When do we get keys?

badlydrawngirl

We are selling our house and using the profit to help pay for a new house.
We are wading slowly towards signing the contracts and have been told that we should be able to move a couple of weeks after signing.

My question is:
On completion day, when do we get the keys to our new property?
In other words, do we only get them once we have cleared out of our current property and given the keys to the estage agent to pass on?

Thanks!

QTPie

You can have the keys to the new property as soon as your funds (for buying) have been confirmed to have entered the Seller's Solicitor's bank account.

If you are in a chain, you need to complete on the sale of your own property (so the funds clear into your Solicitor's bank account) before your Solicitor can transfer the money to your Seller's Solicitor....

QT

PasturesNew

If it were me I'd be expecting a phone call about lunchtime, maybe 2pm tops.... but if there's a problem the call can come at 5pm.

You'll need to know where you're taking your keys to - and where you're picking up your new set from.

If you pack up, then hand your keys in to your estate agent (say), then they won't release them to your buyer until they have been phoned (by the solicitor) to say it's gone through... and at that point, you should be getting a call to say you can pick up your new keys .... unless there's a problem.

If you don't get the new keys, you can't camp out at your old/current house, it's not your buyer's problem or fault... you'd then be going to the new place hoping to sort out the problem ... hoping that the seller isn't just serving up their tea to their family in a house still full of stuff..... which happens in about 1-in-100,000 cases.

Generally speaking, it's straight forward and just works out OK.

Evilm

Depends on the chain but usually completions happen between 11 - 3pm on the day. You will get a call sometime between then saying it has completed and you can have the keys. You will also get a call a bit before that saying your sale has completed, could you please drop the keys in to your estate agents.

You can do this at the same time. Our Sale completed about 11 and our purchase at 12 or so. We dropped the keys to our estate agents around 11.30 (when the last pieces of furniture etc were out of the house and in the removal van) and drove to the new area and picked up the new keys at 1pm.

badlydrawngirl

Thank-you all for your replies and for putting my mind at rest.
I know this was a question for our solicitor, but she isn't open until Monday and, well, you know how the mind works when it has something it needs answering.

Cheers to all who replied!