Delaying moving in after completion - can we do this?

roseland69

We are doing this. We are completing today but moving out on the 29th of December and have an agreement with the buyer to this effect.

GSXRCarlos

Good luck ;o)

GDB2222

It strikes me that this is the sort of arrangement that will work out fine most of the time....

princeofpounds

It can work as a personal agreement, but don't be blind to the legal risks.

You can do all sorts of funny things like inadvertently creating a tenancy, which would lock you out of the house for 6 months at a minimum and require a court eviction process. Your insurance is likely to be invalidated and so on.

So no professional would ever advise you to take this course of action. But if you want to take the risk that's up to you, at least it's not a totally unbalanced set of risks between you and your counterparty

roses

Isklar wrote: »

I dont know if the law has changed in recent years, but during one of my house moves, about 15 years ago, we did something similar. We completed on the Friday, but didn't move in (nor did the vendors move out) until the following Thursday.
I seem to remember there was some extra paper work involved, we discussed it with our solicitor at length, and definitely, as you said, we had to sort something out with the insurance.

That's a good point. What if there is a fire? An insurance company won't pay out if you were not living there.....

twokcc

Check with your solicitor but as far as I know stamp duty is paid at the rate on the date of exchange so as long as you exchange before 31/12/09 you can complete at anytime even in early 2010. Think there may be a max time delay(6months) to stop avoidance of stamp duty but this wouldn't apply in your case

alex_g_2

Hi stamp duty is paid as at the date of completion not exchange.So to avoid the increase rate you would need to complete by 31/12/09.It is up to you if you come to a mutual arrangement to move after the completion date but be aware as others have said of poss legal implications.If you have made your solicitor aware of any informal arrangement then they would be duty bound to inform the mortgage company thus invalidate your mortgage unless mge company agree.(very much doubt it). So in essence its up to you .

zet_2

kjfc100 wrote: »

However, neither of us are very keen to physically move now before Christmas for various reasons, the main one being they have a small child and neither of us have started packing yet.

We still want to complete because we save the stamp duty, but we've agreed that if legally possible, we would like to move the following week, on the 28th.

The OP has already done their thing, they will move on the 28th so they are not evading tax since the stamp duty wouldn't have been applicable on that date.

But in general, why can't the solicitors do all the paperwork for a completion for the 28th before that date? The only thing that might hold this up would be a mortgage lender's cash I suppose?