closed on friday but vendor still in house

we are purchasing a house and we were due to close friday 25 november. as the vendor's still hadn't received their loan cheque for the house they were buying (their solicitor wanted to complete the sale and purchase of their new house on the same day), this date got pushed back again and again. Finally yesterday, they got their loan cheque but their solicitor didn't contact our solicitor until 2.30pm. Our solicitor then arranged a bank draft and sent it over to him by courier but he didn't recieve it until 5pm (so he says) - our solicitor had alredy received the closing documents from their solicitor by courier the previous day to speed things up.

called over to the house today to speak to the sellers as we had a number of deliveries arranged for monday and they now say they won't be in a position to move out on monday due to a number of reasons and they say they don't know when they will be able to move.

does anyone know the legal view on this ? even though we have sent over the money to their solicitor, how long can they stay in the house

So you own the house now then? If that is the case, then they don't really have any right to stay in your house.

Of course, people are human (unfortunately), and a small bit of leeway might be a charitable thing to do, but as far as I can tell, the venders haven't even given you a date! Are they in any way the slightest bit apologetic?

Why not suggest that you'll charge them rent?

Have you closed the sale yet? The solicitors should hold the money until the documents are signed and the sale is closed.

At that stage, the vendors should be out of the house. There are a number of issues if they are not out and the sale is closed, among them : a) they could squat, and you'd have a problem getting them out; b) if there is an accident (say someone falls down the stairs), they can sue you as you are now the owner of the property. We were strongly advised by our solicitor not to close until the vendors were out, and we had the keys. In the end, we told him they were out on Friday night, but informally waited until Sunday to get our stuff over (leaving Saturday free for the vendors to move out). It wasn't ideal, but we trusted them.

I don't think you can force them out of the house, as it hasn't been sold to you yet. I also don't think they have to move out at this stage - i.e. they could still back out of the sale. Your solicitor would be the person to ask.

well I suppose we do "own" the house now, although our solicitor asked their solictior to hold the money until keys were released. no keys yet though as it was too late on Friday to do anything about it. I'll be on to our solicitor first thing on monday morning to see what the story is. I suppose if their solicitor closes their purchase of their new house on monday morning, we could have the keys in the afternoon. I'm just a bit nervous as I'm a first time buyer!

Thanks for your replies