How does completion work in a chain?

evoke

Assuming you have the buyer of your property beneath you in the chain, you in the middle and your seller above you in the chain, what happens on completion day?

Would all three of us complete on the same day a couple of hours apart, starting with my buyer collecting the keys to my property which I would vacate and then i'd wait for my sellers to vacate their property?

Olive_Oyl

Hello Evoke

Yes you are correct when contracts are exchanged a completion date is set by those in the chain .
Contracts are not exchanged without a completion date at which time keys are handed over and you move out the same day .

Contracts are usually exchanged by 1 pm

Richard_Webster

Contracts are usually exchanged by 1 pm

????Where does this come form- or does the poster mean that completion usually takes place by 1pm? Exchange takes place as soon it can be organised and if there is a long chain the transaction at the bottom of the chain will often not exchange until around 5pm.

However OP was asking about completion in a chain. Legally transactions complete when the seller's solicitor receives the money in his bank account. When he gets it he sends it on to the next up the chain. You don't normally get the keys until your seller's solicitor has received the money.

evoke

Yes, i'm asking about completion, not exchange. I'm just interested in the logistics of completion day.

scooter_chick

Logistically - you all start packing up your removal vans early in the morning. The lawyers start moving the money about. Hopfully by the time you're packed & ready to go, the money is all where is should be & you can go & pick up the keys for your new place.

Wne I moved in the summer - I dropped a set of keys off at the EA a few days before so I didn't have to remember on the day. While we were packing the van, my sol called & told me my sale had gone through. At that point my buyers could legally started to move in since they owned the property, but I told the EA I'd be another hour or so (my removal men had started a bit late, but that's another story!). When I was done we all left. On the way to the new place, my sol called again to tell me my purchase had gone through. When I arrived in the new town, I went to the EA and picked up the keys & started moving in.

I guess it depends on distances involved, but you'll be dealing with moving your stuff, let the sols worry about moving the money!

G_M

But remember the higher up the chain you are the longer you wait for the money to move all the way up!

The FTB is the first to pay. His money goes to his seller, and then on up (usually increasing in value as it goes up!).

So the people near the top start getting agitated around 3 PM as the removal men are parked outside the new house but the money still hasn't arrived, so, no keys.

Richard_Webster

Logistically - you all start packing up your removal vans early in the morning. The lawyers start moving the money about. Hopfully by the time you're packed & ready to go, the money is all where is should be & you can go & pick up the keys for your new place.

Wne I moved in the summer - I dropped a set of keys off at the EA a few days before so I didn't have to remember on the day. While we were packing the van, my sol called & told me my sale had gone through. At that point my buyers could legally started to move in since they owned the property, but I told the EA I'd be another hour or so (my removal men had started a bit late, but that's another story!). When I was done we all left. On the way to the new place, my sol called again to tell me my purchase had gone through. When I arrived in the new town, I went to the EA and picked up the keys & started moving in.

I guess it depends on distances involved, but you'll be dealing with moving your stuff, let the sols worry about moving the money!

Yes, that gives you a flavour of what actually happens in practice.