Vendor still moving out of house at post-settlement showing

Technically the vendor is trespassing on your property. They have no legal right to be in there. Sometimes stuff happens and it may well be that the vendor's removalists were the cause of the delay but that is also a valid reason to delay settlement. That is unless you come to a "gentleman's agreement" and you are satisfied they will be out on the day of settlement (which I suspect they probably are by now).

 

I would be pretty annoyed too.
If I was overseas and paying someone to do this, I would reasonably expect they would be on top of this.
Moving out the day of settlement isn't acceptable.

 

This was my thoughts, easiest way would be to withhold a small sum of money (I think it is $5k in VIC) but you cannot delay the full settlement.

The vendor may very well have had removealist but they were late. Yes it is annoying, yes someone should of checked, yes the vendor should of moved out but these things are in the past you need to work on the future. If it was a couple of extra hours think of the big picture along with karma.

IMHO I wouldn't be upset if it was a couple of hours as things do happen and I feel these days people get to upset over the small stuff or first world problems.

 

The vendor is out.

 

as in gone to the shops, will be back soon, or vacated? If the later then problem has disappeared - any damage?

 

I bet they are out, but I would bet double the place isn't clean.

pinkboy

 

Vacated. No apparent damage. The place will need cleaning

 

get your BA to pay for it. if they refuse tell them youre already letting them off from charging for 1 days holding cost too but youre willing to do so if they would prefer

 

Why should the BA pay for cleaning?
There is no obligation for a place to be cleaned by the vendor when sold. They aren't a tenant.

 

Good to hear it's sorted without too much of a delay.

Good practice would be for the BA/PM to drive past the morning of settlement and check (in addition to the final inspection, if the contract is for vacant possession), if nothing has been moved bring it to your/solicitors attention.

Side note, who the hell moves out ON settlement day?

 

As a ex professional removalist,.................Yes...................i have heard this happening hundreds of times.

 

Good to hear it worked out okay with no major problems, needing a clean prior to renting isn't surprising.

 

Around 80%

 

Seriously? I just couldn't do that.

Maybe because I hate packing and don't usually have absolutely everything in boxes. Probably one day to move the big stuff, another to do bits and bobs and another cleaning.

 

To me, a pre-settlement inspection is NOT a pre-settlement inspection if the property is NOT vacated.

With our last purchase (a couple of months ago), we went to do a pre-settlement inspection the day before settlement. We entered the property with the REA and the vendor hadn't vacated, the place was a mess, with furniture, boxes and rubbish everywhere.

I took some photos, told the REA that this wasn't a pre-settlement inspection (I understand that you are only allowed one), walked out and phoned my solicitor.

Our solicitor sent an email to the vendor's solicitor advising them what had happened and that, for settlement to proceed as per the Contract, firstly, the vendor had to vacate the property; secondly, the property has to be cleaned; and, thirdly, the buyer (us) had to perform their pre-settlement inspection by no later than 11am the next day (settlement was booked for 2:00pm).

Don't know what the vendor did (and I don't care) but we conducted our pre-settlement inspection at 11am and settlement went ahead as planned.

@Fortune Favors the Bold, I am glad it all worked out for you

 

Thanks folks. I've learned a lot throughout this entire property-buying process, most of it the hard way. I'm very grateful for the inputs all you have provided in this thread and others.

 

The 2 places i've sold will be well and truly vacant on settlement day.... heck, both were even vacant during the sales process, the first one was vacant because I gave notice to tenants of my intention to sell, and the second we decided to sell after moving (and instead style the place) because we thought it would be easier to sell without all our stuff all in there.

But there was this one time when I was the purchaser and the vendor was partway through moving out during my presettlement inspection, I think it was the day before settlement. I was not impressed by that at all but her excuse was that it had been raining all throughout her last week of ownership.

Finally she bit the bullet because she really did have to move with or without any improvement in the weather and so she started moving while it was raining... I could see heaps of dirty rainwater all in and out of the townhouse on the white tiles all throughout the ground floor living area as she'd been trapsing in and out.... that did not leave a good first impression!

 

Yep,fair dinkum.Puts the pressure right on to be loaded and out by lunchtime.I called it leapfrog,one place to the other,only took 1 problem and the whole house of cards came down, happened hundreds of times,it was a weekly occurance.

 

Good to hear.
Glad it worked out.

 

Me too. At this point I'm just glad the loan is settled, the vendor is out, and it looks like we'll soon have a tenant in.

It's been a long and difficult ride, and very bumpy indeed. If I had the opportunity to do it again I'd do it very, very differently, but so it is. Life is a good teacher, so long as we're willing to learn.