Exchange and complete same day - How?!

G_M

Richard is right to warn of the issues around simultaneous Exchange/Completion, but it can be appropriate, and does happen. This is what the OP was asking about.

A FTB, or BTL investor, buying an empty property, for example, where there is no chain, and no imperative to actually move in on Completion date (with all that that entails in pre-planning) would avoid many of the issues.

Personally I agree I'd still advocate a short gap, but there may be other reasons for wishing to do it all on one day, and this is what th OP was asking about.

Horizon81

Great advice, many thanks. Interesting point about contacting the Indian call centres. I'm not alone in thinking that given the importance of money that it's crazy to have to communicate to someone who cannot grasp anything slightly out of the ordinary.

Anyway, my situation is a FTB buying a part exchanged house off a house builder (it's true I don't need to move in on completion day) The agent keeps calling it a 'back to back completion'. The plan being the current owner completes the sale to the house builder on one day, then the day after the housebuilder completes the sale to me.
I believe we can't exchange until the current occupier has completed with the housebuilder, hence the need to exchange and complete same day (we could wait longer but the stamp duty holiday is dictating a lot of this!!!). My lender will therefore be transferring the advance 1 day prior to exchange/completion, ready for it to go to the housebuilder on that day.
The only problem I can see is if for any reason the current occupier cannot complete with the housebuilder on the day before I'm due to complete.

sonastin

As I understand it, the lender charges interest on the mortgage from the day the funds are transferred to your solicitor. So if exchange/completion were held up by a couple of days, you'd have a couple of days extra interest to pay but there would be no problem with the mortgage funds sitting in the solicitors account for that time. If the hold-up extends more than a couple of days the solicitor needs to think about returning the money to the lender both with regards to the lenders rules about drawing it down too soon and with regards to the interest you're incurring while you don't actually own the property. That has to be balanced against any fees that the lender charges for the money being sent back.