Moving house stories by Jon Buckland, Royds Residential Property

Having been helping people to move home for over 25 years, I’ve seen some funny and unusual things, but here are a few timeless classics:

Selling a property for an executor 20 odd years ago - The executor came into the office with his hand inside his jacket. He produced a package containing £18,000 in cash that he had found in the loft. I recommended that he searched very thoroughly and he came back, hand inside his jacket again... with another £18,000 odd in cash ! Each time I went nervously with him acting as security guard down Morden High Street to the Building Society to pay it in.

Burglars beware - I was an executor dealing with a house sale in Morden where the deceased had no family or friends and had left everything to charity. He had sadly died in hospital over the Christmas period so I had not seen him for a while. The side entrance to his house was booby-trapped with a trip-wire in case of burglars and every internal door was locked with the key hidden very carefully. It was a real puzzle trying to find the key to the next room. It took two days to gain access to every room.

Estate agent ploys - One client arrived early at a house for a viewing with an estate agent and the agent arrived whilst the client was finishing a phone call. He saw the agent put a note through the letter-box. When they went in the agent ignored the note but the client picked it up and it read something like : "I have noticed that this house is for sale and the price is very reasonable for this area. I am very interested and would be willing to pay the asking price for it. I do hope I am the first to make an offer for it. I will phone your estate agent later."

We’ve got lots more stories to share – but we’d love to hear yours too.