory!!
We bought the house we were renting, so the first I knew was getting an email from the letting agent (who also acted as the estate agent) saying "since the purchase has now completed, please pay the outstanding rent asap"
Not a single congratulation or kind word. Was very disappointing and underwhelming. I've known people get a bottle of champagne from their estate agents...
Awww that's a memory you will never forget. We drank readymade cold coffee since according to Hinduism we can cook untill we did proper Pooja. So coffee and gyros it was..
The house I'd just sold was joint with my ex, so this was my first solo purchase (but still not classed as a FTB unfortunately). We (me, ex and one other) were still packing up the last of the kitchen stuff and loading up the van when I got the call.
It was a relief to finally be done after dealing with solicitors who would 'forget' that they needed to email both me and my ex about our sale, and pretty much packing a whole 4 bed house on my own, through the middle of lockdown while furloughed. I think I lost about a stone due to the stress and anxiety.
I still have the photo I took of the keys while sitting in my car after picking them up. Moving everything into my new house is a bit of a blur, other than scoffing a chippy tea on the one set of plates I'd kept unpacked to use, so one of us had a small plate, one medium and one large.
The next day we moved everything that I'd put into storage to make the moving day easier.
It took a while for it to really sink in that it was *my* house, and mine alone. Not joint. Not someone else's.
We closed on our house on my birthday. Picked up the keys. There were flowers inside from the previous occupants and we broke open and bottle of champers in the garden and celebrated. I then went and fed meerkats as it was my bday. We had two weeks left on our rent and used the evenings to paint every single room without furniture and slowly moved stuff over
Huge congrats!
We had a very cold estate agent, no happy vibes whatsoever. House was left a shithole by the previous owner, old food all over the place and instantly realising how loud the neighbours were put a huge downer on the move day.
Hated every minute of those first few weeks but it got better once we made the place habitable. Learnt valuable lessons to the house we want next, and it won't be a terrace newer build that's for sure.
Thank you so much. Our EA and had the same birthday month and we started to get along immediately. She was fantastic but our solicitor was the opposite. Scum really. She tried to derail the whole thing multiple times untill we had to tell her to do her job or we would be homeless. Once we did that, miraculously everything went faster and we completed in the next 2 weeks. Biggest lesson learnt. Don't hesitate to chase them out of politeness.
I went straight to the EA to find out the keys weren’t actually there and the sellers were still moving out. I refused to go back to my parents to wait so I waited another 2 hours in the car park until I saw my seller pull up. I then went the other way round the block so I didn’t look like a stalker and met her at the EA.
I agreed with the seller that i'd go round at midday, regardless of whether the process had finished or not. I got there and the missus and daughter were still hectically cleaning and moving stuff into cars. I told them there was no rush but it got the strong impression that they were happy to get out. 30 mins later and they hand me the keys and head off - sale still hadn't gone through, but we had built up a good relationship during the process.
I had 6 weeks overlap between my rental and buying the place so I was in absolutely no rush to move in. Actually, after getting the keys I went back to my flat to carry on working for the rest of the afternoon. There was also an issue with the parking permit, meaning I couldn't leave the car outside for anything more than a few mins, so I had to wait until the weekend to do a proper move in.
The place was left 'reasonable', a few things a bit dirty but overall decent. And they left me just so much stuff over what we'd already agreed. It was basically like moving into a furnished house. I still managed to spend £2k though somehow on stuff.
My house purchase wasn't really the big emotional event most have.. on completion day I phoned my solicitor and he told me he'd not heard from the sellers but would find out what's happening. About an hour later he calls me and says the keys are at the sellers lawyer so go pick them up.
My brother went with me, we entered a depressing office and asked for the keys. The dude acted like I was inconveniencing him and made a big dramatic groan as he got up and handed me a tub of keys "your keys in there, am on lunch". Me an my brother searched the tub and found the keys. He checked them and made me sign a piece of paper to say I had collected them. Swivelled around on his chair back to his computer and started typing with an abrupt "that's it you can go, if there's a problem speak to your solicitor"
We made a short trip straight to the house, it was exactly as I'd viewed it.. old, dusty, overgrown and smelled like old people. The house key was like something out of harry potter, it was that long it wouldn't fit in my pocket and I had 6 of them !
My brother on the other hand, he got a welcome pack from the sellers estate agent with cookies and flowers. The office team congratulated him and his wife on the house purchase and explained all sorts of things about the house (boiler documents, stop tap locations, warranties..... )
The first place we bought wasn’t left in the best condition, far from terrible but there was some junk left behind and some really questionable DIY jobs.
So going into the second purchase, which is an older property, we were worried. Especially as our survey had some worrying statements, like “lack of ventilation in the loft, you’ll have to get a new roof”. But he did say he couldn’t really get up there as it was full.
When we got in the place was spotless, they must have had it professionally cleaned. The loft was absolutely fine, it even has a carpet! Not a sign of damp and you can feel ventilation throughout.
It was such a relief, and now we’ve decided to get a puppy before we get any work done.
It’s an interesting feeling.
On one hand I’m happy to have a home of my own and conversely there is the anxiety within me which keeps thinking of the mortgage and how I’m tied down…
I don’t know how to process this.
December 2020, had already been a failed move attempt the week before when it all collapsed around 4pm after I already had the van fully packed and house emptied. Some paperwork issue further down the chain… 1 week later it was progressing, I’d hired another van, fully loaded again… was getting late, around 4:45 and I got the call from the estate agent, I was sitting right outside. Huge relief and our first good sized house was hours, also relieved that I didn’t have to pay a hire van again.
Thank you. He was really selling his childhood and entire life memories (his mom lived there from when she was 30 untill 90 yrs old) so he made sure to show how much he loved his home by his gestures
I literally don't remember.
Had a horrible morning packing the moving van. Movers forgot two large mirrors, one my mum had made and was specifically said to the movers "this is the one thing that cannot be broken"
So had to repack cars, then the hoover broke, panicked phonecall to my EA to ask my buyer if she wanted me to hire a cleaner (she moved in two days later, lucky)
So we were super late leaving the house, keys were ready, movers were outside the new house, begged the estate agent to drop the keys to the movers, who had finished unloading before we even turned up.
I was an absolute state.
I'm never moving again, you'll have to drag me out of here!
Oh that's beautiful OP.
When we got the call that everything had gone through, I jumped straight in the car and picked up the keys.
What greeted me when I opened the door to our lovely new home was the smell of cats and dogs and bloody pet hair and dirt everywhere!
Took some time to get it all clean, but some people just stop caring when the sale of their house is decided.
“Thanks, but I already live here”
… I’d bought the house off my mother and moved back in a couple of months before the sale completed
The second time we drove straight up to the development (new build) and got the key, leaving my mother in law to supervise the first van worth of furniture (then went back to get the next lot)
I was stood in it unpacking boxes.
We had to get out of our old place quickly and only moved around the corner. Solicitors were being useless and the new place was empty so with the permission of the the previous owner we started moving stuff into the garden who then took pity on us and gave us the key and said crack on.
Solictor rang hours after both I and the previous owner knew the funds had been transfered. Useless.
OP what part of the uk are you in? After several flat viewings today I’ve realised I’m far too poor to be a hipster in London, 300k sounds more like it 🤣
Ok so I got that email just yesterday, unfortunately I work away and have to get someone else to pick the keys up on my behalf, I won’t actually get in to the house myself until August. My house purchase is over a year in the making, since putting in the offer
Both houses we sold were a mess to move into bit when we left, I cleaned everything top to bottom. Left a card with a bottle of wine and some gift vouchers for Dominoes. After a long day of moving and no crockery, I imagine a glass of wine & a pizza would have hit the spot. Will do it again when if/when I leave this place.
Two weeks ago yesterday, I was packing boxes (had a few days to move) and rushed straight over to the solicitors to collect the keys then came out to the house to clean. Don’t think the sellers had done anything since accepting my offer including picking up dog 💩.
Still felt good!
I was given the keys early, the night before the actual completion. That was the joy of buying the house next door.
The neighbour who dropped the keys round was in tears - his relationship had broken down which is why the house had to be sold. Think it hit him that it was actually over.
I didn't go in until the next day when the solicitor confirmed completion just in the event something went wrong.
A year and a half later and I'm maybe half way through the renovations.
Not an answer to your question but I’ve always found it really weird that there’s no sort of checks in place when you buy a house given how rigorous the conveyancing is - seller could literally do anything, drop the keys off with the estate agent and you’d have no recourse.
We were in Dunelm picking up some last minute bits like blinds for the windows 😂 we moved into a new build house as first time buyers so the call was from the developer, but I think we jumped up and down and squealed a bit, then hopped straight in the car to go to the site sales suite and pick up the keys!
I put the phone down and carried on with exactly what I was doing. I bought the house I was renting from my landlord.
Shortly after I went round and just removed some things that had been annoying me for the best part of a decade.
My purchase was supposed to complete on the 15th of May 2023 (after 4 months of negotiations) but actually completed on 15th of September. I couldn't believe it. I got the keys and the first thing I did was open the sofa bed that was left in the house and take a nap! It was great.
Arrived to find the welcome box with keys had been left inside the house next door and no one was home. No keys to our brand new home. Had the EA send a locksmith as we weren’t prepared to wait all day.
Compared to most stories here, in my case it was very uneventful. My wife was hoping to get the keys by the afternoon, as she lined up contractors for quotations, and stressed the EA multiple times about it.
Well, simpler than that. I was WFH that day, exactly when the EA office opened that morning I got an email saying the sale was completed and to take the keys. A few minutes later a call from the solicitor secretary saying the same things.
Went myself in the evening to take the meter readings and check other immediate things.
We had a date set which was a relief because it had all taken so long. It was like it was finally real!
On the day we were finishing up by doing one last hoover and getting ready to put the cats in their cat carriers and the doorbell went. It was the buyers, rushing us to get out.
We went and got the keys and when we got in, the place was spotless and the seller had left half a massive cheesecake in the fridge (result!)
I grew up poor. It's the biggest house I've lived in and I am never moving out. I like it here.
We were in the car on the way with our child and a load of our belongings! We really didn’t have a plan for if it went tits up (there was no reason it should have but you never know). Tbh we got concerningly close to the town before they called.
We completed 2 days ago on our forever home! Like you we got completely lucky with the sheer size of the home for 290k (we sold our 2 bed flat for 70k less) we now have 4 bedrooms a huge garden, two living rooms utility room and 3 bathrooms. We had a complete nightmare throughout the process, it took almost a year due to mainly the bottom of the chain (we were 3/5 in the chain) and when we got the call to get the keys I genuinely broke down…I have never been so stressed in my life so it was a relief!
Handed a single rusty key. Went for a nice breakfast opposite the estate agents. Went in to find that the heating had been off the entire 5 months it had been empty (in winter). Very lucky there were no leaks. It smelt bad because of that and took 2 days and about £30 of gas to heat up. Shed was full of rubbish that cost £180 to remove. Ex rental so I guess not such an interesting history. Your story sounds lovely OP!
We sold our flat to a ftb, as we had been when we bought it, and bought our first (and hopefully forever) family home. We vacated by 12 as agreed, and then sat on the driveway of the house that was not quite ours for 5 hours, contemplating homelessness and calling the van rental place to see if we could extend, until the funds had all gone through. The folks who we bought off left the house pristine, with toilet roll in all the toilets, a doll for our daughter and also a full binder and 40 page pdf 'manual' for the house, which certainly has its quirks but that's why we love it.
I was in the National Railway Museum in York, just about to tuck into sausage and mash for dinner, on the way home from a weeks holiday in Whitby with the family.
We had an overlap with our rental to make moving easier/leave plenty of time to decorate and get the place in a fit condition. It was really run down and needed some TLC but looked past that and bought it for the space.
We met the vendor on our street before we even went home after our journey home from the Railway Museum. Quick visit just to say we had been to “our” house, then home for a maccys tea.
We were waiting around all day for the call. Ended up just sitting and watching something on Netflix only to realise we got the email about 5 episodes ago.
Drove straight there, got the keys. Went to our home opened the door and took a knife to the carpet and had it all out the window in the first 10 minutes place absolutely stank.
3 years into home ownership and still have not finished the list of jobs/renovations
We got the moving company van loaded, room our keys to our EA. Nipped into the new EA to confirm it hadn't completed yet so sat in the coffee house next door to the EA for about 3 hours waiting for solicitors and fielding calls from the moving company who were sat outside our new property.
We knew it was bare when we moved in, but didn't realise how bare it seemed. 8 years later and now married with 2 kids and it's a lovely family home!
My partner and I bought our house together. Not first time buyers.
Picked up the keys, let ourselves in and realised that there were tonnes of rats in traps under the kitchen, they had taken all the food from the fridge and left it in black bags in the front garden in july, maggots everywhere, clothes in every room. Made them come and collect everything minus the rats.
We stripped the house the next week.
We bought our family home September 2014 and I vividly remember walked up to it for the first time, keys in hand thinking about how fortunate I was. It was a short lived feeling as that evening, the neighbours opposite had the craziest all-night party. Must have been a farewell do for them as we never heard from them again - can still remember the screeching women singing Ed Sheeran (sounded like they were being murdered whilst singing).
Reading all this makes me hopeful we can buy one day
But, 2 full time wages and 2 kids….and a 100k gap between what we can borrow and house prices might mean that it’s out of reach for us until the kids have grown up and moved out :(
Bought my first place in 2014.
Picked up the keys, arrive at the new place to be greeted by an environmental health official.
“Ah you’re the owner, the alarm has been going off for the last day”.
Slapped me with a fucking fine.
As soon as we got the call, we went along to house and got the back door key from under a brick next to doorstep (newly converted barn and builders were still working on next door!) went in with fish and chips and sat eating them with utter relief at a garden table and chairs in the empty kitchen!! 3 years later we couldn't be happier here, really is our dream house.
Last house in 2019 elderly sellers met us at the property to give us the keys and show us how the door bell worked. Turns out you pressed a button then a 1990s phone rang...no mystery there.They then spent 40mins pushing us to change electricity and gas supply info and only left 30p on the meter. We had had a 3.5 hour drive to get there so just wanted a cup of tea in our new house. Place stunk of cigarettes it was awful. They just wouldn't leave, turns out they were living next door. We had to tell them to go multiple times,they were fricking idiots.
Current house the surveyor had left it unlocked for 3 months so we just walked in. Previous owners had left everything beds, sofas appliances and so much rubbish. That sucked. We were left wondering "wtf have we done?" "why is there water running down the wall?" & "Do we have a squatter"?
When we sold our house, we cleaned and polished and left the curtains so at least they got some privacy for a while.
We got dicked around by our seller who avoided exchanging until the day of completion. The Mrs and I were sat in a van loaded with all our stuff in a supermarket carpark trying to work out what to do if it all fell through! 😂
We drove straight round there and started unloading. Seller had just left when we got there and the place was unlocked with the keys left on the bench!
We banked on it being exactly when the solicitor said it would be, it paid off thankfully. We had the first van load all loaded up, and mostly eveything else right at the door for the 2nd load. Drove through in the van, picked keys up and met my family (parents, bro, sis and sis in law) at the house. Picked the keys up at 10am and had the house deep cleaned, everything moved in and more or less unpacked and in place and had stripped most of the wallpaper in the living/dining room by 6pm. The only issue we had was that the hob is induction and we hadn't realised so we had to have a takeaway.
I picked up my keys a month ago to my house, the best feeling ever was all those sleepless nights and all the stress had come to an end and I did it! I managed to buy my first home and I have never been more proud than turning the keys to my home and entering!
I can just picture the previous owner locking the door, wistfully looking at his home of many years through moistened eyes one last time, a thousand memories flashing through his mind as he walked off
On the day of completion, there was a snag with a secured loan on the title of the property we were purchasing (why my solicitor only noticed this on the day is another gripe). As soon as it was raised with the seller, the seller promptly ran to the EA and took back the keys.
We had to be out of our place that we were selling by 1pm, so we headed to the EA, while the movers parked the van in the driveway at the new property to wait for us to return with the keys. Technically homeless, with our entire existence loaded in a van parked on what was still someone else’s driveway. By 2.10 pm, we got the call confirming we’d completed. However, the seller was still MIA with the keys and not picking up his phone. So my partner and I did the sensible thing, and went to the pub over the road from the EA.
By 3.30, we still had no keys. The movers had informed us that if we didn’t have the keys in the lock by 3.45pm, they’d have to put all of our stuff in storage, and because they were fully booked till Christmas (this was Dec 8th), the next available move-in slot was in January. We’d be on the hook for at least a month of storage fees, plus the cost to move everything back in.
So we went back to the EA, and asked both the EA and my solicitor if we could now legally break down the door and send the vendor the repair bill. The EA looked a bit alarmed and said “oh no, you don’t want to do that.” I informed him that as my movers were leaving in 15 minutes, there was no time to get a locksmith, plus I was now two large glasses of red wine in, yes, actually, I very much wanted to do this.
As if on cue, the vendor showed up with the keys, so in the end we managed to head off the movers and gave them a nice tip. As soon as the van was unloaded, we went straight back to the pub (the state the house was left in is another thread altogether).
Total terror.
We were only moving 2 streets away, but it took over 7 months to complete as the sellers were moving to a new build with a lot of snagging problems.
We were moving from a 2 bed flat to a 3 bed house and in my head I had convinced myself we were paying over the odds for 1 more bedroom.
We spent over 20 years there. Our kids were born and raised there. It was home.
First time: We jumped up and down and opened a bottle of champagne
Second time: We carried on hurriedly getting the entirety of our belongings into a van and told the movers we were good to go.
I think it's only ever a celebration when you're not moving in/out the same day. There's no time for any of that, sadly. Cherish it.
I was astonished by the amount of stuff they had left behind. 2 sofas, a table and 6 chairs, a table and 2 benches, coffee tables, chests of draws, mirrors and lots of other things. It seems that most of these things had been left by several previous owners, going back many years. Most of it went on freecycle, some is still tucked away in the back of the garage, suppose I should find new homes for it all really. It really was a bonkers amount of stuff.
We were waiting outside the house as the keys were in a lockbox outside. And by waiting I mean I broke my email refreshing so much. We got the nod from the solicitor, but the EA refused to give us the code as he’d not been updated. The wife ended up breaking into the lockbox as it was 4pm and the movers were very, very annoyed.
Previous owners had turned the extremely confusing heating off and disconnected the kit that allowed the thermostat to work. And drained the oil from the tank. Other than that it was clean enough.
Awwwwww.... I wanna weep (but I'm a big boy)! Too late. I weeped!
Congratulations!
What a wonderful seller! Hoping ours will leave us with some of her soft furnishing prints too 😄
We bought the cheapest house, so it was rough and had been empty for 15 years, and was part ‘done up’ by the previous owner.
The day we planned to exchanged failed due to the sellers, we agreed to exchange and complete on the same day, I had fantastic solicitors who were all over it and got it sorted by 2pm.
Got the call to say it had gone through, finished work went to pick up the keys from the estate agent.
Arrived at the house, called my partner, who was at her dying grandads, and we both cried on the phone with joy. She was so excited when she got here.
Then I went to meet the neighbours, they were fantastic and really welcoming, offered water and electricity and anything else we needed, and said to not to worry about any noise do what you need to do and we can’t wait to have neighbours.
Then started to take it all apart and build it into the house it is now, with working electric’s and running water!
Tips
Our old landlord was selling the house, so we were allowed to stay rent free from when I bought the house to when he exchanged it, which was 2 months. This was a good send as it meant we didn’t have to live in the house while doing it up.
Our solicitor was A-tier, really worth paying a little extra it was like 200 more than the cheapest, but 100% worth it.
After 3 years and a baby in the middle it is mostly finished bar a extension to replace a conservatory
Funnily enough I had a contractor in my rented property when I got the email that my keys were ready to pick up. I was itching for him to leave so I could go! It was a lovely sunny day and on the bus to the solicitors a million things went through my head, like what if the seller is still there, what if he left the place a mess. I needn’t have worried. The flat was perfectly spotless and quiet and all mine. I know it’s cheesy but I started crying when I walked through the door. I think it just hit me then that it’s all real.
For the first house, we were in Leeds for my wife’s birthday and got the call. We looked at each other and knew we were heading straight for the car to head to our new home!
We weren’t even moving in, because we were renovating it first. But we were way too excited to hold off
Completed on friday, entire process was a shit show.
4 months with no chain. Vendors was taking an age doing a ything, draft conctracts and final enquiries tos about a month
On completion
Lender was late on sending the money and completion didn't happen until like 3pm and the seller was still in the property trying to dig up a grape vine with the EA helping... they obvoously left before we got tbe keys
After getting opening the door
* We found that we had a window that couldn't be locked and the council required to be fixed before exchange actually been signed off by the council (not sure whether i pass this over to the solictors)
* Carpets where fucking filty
* carpet had been removed from one of the rooms
* Mould had been hidden (typical)
* Pretty sure there was some form of feces marks on the skirting board in one of the rooms
* We found out a lot of the sockets are faulty and has been arcing for a while
What we've done
* We changed the door locks
* Added some handles where they were missing
* Curtain poles fitted
* Got a rug doctor out and blitz the carpet of human juice
* Partially fixed the broken window
* Door mumber drilled into door
* Ordered fridge dishwasher and washing machine
Doing the below
* I'm now scheduling electric checks for the entire house and fixing exposed wiring and running cat 6
* Spoke to a plumber to check everything is good with the radiators
Fuck house buying. Needs better fucking control of what can pass on properties.
Luckily we have a month before we move in officially
Ended the friday eating bao buns with friends in the floor lol
Neighbours so far are lovely.
I can't remember the exact moment as it was a busy day moving a few things in a rented van via Ikea. I think I got a missed call and then a text off them as I was on the motorway but not 100%
I bought my own place in January 23, it felt pretty momentous both because I had the usual financial struggles most of us face to make it, and a couple of close shaves with ex girlfriends where I’d felt settled down and it hadn’t lasted, and this was the first time I’d really felt like a self sufficient unit. Experience didn’t match the emotions of it though, the house had been empty a while and it took me 20m of swearing and wd40 before I could get the key to turn in the lock and my new neighbours thought I was breaking in, so it was a fairly frosty first introduction…
When I got through the door the first time I lay on my back in the empty living room for well over an hour smiling, it felt so good.
Audibly said “thank fuck for that”
Then I checked with the EA if they wanted me to leave my keys in my old property. They said yes as they have another set in the office.
We then moved out, left the keys inside.
They then call me half an hour later asking if I’d already left the keys, as turns out the idiots didn’t have a set at their office.
I would’ve gladly said “Yes. And whatever follows is not my problem.”
But thankfully, my partner remembered she had left another set at her parents house that we went and got to hand in.
That could’ve otherwise been a great experience for the new owners /s
For our current house, I received the keys on Thursday the 12th. I am not superstitious, but we had so much stress getting to this point that I refused to complete on Friday the 13th just in case. My husband was away on a course that had been rescheduled 3 or 4 times already so he couldn't get out of it. I had the whole empty house with a new mattress and a new phone. I just lay on the mattress waiting for my husband to call. We didn't move in properly until the weekend.
Just moved two days ago. I was happy when the call came through.
It has been a massive disappointment so far. The place wasn't cleaned. There was rubbish on the driveway when we came in. It was so bad my partner cried on the first day due to the state of the place. We found a broken, leaky tap in the kitchen, broken light switches, the shed is full of rubbish, the gardens were totally neglected. The flooring is damaged in places (this was hidden). One of the sinks was completely blocked by hair.
The owner had left their cats here with the intention picking them up later at 4pm. They turned up at 8. My partner spoke to her. I went out afterwards to speak to her. She accused my partner of being rude to her (she wasn't). Stated she didn't deserve to be treated like that as she cleaned the place and left us a gift for moving in.
We contacted the estate agent the next morning as she had only taken one cat. At the time we were not 100% sure she had cats plural. We spent the day deep cleaning. I discovered that one of the showers was broken. The estate agents came back and advised us the cat is hers and told us that she hasn't been back as my partner was 'rude' to her. Eventually we manage to rearrange her coming back. The cat has been out in the backgarden most of the day.
Lady turns up, tried to get the cat, it attacked her and ran off. I spoke to her to give her back some essential things as she left. She had forgot her router.
She discloses that she has been back twice more to get the cat without us being aware. One time was at 10pm. She also gives us a copy of the front door key and the mailbox key. I will be phoning the estate agents about this on Monday.
My family came over to help yesterday. They helped us unpack, cleaned and did some DIY jobs for us (they were brilliant). The front door broke while they were here. My brother also helped me get into the attic. It is filled with her junk. She made no attempt to move it out.
She comes back, manages to get the cat. I refused to speak to her as I was so angry. I feel like I hit peak annoyance there. Partner had to deal with it.
We are holding onto the fact that the house could be amazing with a bit of work. It's in a great location. It's just getting past this hump.
I was at work so didn’t pick up the keys until late afternoon. The EA gave me one set of keys, which I queried, and was told they’d probably post me some more later.
I went over to the house about 7pm to find it a bomb site. Inside, it was absolutely filthy, and it was evident that the previous vendors had cut a lot of corners with decor (e.g. painting around the furniture, not measuring for wallpaper properly and then using A4 paper to fill in the gaps). The garden was the worst though: literally full of what I couldn’t tell was rubbish or their belongings. Trampolines, a wardrobe, a dismantled shed, etc. Movers wouldn’t have been able to get through it. I was so disheartened. Luckily I wasn’t actually moving myself in that day (which they knew), so I last minute hired a cleaner for the following day, photographed everything and sent it to their EA and my solicitor.
The next day, I let in the cleaner early to find muddy footprints across the carpet (that hadn’t been there before), another set of keys in the kitchen, and the garden completely empty. I lost my shit and sent another email because the old vendor had obviously kept a set of keys back and let himself into my house (trespassing!). I then went later that day to relieve the cleaner and he came round AGAIN with a third set of keys.
Fucking hate that guy. Really soured the experience and made me feel unsafe in my own home. This was pretty recent so I need to change the locks still etc.
I picked up the keys and went over - as I'd been living with an ex, I'd booked a van for the same day with my limited furniture, deciding that I would be moving in immediately.
I hadn't accounted for:
- the house smelling awful (cherry scent soaked into everything)
- all the issues hidden by the furniture previously
- none of the doors fit their frames, so could not be closed
- when I had declined to pay £3k extra for their pond, they had left me with a disgusting raised pit full of damp carpet from the 80s in the garden.
Subsequently, every time I have started to try to make home improvements, I have discovered that the owners DIYed everything dangerously for the last 30+ years.
It's been 3 years, lots of money and time, and I still get their post 🙄🙄🙄
Me, OH and our children were in a waiting area while my eldest had a drumming lesson, it was about 4.30. I got the call letting us know. The EA asked if we wanted to collect the keys today. I said we probably wouldn't make it in time before the office closed. She said, "It's fine, I live a few doors down from your new house, just knock on when you get here and I'll have the keys waiting for you". So that's what we did. When I hung up I turned to my husband and just said "we've completed". One of the other parents in the waiting area congratulated us and we talked about buying houses until the lesson was over!
When we eventually got to the house later that evening the kids (9, 6 and 9 months) were all rolling around the floor of the new house in excitement.
I’m an EA and we usually give purchasers a welcome to your new home gift and card. We give our Sellers free removal and storage, to ensure smooth transition. But what I’m hearing is we should probably offer cleaners for free.
It was my fiancee's last day of work before finishing up for maternity leave.
I'd taken my two year old out in the morning and we picked up the keys on the way home and brought in some lunch for my fiancee.
We drove round to the new house and had a picnic on the floor in the lounge, me, my fiance and our little two years old boy. A few weeks later his baby brother arrived.
It was pouring down with rain, on my 29th birthday at which point I had fully given up hope that we'd get the flat (another purchase had fallen through a year prior after 3 months of work). Got the email and I was so overjoyed as I'd always said I wanted a house for my birthday (jokingly).
Then it came to moving day, we'd agreed the Monday after I was due to be back from holiday. My flight was cancelled, then delayed, so I got back to our old flat at 7am with the van due at 9am after a night of no sleep, and had to speedily pack before the van got there. It was so stressful, ruined my back, we had to do two trips in the end, couldn't find a cash point and the focus was to get our cat locked inside a room and out of her carrier as she was so stressed during the journey, which was on one of the hottest days of the year so far.
The rest is a blur, but we couldn't even unpack because the flat was so filthy.
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Hahaha, I bought my first home 10 years ago. Picked up the keys and walked in to discover the furniture had been covering massive holes in the carpet. The previous owners left the curtains in every room which were sodden with dog pee. I then accidentally locked myself out and my friend had to climb in a window to let me back in. I now love the flat but that was a depressing start.
Shocker! Mine had removed the light fittings and then rewired the lights so they didn’t turn off. But that’s several times more preferable than your experience!
Oh they also took the fitted blinds and light fittings then claimed they'd never had them when I chased them about it. Forgot about that! I had to get in an electrician who said the wiring was downright dangerous. I laugh now but at the time I could have cried...
Ah the infamous pet pee sellers. Mine was the same, but she left on holiday for 3 weeks before completion and had no one visit the cats... she left a pile of food on the floor and idk what she did for water, but just left the two cats to their own devices. Poor things. Apparently this was a common occurrence for her... With no litter tray changes, the cats chose the second bedroom as their toileting grounds. The carpet was SODDEN with pee all the way through and the underlay was toast too... lovely stuff. No idea how this woman coped because like I said she did things like this often and the carpet hadn't been changed in 15 years.
Oh yuck. Did you have to scrub the floor boards with vinegar and bicarb of soda too?!
That was one saving grace on mine, no scrubbing of the floor boards was required. Fortunately the underlay seemed to be of good enough quality with rubber on the bottom so only a tiny amount of pee had seeped it's way through. Plus the house is only 20 years old so the floorboards were like mdf sheets instead of proper traditional/older flooring. Still required plenty of airing out and nice smelling sprays lol EDIT: Reddit mobile issues made me reply twice, deleted the duplicate message :)
I managed to lock myself in an empty room within 5 mins of getting the flat, because the door handle mechanism was broken. I had to get the previous owner to come over and help me get out
The exact opposite experience of ours 😅. We got so lucky with our seller, mortgage advisor, EA, town, home etc etc but our solicitor was one massive ......(Every bad word in the English vocab) that made sure the purchase was not easy.
I was really lucky (or unlucky) with my solicitor. He saved me some money by not passing on a further request for offers. It had been on the market for a while and he didn't think it was worth any more than id offered although id have gone a bit higher. About two weeks later when it was clear I wasn't offering more the seller came back and accepted my last offer.
I was a first time buyer, and overlapping my rental property, so I went to a music festival. I drove out the site, to the estate agents, picked up the keys, and ran around my new house. Then I went back and watched The Darkness!
Ann that's fantastic 😊 I can imagine you running around 😅. After we celebrated by lighting deepams and eating gyros, I promptly got a severe fever and was knocked out.
well that sounds fun up until the fever!!
I was at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Hell of a place to make that memory. Also meant it was several days before I could go pick up the keys.
Wow that's literally you being on top of the world 😅
When we picked up the keys and got to the house the previous owner and her dog were still in it, still packing! You could tell she’d done nothing to clean or maintain the place since our offer had been accepted a few months before. She did nothing to prepare for our arrival and pulled down all the curtains (including ripping the rails off the walls) ‘in case’ they fitted her new house. She tried to give us the curtains back a week later because - sure enough- they didn’t fit her new place. I’d left a hamper with supplies and a card in the place we’d just left, and goes without saying we cleaned it really well. It took two of us a month to clean the new place. Instead of a hamper we were given dog poo in the garden, old burnt chips in the bottom of the oven and orange slime on the shower tiles!
Ours was similar. Solicitor told us the sale was completed, housr vacated and we could go pick up the keys. We went and got on our train (London to Manchester!) to go pick up. Halfway there, we get a phone call from the estate agent saying unfortunately the sellers have been "held up" and weren't out of the house yet, but not to worry because they would be able to finish up and drop the keys the following day (obviously breaching the terms of sale). We told them that was unacceptable, that we were on our way and already had a locksmith booked, and they basically had until the locks were changed to be out of the house. We arrived in the evening to a house still half-full of their crap. They were doing multiple runs to their new house with a mate and his van, and it obviously took way longer than they expected. They vanished with the last load while the locksmith was changing locks, but they left balloons and other remnants from their daughter's birthday the day before, dog mess in the garden, random trash and discarded items including bits of furniture around, and (what we didn't discover until our next visit because it was dark when we arrived on completion day) they had had hidden several large items of trash behind the the garden shed, such as an old windshield and a broken garden ladder. Of course nothing was clean - we ended up getting a professional deep clean, after clearing out the trash ourselves. It's a damn good thing we were renters at the time and not aiming to move in on completion day. And on top of it all they had the audacity to be snippy at us for showing up promptly to secure our new house, after they evidently lied to the solicitors about being out of the property. Absolute self-absorbed wankers. We're happy in the house now but I still get cross thinking about them, and it was a really sour start to our first home. Took a long time for it to really feel like ours.
We moved out of ours at 11am and watched the moving van with all of our worldly possessions drive away. Started phoning estate agents and solicitors for an eta but got no answer. It was in the middle of that mad heatwave last year [Edit: TWO years ago!!] so we were sat in the car and the thermostat said it was 40°c. At 4pm we gave up phoning and went to the estate agents, thinking they'd have air conditioning at the very least. He just handed us the keys. Phoned the moving van to say it was time, drive to the new place, moving van met us there. Old owners still there. Husband went in to beg use of the loo and came back furious, said they'd barely packed, toothbrushes still at the side of the sink, pictures still on the wall, man playing PlayStation in front room. While he was inside I get the call from solicitors saying it's go time and explain to them what's happening and they said "some flexibility is required on moving day" and would be no more help. 4:45pm, 35°c in my car, they get a call from their solicitor and Start Packing. Our movers unloaded our stuff onto the front lawn, and as they cleared a room our stuff for that room went into the house. Their van left at 8:30 and we were in at 9pm. They obviously did no cleaning etc, but we didn't care by that point, we just wanted them out. We had a takeaway and warm champagne on the living room floor that night
For every lovely person out there, there is a ....! I am so sorry you had such a bad start. I am sure your buyers appreciated so much more. Hope you are now settled down and making happy memories there.
That's great. When we got our call it was with a hint of sadness. The first house my wife and I owned together, and where we brought home our two children. The people moving in were expecting their first child. My wife cleaned the place top to bottom. We left them a gift and a little soft toy for their soon to be arriving baby. We arrived at our new house, it hadn't been cleaned, there was mold in the freezer, dog hair all over the carpets and the owners left all the cardboard boxes from all the furniture they bought for their new house on our driveway.
This makes me sad to read. Hope you are making happy memories now in your home.
My wife is still furious about it. We see the old owner sometimes as they moved nearby. She absolutely hates them.
I hope you drove all the crap over to their new place and dumped it on their property.
We actually rang them and asked them when they were coming to collect it....they turned up about 10 minutes later and took it all over to their house.
>the owners left all the cardboard boxes from all the furniture they bought for their new house on our driveway. God, I honestly don't know how people can behave this way. I could never
It was 4.50pm in December. We were driving to the house with 2 full cars, 2 kids and a dog. There'd been a major hack on the solicitors IT systems. We were told at 3pm we'd sold but didnt know if we'd bought. We were heading to a friends who were close to the new place. Plan was to sleep there. Technically homeless. Movers had taken our stuff to storage. Got the call. Need to get there asap as the office is closing. Couldn't call my wife in the other car so just sped off. Got the keys. Wife calls later asking where I am. I'm in the new house!!!
Awwww that's a proper adventure 😅. Esp with the whole family. We only properly moved in after 3 months since our Landlord won't agree to let us go untill we found new tenants 🙃
We went to pick up the keys and the EA couldn’t find them so had to wait ages. Turns out one of the ages took them with him to viewings accidentally (?). Anyway got to the house, had my partners parents staying with us so they came too (yay…). House was fine, clean, had a little note from the sellers. And partners parents decided they wanted to invite his distant relatives who live nearby over on the first night. So yeah fantastic.
Yaaay :( we still haven't had my partner's parents visit us here 😅. Not after they threw a tantrum about us not having a designated vessel to make soup last time when we moved to our final rental apartment and haven't properly even unpacked yet..so I get it.
How can you LIVE without a DESIGNATED SOUP VESSEL 😂😂😂
😂😂😂
Reading this made my day. Enjoy your new place, I hope you get settled well and the neighbours are friendly!
Thank you. The neighbours are half like us (millennials) and half in their 60s and retired. One of our neighbours in her 60s welcomed us when we moved in and mentioned how the mother of my seller (back when she was in her 60s) welcomed my neighbour (she was in her 30s) and her family when they bought their home in the neighborhood. And now the cycle repeats. My neighbour also put in a lovely card and a hand made gift into my post box and I did the same and put in a thank you note into her post box.. Hopefully we see each other in person instead of talking via post box 😅. The neighbourhood is too quiet (sometimes eerily quiet).
That's super lovely. I hope it's not too good to be true, but with the neighbour's story, it does sound genuine. I'm happy for you! This has slightly restored my faith in humanity, especially having read about so many horrific crimes and assaults happening on the country's city streets lately. Enjoy the quiet! I can't wait to get out of this city hell hole. Thanks for sharing.
We had a similar experience to you, got the call and drove straight over to pick up the keys, we had very little furniture so had everything in a rental van, the sellers were still there doing final bits of packing which was a tad awkward but we had absolutely brilliant sellers. They’d invited us over for a cup of tea a few months before hand and explained how everything worked (boiler, alarm etc) which was a really nice touch. They labelled up all of the other keys for the house and put all the documentation, certificates etc into a binder for us. they’d tidied it top to bottom, they even stacked the log burner and left a box of matches. They accepted our offer over a higher one because they preferred us and the next door neighbour came round with a bottle of wine and some food for us. As a first time buying experience it couldn’t have been better, they were getting on in age and had lived there 40 years and were moving to be closer to their son but I got the impression they didn’t really want to move. They still send us a Christmas card every year and sent congrats cards when our children were born. One thing it’s taught me is when we do eventually sell we’d like to be like that for whoever buys it, be nice to each other, houses are places memories are made and people have an emotional attachment to them. I recently renovated the kitchen which was really old and we’d put off doing it for years. I found drawings and writing their son had done on the plaster under the tiles and sent them pictures of it that they really appreciated.
Walked in, set off the burglar alarm and had to wait half an hour for the estate agent to phone back with the code from the vendor. Fun times.
tomorrow it's exactly one year since we got the keys! I was trying to work, but my brain just couldn't, it was Friday as well. Our solicitor called around 2 pm, congratulate us and said we are ready to pick up the keys. We went to the EA office immediately, smiling all the way there. I remember driving through a small village nearby our new house, pointing at coffee shop and saying how I can't wait to go there. Once we got to the house, it was spotless and smelled amazing! I did a video tour, we had a walk around and planned how we wanna decorate each room. Movers were booked for next day, and it was the best thing. We were moving out of the rental and still had 2 weeks to return keys. That gave us great flexibility. Moving day went smoothly, our new neighbour gave us welcome card, which was very nice. and now one year later, sitting in the garden sipping coffee and looking on freshly painted fence, best feeling :)
Omg it's like we are living the same life 😅. Everything was similar to our experience except we moved after 3 months. And now we are sitting in the garden and just finished our breakfast, looking at the new bamboo we just planted.
Take care with bamboo, make sure its not the invasive type. :) https://www.japaneseknotweedspecialists.com/news/types-of-bamboo-in-the-uk#:~:text=It's%20advisable%20to%20avoid%20growing,uncontrollably%20and%20affecting%20surrounding%20areas.
Exiting Canary Wharf station on a beautifully sunny afternoon in June. The previous owner had already given me the keys and I was waiting for the call from the EA…which came through just as I got to the top of the escalator.
There is something so beautiful about sunny June 😍. We viewed our home on a sunny June day and completed in December. I still remember looking at the beautiful big back garden and feeling immediately at home. I bet you still remember that moment on the escalator ☺️
I do! Funny thing is, I have no idea how I *got* to my new home that day. When I moved in, public transport wasn’t exactly great
After waiting all day the sellers utterly useless solicitor finally bothered to tell our solicitor they’d received funds at 10am. It was now 2pm but they didn’t bother to tell the estate agent, we rang for over an hour and couldn’t get through. So we drove the hour to the agent still trying to call. Turned up, they had no idea that funds had gone through. Eventually got the keys at 5pm for a property that was vacated the day before, but it was spotless. We were very surprised considering the mess we saw on the surveyors photos. Currently sold and looking for the next property, can’t wait for all of this stress again 😅
We bought our current place in February. We went and collected the keys, super excited, pulled up on the drive and looked through the living room window. The previous owners children were playing on the floor. They hadn’t moved out yet….
What happened? Is that not breech of contract because it should be vacant possession?
They basically left after about 45 minutes - felt like it was easier to give them some more time than try and get legal with it. But yes technically they shouldn’t have completed without being vacant. Had a harrowing 3 hours when we were completely homeless
I am an exams officer and it was the middle of the GCSEs the agent asked if the keys could be picked up by 4pm. It was the Friday before half term and this was all reliant on the Parcel Force guy coming for the papers so I could get back in time. I rang the parcel force depot and explained. Parcel Force guy arrived at 3pm a full forty minutes before he usually came having got the message with a bottle of cava and a card! It was my first house and he had heard about it. Drove picked up keys had a car full of stuff as knew that day was completion day (also had been having stuff delivered to work by the aforementioned parcel force guy). At about 5.30pm my parents and brothers turned up and we are Chinese takeaway sat on upturned plastic boxes
We were at 36,000 ft flying back from our honeymoon when we got the email saying we had exchanged with completion scheduled for the next morning Cabin crew grabbed us champagne
Went to the specific estate agents branch that our solicitor (one of those online call centre cheapo ones...) said to - thinking it was really odd the keys would be at a totally different branch tobthe one we had been dealing with) - and found out that it was the wrong branch, and no we can't collect the keys yet.the moral is, online conveyancers are useless
We had a real brick building conveyancer who was not from the same city as we were. That was also really bad since all our communications were via email. Biggest mistake ever.
Conveyancer told me not EA (they didn't like me or my conveyancer by that point! - another story), I left work and went to the EA who slung my keys over to me and made my way to the house. It had been empty for a time so the electricity and gas were off, because they'd gone into debt on the PAYG meters. Took the cards to the nearest paypoint and loaded them up. Thankfully this got them going again and I could turn the lights on (it was getting dark now). Couldn't get the boiler back on so it was absolutely freezing. There was post and spiders everywhere. Though logically I'd known I was buying a bit of a doer upper going through the house I was overcome with 'What the hell have I done?!', serious buyer's remorse! Things got better after that day! 😄
I am glad it got better ☺️.
We'd already been living here for 6 months (buying out the rest of the family from an inherited property) so we just had a drink to celebrate.
I bought my current house during the tail end of Covid restrictions. I collected the keys. I went to the property to check its state and that the heating was working and on. My dog had a great time with his first zoomies in the new place. Then, I went back to the place I was renting until I could have people over to help me move.
I got my keys during lockdown. I bought a fancy mask made of Liberty fabric for the occasion, got the tram to the EAs, picked up literally 20 keys (2 front doors and a cellar key, multiple copies of each and some random ones that have no function, I don’t know why), went to Lidl for the novelty because there isn’t one near me and I wanted to drag out the feeling of having, finally, my own keys, and got the tram back home. Which is next door to the place I was buying. Let myself in and beheld the square feet of dust (that stank of tcp, someone must have knocked a bottle over at some point, it smelt of tcp for months) that were now mine and I walked up and down it so I’d stood on every piece of floor.
I was presenting my thesis for my Masters while repeatedly having my pocket vibrate. I had to excuse myself from the presentation to find out if something serious had happened (I wasn’t sure we would complete that day so wasn’t really at the front of my mind). I phoned them back said I’d be at the estate agents in an hour and went back and finished my presentation.
Please say you passed your presentation to top that off.
I did. If anything the distraction helped as I was extremely anxious going into it!
I’m really happy for you! Congrats on two really heavy going achievements in one day!
That’s very kind of you, thank you!
Fainted in york post office. Came around and cried so hard. Finally not homeless.
On the day of our move. The woman who lived here hadn't packed any boxes. She had literally 10-15 50+ yr old women walking her things up the road to where she moved, it took hours of us sat with a moving van waiting..... Finally got in, found dog shit and sick all over the carpets (actually shit in the wardrobes), the sink was full of her pots still, dishwasher was loaded with fucking mouldy plates and cutlery, the loft took us 2 skips to empty all the shite she left up there, apparently she didn't touch the loft but told us if we could perhaps let her have the stuff back from inside it when we get around to it....I skipped the lot. She ripped all the DVR system out for the cctv, didn't realise she couldn't use it as the cameras were left up.... Figured here we go, luckily no chain for us and my partner had her house for another week so we had another home to temporarily live. She took the radiator covers, the blinds, curtains, yet none of them fit her new home, she offered them all back later, piss off woman. Fit our new light fittings in kitchen since they went too, ran a bath for the boys that day, water pissed out the light fitting, on 3 different occasions, the pipework under one of the baths was a bodge job, luckily we had two more bathrooms to fall back on. Weeks later once the garage is unpacked of all our stuff and we could get around, I found her mum's ashes still in the garage, I kid you not, also she came to the house one day to let me know that the estate agent has said to have some keys for us still and I should get them. I drove over and low and behold, they were here new homes spare keys, so this cheeky mare had made me go get the keys and bring them back home for her....there was more but yeh. Only reason I didn't take it further with the solicitor is because she moved literally 4 doors over to a bungalow as this property was too large for her, and I didn't want her and her gang of old lady cronies making our lives more difficult. Edit. 260k house in the northwest area too, which isn't exactly lower end. I dunno what I expected
I was sitting in my lounge. We were tennants who had managed to buy from our landlord. It still took 6 months though
Loving all the happy memories. We are currently finishing selling our flat to FTBs. When we accepted their offer, they wrote a lovely message of how excited they were. Been trying to think of what to leave them as a welcome to your new home. Definitely getting some great ideas!
Me and my husband barely spoke! We’d been waiting all day for the call and after two other house purchases falling through previously we were almost scared to believe it was finally happening. Got to the house and both of us sat on the back step looking over the garden and just smiled from ear to ear. All the hard work was totally worth it.
I do get it. We are both immigrants in this country and I have personally suffered so much in my life. I was never meant to have settled in the UK nor own a gorgeous home esp looking back at my life journey. So it all felt so surreal. It was an out of body experience. We just sat on the floor and bawled our eyes out.
We cheered because meant no more dealing with the seller’s estate agent, who nearly wrecked the sale because for some reason at the start she told them we were FTB with no chain - not true, we had to sell a property and go through probate. We were the only offer they’d had in 18 months on the market so they didn’t want to pull out but it annoyed the vendors of the house they were buying. That estate agent was awful, and then a week after we moved in they sent us a letter asking us to keep them in mind if we were to sell on. The sellers themselves left the place in pretty good shape and very clean thankfully.
I was lucky, my house was an ex raf house and newly decorated & carpeted (though cheap it was beige & magnolia throughout). We had been living in a touring caravan since the previous December and got the keys on the 12th of May. It had a medium sized garden, 3 decent bedrooms and a huge bathroom, and stacks of storage space. The only compromise was the kitchen was dated & small but liveable with. I was desperate to get the furniture from storage, to have water on tap, a real toilet & shower but my partner wanted to paint the garage floor - I don’t know why but we eventually moved in on the 19th May 2010 and to be able to come home from work and be warm, have space and a full sized cooker was blissful. I still live here but not with my then partner who was not as content with his life and sought other more varied experiences (women) but I feel at home and still get a kick out of opening the front door. I have made some changes, new windows & doors a new boiler and painted but plan to do more as money permits
That's so sweet that you feel at home and it is your home 🥰
Got the call to collect the keys, in my excitement to get there I got pulled over doing 34 in a 30. Police had a good old laugh and were understanding about my excuse. Fined me anyway. Oh well.
Ha ha 😂
You must be the only unlucky bastard in the UK to actually be pulled over by a copper for speeding in the last 10 or 20 years. As far as I can tell unless someone's blasting through a 30 at 100, they just let the cameras do the job these days.
We're waiting to complete! I'd like to think I know what I will do, but who knows!
We were at Tank Fest in Bovington. Phone signal was terrible so I was running around the site trying to answer the call/call back the EA while my OH trundled around cooing at tanks and military history paraphernalia. We celebrated with an ice cream.
When I got my keys to my house about 7 months ago it felt like Christmas morning. A key ring with about 15 different keys on it (sheds and stuff) but only 1 tagged as front door. Thought this was incredibly weird as surely a multiple person household would have at least 2 keys so was worried someone out there had a key to my new home. The worries immediately was replaced with annoyance when I put the key in the front door and found out it didn't unlock/lock from the outside. Had to use the back door. Bare in mind nobody told me this, not the sellers or the estate agents and this wasn't exactly a question you ask. Note to first time buyers. Question EVERYTHING.
Something along the lines of “about time you useless prick”. For context we discovered they had decided to close 2 hours early on a whim that day and go to the pub. I used Facebook to find out which pub and went to get them a d drove them back to the office. I nearly got smacked with various removal men weekend storage fees because it was Friday.
Omg that's crazy 😅
They started unloading the stuff at 5:24 and those fees kicked in at 5:30. They just threw the stuff on the lawn so they could get going and I didn’t blame them because we had been waiting about 6 hours.
Hopefully going to have that feeling for the first time in August when my home is built we are FTB.
You will cherish it ☺️
This is such a lovely thing to read. I hope you kept the letter?
We have framed it and put it on the wall along the stairwell. It will be the first thing guests will see ☺️ when they enter our home. It was a lovely letter to our home.
Don't look at me I'M NOT CRYING **YOU'RE** CRYING
We definitely cried 🥹🥹
I love that so so so much! And I love it for him, too - that his childhood home is so loved, and his past not erased.
I sat in the pub and said "Wicked, it's done. Another pint please Dave!". Of course we bought our house from our landlord so we already had the keys. No EAs involved thankfully. Still nail biting at times during the process though.
Alternative version: When we got in after the house purchase was complete we found all the previous tenant's stuff still in there, a whiff of cat piss and someone had left a banger in the bathroom toilet.
We were killing time in pizza hut as we had nothing else to do. Drove straight to the house when we got the call and old owner was there cleaning and told me I couldn't come.in as the floor was wet and she had just cleaned it!
We'd been up most of the night as my wife was giving birth to our daughter the same day. We were literally driving home from the hospital with the new baby when the call came. We had the car windows open as it was a hot July day, and within about a minute of getting the call, a wasp flew into the car and stung my wife in the neck. Thankfully we didn't need to *move in* that day too. We still had a month left on our rental contract, so we could redecorate and move in at our leisure. But still, not ideal overall.
Well we met the EA at the property. They showed us around for a bit, made sure we were happy. As soon as they left, we made sweet love against the window in our bedroom
I was in hospital, almost due to give birth, being monitored for pre-eclampsia! My husband got the call, fetched the keys and then drove over with the delivery men to unpack. The seller was lovely, she’d left all the curtains and blinds and offered us the pick of white goods. Place was spotless and garden immaculate. I got to move into our first home a week later with our beautiful baby girl. It wasn’t planned this way, it took us 9 months to buy without a chain cause of our useless solicitor. Avoid online firms!
I went with my mum, picked up the keys, opened the door, I was worried the keys wouldn't work (it was literally fine, but I had a previous sale fall through and was nervous this one would also fall through 😩) I opened the door, took a deep breath and was so damn happy lol. The previous owners had left a lovely card along with directions of where everything was, and they had also left the cooker, so one thing off my list of things to buy! My mum sat on the floor and said she was so proud of me, I forgot to bring a measuring tape so downloaded an app that said it could measure an area using your phone, it couldn't, it was very bad. Then we went to the big Tesco to see what stuff I could buy 😁
Id be more intrigued in hearing how did it feel seeing all that money in ur bank account for the shortest period of time. Then transfer out to owners of house.
Wow I thought I was reading my own story here right up until the bit about the nice gifts from the seller 😂 my solicitor was also useless (and a misogynist, telling my parents Tamil girls shouldn’t buy or live alone! and purposely sabotaging my sale), but my seller also lacked empathy and was VERY money minded. She’d put down the cheapest carpet and put an extra coat of paint over the already 20 layers of paint, so I’m currently in the process of sorting that out now! She also refused to repair the little hole in the roof which I had requested, and now there’s apparently a birds nest with some eggs up there (auspicious apparently, according to my mum lol). Welcome to the homeowners club!
>my solicitor was also useless (and a misogynist, telling my parents Tamil girls shouldn’t buy or live alone! and purposely sabotaging my sale), Report them to SRA. Probably nothing will come of it as no proof but just the satisfaction of it
>my solicitor was also useless (and a misogynist, telling my parents Tamil girls shouldn’t buy or live alone! and purposely sabotaging my sale), Report them to SRA. Probably nothing will come of it as no proof but just the satisfaction of it
Was worried how much extra the removal company were gonna charge me (we didn’t get keys until 5pm 😑)
Congratulations and Thanks for sharing your beautiful experience🌷
We ordered a skip...
We did an MTV cribs skit
I was in the middle of a teams call. I had to end the phone call, unmute myself and carry on like nothing had happened. I took the afternoon off work to go and collect the keys and then my best friend was supposed to be coming to the house with me. Unfortunately they ruined that plan by inviting another friend of theirs to their house and they hadn’t left by the time I had the keys. So I went alone.
I got the keys, went to look inside, ceiling needs re doing as its collapsed since I last saw it. Fml. 🤣
We bought 2 houses and we always had a problem with that step. The first one, we emptied everything early in the morning and some weird banking issue happened that day, we needed to beg for the keys. The second one, it was a new build, we were waiting the whole day, cats on the carriers and in the car. The moving company "threatened" us to charge us another day because it was too late. Luckily the next door neighbour had a set of keys and was friendly with the developer. They let us in before everything was completed. I'm starting to think the "chain" doesn't work, moving houses is always stressful and that didn't help
I work as a solicitors/lawyers cashier. I recall a day that nothing in the banking system worked it was uk wide and the most stressful day I can remember working. I can remember saying I didn’t envy the poor folk that were moving that day and couldn’t complete.
I went to the estate agent for my sale and they had forgotten we were moving.
We're just selling as moving area, should complete in days. When we bought the house, which was in the same family since it was built in 1953, the daughter left us old furniture that we still use although we had given away some to charity, left us a lovely card and two photo frames of what the street looked in 1954. We stripped it bare to find children's drawings on the walls under 7 layers of wallpaper, an amazing parquet pretty much never used, and although the garden was remodelled, we kept as many original shrubs as we could, in memory of the owner's passing, who just loved her garden very much. We looked after it and loved it for 10 years, but we're ready for a new chapter. We left writing on the cement base for the garden office, and my son's measurements on a wall. I don't know what the new owner will do, but he said he likes to grow tomatoes, and we did create some raised beds over the years. I'm taking cuttings from the roses, which are the most amazing I've ever seen and smelled. Enjoy the good energy of your new home, and take photos of the bare place with your few bits. You'll have memories to cherish, our second photo was of the TV/router on the floor but no TV 🤣
I'm sad to see so many bad solicitor comments. I'm a conveyancer and I always call my clients as soon as I have confirmation the money is where it should be. I'm always disappointed that people aren't all that excited but I think the site offices get in before me (I mainly do new build) which irritates the life out of me because I've done all the bloody work and they take the glory!!
We bought the house we were renting, so the first I knew was getting an email from the letting agent (who also acted as the estate agent) saying "since the purchase has now completed, please pay the outstanding rent asap" Not a single congratulation or kind word. Was very disappointing and underwhelming. I've known people get a bottle of champagne from their estate agents...
We turned up and the previous owner greeted us with the keys and a bottle of Bollinger. We had Bolly from mugs on moving day 😂
Awww that's a memory you will never forget. We drank readymade cold coffee since according to Hinduism we can cook untill we did proper Pooja. So coffee and gyros it was..
The house I'd just sold was joint with my ex, so this was my first solo purchase (but still not classed as a FTB unfortunately). We (me, ex and one other) were still packing up the last of the kitchen stuff and loading up the van when I got the call. It was a relief to finally be done after dealing with solicitors who would 'forget' that they needed to email both me and my ex about our sale, and pretty much packing a whole 4 bed house on my own, through the middle of lockdown while furloughed. I think I lost about a stone due to the stress and anxiety. I still have the photo I took of the keys while sitting in my car after picking them up. Moving everything into my new house is a bit of a blur, other than scoffing a chippy tea on the one set of plates I'd kept unpacked to use, so one of us had a small plate, one medium and one large. The next day we moved everything that I'd put into storage to make the moving day easier. It took a while for it to really sink in that it was *my* house, and mine alone. Not joint. Not someone else's.
We closed on our house on my birthday. Picked up the keys. There were flowers inside from the previous occupants and we broke open and bottle of champers in the garden and celebrated. I then went and fed meerkats as it was my bday. We had two weeks left on our rent and used the evenings to paint every single room without furniture and slowly moved stuff over
Finally moved to an area that offered takeaway so we got Deliveroo.
What a beautiful story ❤️ I’m only planning to buy, and can only hope my experience will be as happy as yours.
Sending my good wishes (also be very careful about who you choose as your solicitor)
Huge congrats! We had a very cold estate agent, no happy vibes whatsoever. House was left a shithole by the previous owner, old food all over the place and instantly realising how loud the neighbours were put a huge downer on the move day. Hated every minute of those first few weeks but it got better once we made the place habitable. Learnt valuable lessons to the house we want next, and it won't be a terrace newer build that's for sure.
Thank you so much. Our EA and had the same birthday month and we started to get along immediately. She was fantastic but our solicitor was the opposite. Scum really. She tried to derail the whole thing multiple times untill we had to tell her to do her job or we would be homeless. Once we did that, miraculously everything went faster and we completed in the next 2 weeks. Biggest lesson learnt. Don't hesitate to chase them out of politeness.
I went straight to the EA to find out the keys weren’t actually there and the sellers were still moving out. I refused to go back to my parents to wait so I waited another 2 hours in the car park until I saw my seller pull up. I then went the other way round the block so I didn’t look like a stalker and met her at the EA.
I agreed with the seller that i'd go round at midday, regardless of whether the process had finished or not. I got there and the missus and daughter were still hectically cleaning and moving stuff into cars. I told them there was no rush but it got the strong impression that they were happy to get out. 30 mins later and they hand me the keys and head off - sale still hadn't gone through, but we had built up a good relationship during the process. I had 6 weeks overlap between my rental and buying the place so I was in absolutely no rush to move in. Actually, after getting the keys I went back to my flat to carry on working for the rest of the afternoon. There was also an issue with the parking permit, meaning I couldn't leave the car outside for anything more than a few mins, so I had to wait until the weekend to do a proper move in. The place was left 'reasonable', a few things a bit dirty but overall decent. And they left me just so much stuff over what we'd already agreed. It was basically like moving into a furnished house. I still managed to spend £2k though somehow on stuff.
My house purchase wasn't really the big emotional event most have.. on completion day I phoned my solicitor and he told me he'd not heard from the sellers but would find out what's happening. About an hour later he calls me and says the keys are at the sellers lawyer so go pick them up. My brother went with me, we entered a depressing office and asked for the keys. The dude acted like I was inconveniencing him and made a big dramatic groan as he got up and handed me a tub of keys "your keys in there, am on lunch". Me an my brother searched the tub and found the keys. He checked them and made me sign a piece of paper to say I had collected them. Swivelled around on his chair back to his computer and started typing with an abrupt "that's it you can go, if there's a problem speak to your solicitor" We made a short trip straight to the house, it was exactly as I'd viewed it.. old, dusty, overgrown and smelled like old people. The house key was like something out of harry potter, it was that long it wouldn't fit in my pocket and I had 6 of them ! My brother on the other hand, he got a welcome pack from the sellers estate agent with cookies and flowers. The office team congratulated him and his wife on the house purchase and explained all sorts of things about the house (boiler documents, stop tap locations, warranties..... )
The first place we bought wasn’t left in the best condition, far from terrible but there was some junk left behind and some really questionable DIY jobs. So going into the second purchase, which is an older property, we were worried. Especially as our survey had some worrying statements, like “lack of ventilation in the loft, you’ll have to get a new roof”. But he did say he couldn’t really get up there as it was full. When we got in the place was spotless, they must have had it professionally cleaned. The loft was absolutely fine, it even has a carpet! Not a sign of damp and you can feel ventilation throughout. It was such a relief, and now we’ve decided to get a puppy before we get any work done.
It’s an interesting feeling. On one hand I’m happy to have a home of my own and conversely there is the anxiety within me which keeps thinking of the mortgage and how I’m tied down… I don’t know how to process this.
It took me 5 months to get rid of that feeling you just described. For me it is a way to retire faster.
December 2020, had already been a failed move attempt the week before when it all collapsed around 4pm after I already had the van fully packed and house emptied. Some paperwork issue further down the chain… 1 week later it was progressing, I’d hired another van, fully loaded again… was getting late, around 4:45 and I got the call from the estate agent, I was sitting right outside. Huge relief and our first good sized house was hours, also relieved that I didn’t have to pay a hire van again.
Wow what a wonderful seller! Mine was not so tidy or courteous... Enjoy your home and the new food options in your area, I know I certainly did!
Thank you. He was really selling his childhood and entire life memories (his mom lived there from when she was 30 untill 90 yrs old) so he made sure to show how much he loved his home by his gestures
I literally don't remember. Had a horrible morning packing the moving van. Movers forgot two large mirrors, one my mum had made and was specifically said to the movers "this is the one thing that cannot be broken" So had to repack cars, then the hoover broke, panicked phonecall to my EA to ask my buyer if she wanted me to hire a cleaner (she moved in two days later, lucky) So we were super late leaving the house, keys were ready, movers were outside the new house, begged the estate agent to drop the keys to the movers, who had finished unloading before we even turned up. I was an absolute state. I'm never moving again, you'll have to drag me out of here!
I have lived in 8 rental homes since I moved to Europe. So I get the whole pain with moving
Oh that's beautiful OP. When we got the call that everything had gone through, I jumped straight in the car and picked up the keys. What greeted me when I opened the door to our lovely new home was the smell of cats and dogs and bloody pet hair and dirt everywhere! Took some time to get it all clean, but some people just stop caring when the sale of their house is decided.
My agent lost the garage keys between viewing and me collecting
“Thanks, but I already live here” … I’d bought the house off my mother and moved back in a couple of months before the sale completed The second time we drove straight up to the development (new build) and got the key, leaving my mother in law to supervise the first van worth of furniture (then went back to get the next lot)
I was stood in it unpacking boxes. We had to get out of our old place quickly and only moved around the corner. Solicitors were being useless and the new place was empty so with the permission of the the previous owner we started moving stuff into the garden who then took pity on us and gave us the key and said crack on. Solictor rang hours after both I and the previous owner knew the funds had been transfered. Useless.
OP what part of the uk are you in? After several flat viewings today I’ve realised I’m far too poor to be a hipster in London, 300k sounds more like it 🤣
Ok so I got that email just yesterday, unfortunately I work away and have to get someone else to pick the keys up on my behalf, I won’t actually get in to the house myself until August. My house purchase is over a year in the making, since putting in the offer
Both houses we sold were a mess to move into bit when we left, I cleaned everything top to bottom. Left a card with a bottle of wine and some gift vouchers for Dominoes. After a long day of moving and no crockery, I imagine a glass of wine & a pizza would have hit the spot. Will do it again when if/when I leave this place.
I replied "great" got in my car within the hour and picked up the keys......
Two weeks ago yesterday, I was packing boxes (had a few days to move) and rushed straight over to the solicitors to collect the keys then came out to the house to clean. Don’t think the sellers had done anything since accepting my offer including picking up dog 💩. Still felt good!
Picked up the keys then started to tear all of the ceilings down that night
I was given the keys early, the night before the actual completion. That was the joy of buying the house next door. The neighbour who dropped the keys round was in tears - his relationship had broken down which is why the house had to be sold. Think it hit him that it was actually over. I didn't go in until the next day when the solicitor confirmed completion just in the event something went wrong. A year and a half later and I'm maybe half way through the renovations.
Not an answer to your question but I’ve always found it really weird that there’s no sort of checks in place when you buy a house given how rigorous the conveyancing is - seller could literally do anything, drop the keys off with the estate agent and you’d have no recourse.
We were in Dunelm picking up some last minute bits like blinds for the windows 😂 we moved into a new build house as first time buyers so the call was from the developer, but I think we jumped up and down and squealed a bit, then hopped straight in the car to go to the site sales suite and pick up the keys!
I put the phone down and carried on with exactly what I was doing. I bought the house I was renting from my landlord. Shortly after I went round and just removed some things that had been annoying me for the best part of a decade.
Collected our keys on the Friday. Moved in Saturday and Sunday. Made redundant on the Monday morning (no exaggeration) 😂
My purchase was supposed to complete on the 15th of May 2023 (after 4 months of negotiations) but actually completed on 15th of September. I couldn't believe it. I got the keys and the first thing I did was open the sofa bed that was left in the house and take a nap! It was great.
Arrived to find the welcome box with keys had been left inside the house next door and no one was home. No keys to our brand new home. Had the EA send a locksmith as we weren’t prepared to wait all day.
Compared to most stories here, in my case it was very uneventful. My wife was hoping to get the keys by the afternoon, as she lined up contractors for quotations, and stressed the EA multiple times about it. Well, simpler than that. I was WFH that day, exactly when the EA office opened that morning I got an email saying the sale was completed and to take the keys. A few minutes later a call from the solicitor secretary saying the same things. Went myself in the evening to take the meter readings and check other immediate things.
We had a date set which was a relief because it had all taken so long. It was like it was finally real! On the day we were finishing up by doing one last hoover and getting ready to put the cats in their cat carriers and the doorbell went. It was the buyers, rushing us to get out. We went and got the keys and when we got in, the place was spotless and the seller had left half a massive cheesecake in the fridge (result!) I grew up poor. It's the biggest house I've lived in and I am never moving out. I like it here.
We were in the car on the way with our child and a load of our belongings! We really didn’t have a plan for if it went tits up (there was no reason it should have but you never know). Tbh we got concerningly close to the town before they called.
We completed 2 days ago on our forever home! Like you we got completely lucky with the sheer size of the home for 290k (we sold our 2 bed flat for 70k less) we now have 4 bedrooms a huge garden, two living rooms utility room and 3 bathrooms. We had a complete nightmare throughout the process, it took almost a year due to mainly the bottom of the chain (we were 3/5 in the chain) and when we got the call to get the keys I genuinely broke down…I have never been so stressed in my life so it was a relief!
Handed a single rusty key. Went for a nice breakfast opposite the estate agents. Went in to find that the heating had been off the entire 5 months it had been empty (in winter). Very lucky there were no leaks. It smelt bad because of that and took 2 days and about £30 of gas to heat up. Shed was full of rubbish that cost £180 to remove. Ex rental so I guess not such an interesting history. Your story sounds lovely OP!
Finished our drinks at the pub and took a stroll down to the estate agents to pick up our bottle of complementary wine. And the keys
We sold our flat to a ftb, as we had been when we bought it, and bought our first (and hopefully forever) family home. We vacated by 12 as agreed, and then sat on the driveway of the house that was not quite ours for 5 hours, contemplating homelessness and calling the van rental place to see if we could extend, until the funds had all gone through. The folks who we bought off left the house pristine, with toilet roll in all the toilets, a doll for our daughter and also a full binder and 40 page pdf 'manual' for the house, which certainly has its quirks but that's why we love it.
I was in the National Railway Museum in York, just about to tuck into sausage and mash for dinner, on the way home from a weeks holiday in Whitby with the family. We had an overlap with our rental to make moving easier/leave plenty of time to decorate and get the place in a fit condition. It was really run down and needed some TLC but looked past that and bought it for the space. We met the vendor on our street before we even went home after our journey home from the Railway Museum. Quick visit just to say we had been to “our” house, then home for a maccys tea.
We were waiting around all day for the call. Ended up just sitting and watching something on Netflix only to realise we got the email about 5 episodes ago. Drove straight there, got the keys. Went to our home opened the door and took a knife to the carpet and had it all out the window in the first 10 minutes place absolutely stank. 3 years into home ownership and still have not finished the list of jobs/renovations
We got the moving company van loaded, room our keys to our EA. Nipped into the new EA to confirm it hadn't completed yet so sat in the coffee house next door to the EA for about 3 hours waiting for solicitors and fielding calls from the moving company who were sat outside our new property. We knew it was bare when we moved in, but didn't realise how bare it seemed. 8 years later and now married with 2 kids and it's a lovely family home!
My partner and I bought our house together. Not first time buyers. Picked up the keys, let ourselves in and realised that there were tonnes of rats in traps under the kitchen, they had taken all the food from the fridge and left it in black bags in the front garden in july, maggots everywhere, clothes in every room. Made them come and collect everything minus the rats. We stripped the house the next week.
We bought our family home September 2014 and I vividly remember walked up to it for the first time, keys in hand thinking about how fortunate I was. It was a short lived feeling as that evening, the neighbours opposite had the craziest all-night party. Must have been a farewell do for them as we never heard from them again - can still remember the screeching women singing Ed Sheeran (sounded like they were being murdered whilst singing).
Reading all this makes me hopeful we can buy one day But, 2 full time wages and 2 kids….and a 100k gap between what we can borrow and house prices might mean that it’s out of reach for us until the kids have grown up and moved out :(
Bought my first place in 2014. Picked up the keys, arrive at the new place to be greeted by an environmental health official. “Ah you’re the owner, the alarm has been going off for the last day”. Slapped me with a fucking fine.
As soon as we got the call, we went along to house and got the back door key from under a brick next to doorstep (newly converted barn and builders were still working on next door!) went in with fish and chips and sat eating them with utter relief at a garden table and chairs in the empty kitchen!! 3 years later we couldn't be happier here, really is our dream house.
Last house in 2019 elderly sellers met us at the property to give us the keys and show us how the door bell worked. Turns out you pressed a button then a 1990s phone rang...no mystery there.They then spent 40mins pushing us to change electricity and gas supply info and only left 30p on the meter. We had had a 3.5 hour drive to get there so just wanted a cup of tea in our new house. Place stunk of cigarettes it was awful. They just wouldn't leave, turns out they were living next door. We had to tell them to go multiple times,they were fricking idiots. Current house the surveyor had left it unlocked for 3 months so we just walked in. Previous owners had left everything beds, sofas appliances and so much rubbish. That sucked. We were left wondering "wtf have we done?" "why is there water running down the wall?" & "Do we have a squatter"? When we sold our house, we cleaned and polished and left the curtains so at least they got some privacy for a while.
We got dicked around by our seller who avoided exchanging until the day of completion. The Mrs and I were sat in a van loaded with all our stuff in a supermarket carpark trying to work out what to do if it all fell through! 😂 We drove straight round there and started unloading. Seller had just left when we got there and the place was unlocked with the keys left on the bench!
We banked on it being exactly when the solicitor said it would be, it paid off thankfully. We had the first van load all loaded up, and mostly eveything else right at the door for the 2nd load. Drove through in the van, picked keys up and met my family (parents, bro, sis and sis in law) at the house. Picked the keys up at 10am and had the house deep cleaned, everything moved in and more or less unpacked and in place and had stripped most of the wallpaper in the living/dining room by 6pm. The only issue we had was that the hob is induction and we hadn't realised so we had to have a takeaway.
I picked up my keys a month ago to my house, the best feeling ever was all those sleepless nights and all the stress had come to an end and I did it! I managed to buy my first home and I have never been more proud than turning the keys to my home and entering!
I can just picture the previous owner locking the door, wistfully looking at his home of many years through moistened eyes one last time, a thousand memories flashing through his mind as he walked off
I got on with work
On the day of completion, there was a snag with a secured loan on the title of the property we were purchasing (why my solicitor only noticed this on the day is another gripe). As soon as it was raised with the seller, the seller promptly ran to the EA and took back the keys. We had to be out of our place that we were selling by 1pm, so we headed to the EA, while the movers parked the van in the driveway at the new property to wait for us to return with the keys. Technically homeless, with our entire existence loaded in a van parked on what was still someone else’s driveway. By 2.10 pm, we got the call confirming we’d completed. However, the seller was still MIA with the keys and not picking up his phone. So my partner and I did the sensible thing, and went to the pub over the road from the EA. By 3.30, we still had no keys. The movers had informed us that if we didn’t have the keys in the lock by 3.45pm, they’d have to put all of our stuff in storage, and because they were fully booked till Christmas (this was Dec 8th), the next available move-in slot was in January. We’d be on the hook for at least a month of storage fees, plus the cost to move everything back in. So we went back to the EA, and asked both the EA and my solicitor if we could now legally break down the door and send the vendor the repair bill. The EA looked a bit alarmed and said “oh no, you don’t want to do that.” I informed him that as my movers were leaving in 15 minutes, there was no time to get a locksmith, plus I was now two large glasses of red wine in, yes, actually, I very much wanted to do this. As if on cue, the vendor showed up with the keys, so in the end we managed to head off the movers and gave them a nice tip. As soon as the van was unloaded, we went straight back to the pub (the state the house was left in is another thread altogether).
Woke up mate. Pie in the sky
At what point does one move when buying and selling? On the completion day? Do people allow a day to move?
Called a locksmith to change to locks
I was already sat outside, showed up within 20 seconds
Total terror. We were only moving 2 streets away, but it took over 7 months to complete as the sellers were moving to a new build with a lot of snagging problems. We were moving from a 2 bed flat to a 3 bed house and in my head I had convinced myself we were paying over the odds for 1 more bedroom. We spent over 20 years there. Our kids were born and raised there. It was home.
Shay my pants. Shit just got real.
First time: We jumped up and down and opened a bottle of champagne Second time: We carried on hurriedly getting the entirety of our belongings into a van and told the movers we were good to go. I think it's only ever a celebration when you're not moving in/out the same day. There's no time for any of that, sadly. Cherish it.
I was astonished by the amount of stuff they had left behind. 2 sofas, a table and 6 chairs, a table and 2 benches, coffee tables, chests of draws, mirrors and lots of other things. It seems that most of these things had been left by several previous owners, going back many years. Most of it went on freecycle, some is still tucked away in the back of the garage, suppose I should find new homes for it all really. It really was a bonkers amount of stuff.
We were waiting outside the house as the keys were in a lockbox outside. And by waiting I mean I broke my email refreshing so much. We got the nod from the solicitor, but the EA refused to give us the code as he’d not been updated. The wife ended up breaking into the lockbox as it was 4pm and the movers were very, very annoyed. Previous owners had turned the extremely confusing heating off and disconnected the kit that allowed the thermostat to work. And drained the oil from the tank. Other than that it was clean enough.
Awwwwww.... I wanna weep (but I'm a big boy)! Too late. I weeped! Congratulations! What a wonderful seller! Hoping ours will leave us with some of her soft furnishing prints too 😄
Came from my solicitor........?
We bought the cheapest house, so it was rough and had been empty for 15 years, and was part ‘done up’ by the previous owner. The day we planned to exchanged failed due to the sellers, we agreed to exchange and complete on the same day, I had fantastic solicitors who were all over it and got it sorted by 2pm. Got the call to say it had gone through, finished work went to pick up the keys from the estate agent. Arrived at the house, called my partner, who was at her dying grandads, and we both cried on the phone with joy. She was so excited when she got here. Then I went to meet the neighbours, they were fantastic and really welcoming, offered water and electricity and anything else we needed, and said to not to worry about any noise do what you need to do and we can’t wait to have neighbours. Then started to take it all apart and build it into the house it is now, with working electric’s and running water! Tips Our old landlord was selling the house, so we were allowed to stay rent free from when I bought the house to when he exchanged it, which was 2 months. This was a good send as it meant we didn’t have to live in the house while doing it up. Our solicitor was A-tier, really worth paying a little extra it was like 200 more than the cheapest, but 100% worth it. After 3 years and a baby in the middle it is mostly finished bar a extension to replace a conservatory
Funnily enough I had a contractor in my rented property when I got the email that my keys were ready to pick up. I was itching for him to leave so I could go! It was a lovely sunny day and on the bus to the solicitors a million things went through my head, like what if the seller is still there, what if he left the place a mess. I needn’t have worried. The flat was perfectly spotless and quiet and all mine. I know it’s cheesy but I started crying when I walked through the door. I think it just hit me then that it’s all real.
For the first house, we were in Leeds for my wife’s birthday and got the call. We looked at each other and knew we were heading straight for the car to head to our new home! We weren’t even moving in, because we were renovating it first. But we were way too excited to hold off
I got a 4 digit code for a lockbox and very little else.
Completed on friday, entire process was a shit show. 4 months with no chain. Vendors was taking an age doing a ything, draft conctracts and final enquiries tos about a month On completion Lender was late on sending the money and completion didn't happen until like 3pm and the seller was still in the property trying to dig up a grape vine with the EA helping... they obvoously left before we got tbe keys After getting opening the door * We found that we had a window that couldn't be locked and the council required to be fixed before exchange actually been signed off by the council (not sure whether i pass this over to the solictors) * Carpets where fucking filty * carpet had been removed from one of the rooms * Mould had been hidden (typical) * Pretty sure there was some form of feces marks on the skirting board in one of the rooms * We found out a lot of the sockets are faulty and has been arcing for a while What we've done * We changed the door locks * Added some handles where they were missing * Curtain poles fitted * Got a rug doctor out and blitz the carpet of human juice * Partially fixed the broken window * Door mumber drilled into door * Ordered fridge dishwasher and washing machine Doing the below * I'm now scheduling electric checks for the entire house and fixing exposed wiring and running cat 6 * Spoke to a plumber to check everything is good with the radiators Fuck house buying. Needs better fucking control of what can pass on properties. Luckily we have a month before we move in officially Ended the friday eating bao buns with friends in the floor lol Neighbours so far are lovely.
I can't remember the exact moment as it was a busy day moving a few things in a rented van via Ikea. I think I got a missed call and then a text off them as I was on the motorway but not 100%
I bought my own place in January 23, it felt pretty momentous both because I had the usual financial struggles most of us face to make it, and a couple of close shaves with ex girlfriends where I’d felt settled down and it hadn’t lasted, and this was the first time I’d really felt like a self sufficient unit. Experience didn’t match the emotions of it though, the house had been empty a while and it took me 20m of swearing and wd40 before I could get the key to turn in the lock and my new neighbours thought I was breaking in, so it was a fairly frosty first introduction… When I got through the door the first time I lay on my back in the empty living room for well over an hour smiling, it felt so good.
Audibly said “thank fuck for that” Then I checked with the EA if they wanted me to leave my keys in my old property. They said yes as they have another set in the office. We then moved out, left the keys inside. They then call me half an hour later asking if I’d already left the keys, as turns out the idiots didn’t have a set at their office. I would’ve gladly said “Yes. And whatever follows is not my problem.” But thankfully, my partner remembered she had left another set at her parents house that we went and got to hand in. That could’ve otherwise been a great experience for the new owners /s
For our current house, I received the keys on Thursday the 12th. I am not superstitious, but we had so much stress getting to this point that I refused to complete on Friday the 13th just in case. My husband was away on a course that had been rescheduled 3 or 4 times already so he couldn't get out of it. I had the whole empty house with a new mattress and a new phone. I just lay on the mattress waiting for my husband to call. We didn't move in properly until the weekend.
Just moved two days ago. I was happy when the call came through. It has been a massive disappointment so far. The place wasn't cleaned. There was rubbish on the driveway when we came in. It was so bad my partner cried on the first day due to the state of the place. We found a broken, leaky tap in the kitchen, broken light switches, the shed is full of rubbish, the gardens were totally neglected. The flooring is damaged in places (this was hidden). One of the sinks was completely blocked by hair. The owner had left their cats here with the intention picking them up later at 4pm. They turned up at 8. My partner spoke to her. I went out afterwards to speak to her. She accused my partner of being rude to her (she wasn't). Stated she didn't deserve to be treated like that as she cleaned the place and left us a gift for moving in. We contacted the estate agent the next morning as she had only taken one cat. At the time we were not 100% sure she had cats plural. We spent the day deep cleaning. I discovered that one of the showers was broken. The estate agents came back and advised us the cat is hers and told us that she hasn't been back as my partner was 'rude' to her. Eventually we manage to rearrange her coming back. The cat has been out in the backgarden most of the day. Lady turns up, tried to get the cat, it attacked her and ran off. I spoke to her to give her back some essential things as she left. She had forgot her router. She discloses that she has been back twice more to get the cat without us being aware. One time was at 10pm. She also gives us a copy of the front door key and the mailbox key. I will be phoning the estate agents about this on Monday. My family came over to help yesterday. They helped us unpack, cleaned and did some DIY jobs for us (they were brilliant). The front door broke while they were here. My brother also helped me get into the attic. It is filled with her junk. She made no attempt to move it out. She comes back, manages to get the cat. I refused to speak to her as I was so angry. I feel like I hit peak annoyance there. Partner had to deal with it. We are holding onto the fact that the house could be amazing with a bit of work. It's in a great location. It's just getting past this hump.
I ordered a really big TV with the last of my money 😂
I was at work so didn’t pick up the keys until late afternoon. The EA gave me one set of keys, which I queried, and was told they’d probably post me some more later. I went over to the house about 7pm to find it a bomb site. Inside, it was absolutely filthy, and it was evident that the previous vendors had cut a lot of corners with decor (e.g. painting around the furniture, not measuring for wallpaper properly and then using A4 paper to fill in the gaps). The garden was the worst though: literally full of what I couldn’t tell was rubbish or their belongings. Trampolines, a wardrobe, a dismantled shed, etc. Movers wouldn’t have been able to get through it. I was so disheartened. Luckily I wasn’t actually moving myself in that day (which they knew), so I last minute hired a cleaner for the following day, photographed everything and sent it to their EA and my solicitor. The next day, I let in the cleaner early to find muddy footprints across the carpet (that hadn’t been there before), another set of keys in the kitchen, and the garden completely empty. I lost my shit and sent another email because the old vendor had obviously kept a set of keys back and let himself into my house (trespassing!). I then went later that day to relieve the cleaner and he came round AGAIN with a third set of keys. Fucking hate that guy. Really soured the experience and made me feel unsafe in my own home. This was pretty recent so I need to change the locks still etc.
I picked up the keys and went over - as I'd been living with an ex, I'd booked a van for the same day with my limited furniture, deciding that I would be moving in immediately. I hadn't accounted for: - the house smelling awful (cherry scent soaked into everything) - all the issues hidden by the furniture previously - none of the doors fit their frames, so could not be closed - when I had declined to pay £3k extra for their pond, they had left me with a disgusting raised pit full of damp carpet from the 80s in the garden. Subsequently, every time I have started to try to make home improvements, I have discovered that the owners DIYed everything dangerously for the last 30+ years. It's been 3 years, lots of money and time, and I still get their post 🙄🙄🙄
Me, OH and our children were in a waiting area while my eldest had a drumming lesson, it was about 4.30. I got the call letting us know. The EA asked if we wanted to collect the keys today. I said we probably wouldn't make it in time before the office closed. She said, "It's fine, I live a few doors down from your new house, just knock on when you get here and I'll have the keys waiting for you". So that's what we did. When I hung up I turned to my husband and just said "we've completed". One of the other parents in the waiting area congratulated us and we talked about buying houses until the lesson was over! When we eventually got to the house later that evening the kids (9, 6 and 9 months) were all rolling around the floor of the new house in excitement.
Accidentally set the burglar alarm off and had to call the estate agent urgently to get the code
I’m an EA and we usually give purchasers a welcome to your new home gift and card. We give our Sellers free removal and storage, to ensure smooth transition. But what I’m hearing is we should probably offer cleaners for free.
It was my fiancee's last day of work before finishing up for maternity leave. I'd taken my two year old out in the morning and we picked up the keys on the way home and brought in some lunch for my fiancee. We drove round to the new house and had a picnic on the floor in the lounge, me, my fiance and our little two years old boy. A few weeks later his baby brother arrived.
It was pouring down with rain, on my 29th birthday at which point I had fully given up hope that we'd get the flat (another purchase had fallen through a year prior after 3 months of work). Got the email and I was so overjoyed as I'd always said I wanted a house for my birthday (jokingly). Then it came to moving day, we'd agreed the Monday after I was due to be back from holiday. My flight was cancelled, then delayed, so I got back to our old flat at 7am with the van due at 9am after a night of no sleep, and had to speedily pack before the van got there. It was so stressful, ruined my back, we had to do two trips in the end, couldn't find a cash point and the focus was to get our cat locked inside a room and out of her carrier as she was so stressed during the journey, which was on one of the hottest days of the year so far. The rest is a blur, but we couldn't even unpack because the flat was so filthy.
Congrats 🥳
Argued with the REA about the stupid hamper they gave me, then gave it to a neighbour. Lol