You will remember my tale last week about the half-eaten sausage. I saw on Twitter a photograph of what was found under a sofa when someone moved it, which led to a flurry of comments about this particular subject.
Well, my lovely lady who found the half-eaten sausage emailed me on Monday to say that it was a sad story when she picked up the keys to her new home and moved in because the sellers had left the house in a dirty state. She said:
“We had a lovely weekend in the new house, albeit the couple left it in a complete state – even my kids are cleaner than her, and that’s saying something! Done an industrial clean today with the help of friends – it’s now sparkling and smells clean instead of like wet dog!”
She then commented that her friend had bought a house and found some explicit homemade videos in the loft…
It strikes me that, no matter what we say to our clients, they will always think it is acceptable to leave half-used paint tins (though if the colour matches you may well want to do a little painting) and ends of carpets.
So, riding into the week of the back of this tale, I had another lovely couple move this week. I spoke to them the day before completion to check that they knew what to do and when to do it, and to find out if they had any last minute questions.
On the morning of completion, I called them at around 11am to check that they were doing well at their end and to tell them that the funds had just arrived on the house that they were buying. Mr. S said: “Where do you want me to start?”
He’d had visions that the removal men had not turned up (sometimes happens), that the wagon was not large enough for all of their items (sometimes happens), that they were struggling to do all of the last minute cleaning tasks (happens frequently, however many members of the family are drafted in to help), but his answer was a first:
“We got up this morning excited to be moving, only to find that our car had been stolen overnight.”
What a way to start the day. Factor in calling your insurance company and the police to report the theft and then have to think about moving while in that frame of mind – I give these clients 10 out of 10 for the positive attitude they had notwithstanding what had happened to them.
As Mr. S said – at least he had not packed the car with any belongings overnight, but he did think that it was a targeted theft as the removal company had packed most of the furniture the day before and taken the wagon to their storage unit, so perhaps the thief thought that there would be some items in the car worth stealing.
There is a moral to this story – if you are having the removal company to pack the day before completion, don’t pack anything in your car…
This is written by a real high street conveyancer who wishes to remain anonymous. Read more in Today’s Conveyancer every week.
