Is completion day meant to be the same day as moving?

Richard_Webster

You have to load your van in the morning so that it is empty for your buyers when they come with their van in the early afternoon and your seller needs to have done the same so you can move in to his house.

You can't wait until legal completion takes place to load your van otherwise everybody would be waiting and a lot of people would be paying extra to their removal men for being kept late!

PasturesNew

For most people it works out fine. I was in the last house I was selling, on the day of completion, when there was a knock at the door - it was the new owner. He'd only JUST found out that he had to get out of the house he'd sold that day.

He thought he was buying mine and could then start packing/moving.... so it came as a shock to him. He was knocking on the door to ask if he could use the garage to store his stuff as it was him/mates and a small van and would take 2-3 vanloads.

Knowing the risks, I said "that's fine" and pointed out the risks to him - but he had to accept those risks as his buyers would be turning up at his house in the next 3-4 hours.

It was compounded because he had most of the stuff in my garage, when the banks failed and he'd paid but my solicitor didn't know that .... I wasn't stressed as I'd have ended up with two houses (the other one was a week's holiday let I was moving to), he'd have ended up with none.

It was all OK by about 4pm though as the solicitor had sent a member of staff to the bank branch to check if the funds had arrived.

hazyjo

Bear in mind everything needs to be wrapped and ready to go into the removal van the day of completion. Don't expect them to come in and wait for you to wrap plates, pack boxes, etc. Stating the obvious, but wanted to make you aware they won't do that for you - it can take days/weeks to get everything wrapped and packed into boxes ready to be loaded onto the truck. Wait until exchange before you start doing any of that in case the transaction falls through!

You can pay removal bods to pack for you (usually another £300+ or so). Worth every penny IMO (despite this being a money saving site!). They usually do that the day before (unless a weekend when they either don't work, or are likely to charge a fee (mine wanted another £50 to pack on a Sat - I declined as what's another day! Completed on the Monday).

Jx

pops5588

scottishblondie wrote: »

Once you've completed on your sale the house isn't yours anymore, so you need to leave. Getting the truck loaded up first thing is the way it's generally done as you probably won't get the keys for you new house until at least midday (probably early afternoon) - you don't want to have the irate new owners waiting on the street while your truck is still being loaded!

This was us. FTBs, completed at 11am, was told we could have the keys from 1pm. Finished work, went to the house and the Vendor was still there at 6pm, packing up the car. Very unhappy bunnies!

duchy

It amazes me that solicitors don't spell out how moving day should work.

We had our buyer on the phone at 9am on completion day saying he was coming round now so we could show him how the alarm works.... and he'd pick the keys up at the same time. OH said OK - got off the phone and I pointed out he couldn't have the keys til completion .

OH rang him back and explained this ....Buyer threw a fit and was shouting, threatening to get his solicitor on us ...... I discovered later he had told the estate agent he was going to get the keys off us and they had already told him no -it wasn't his house yet. He had ignored them .

Best bit of all - we dropped the keys in at 2pm ...... He didn't set foot in the house for another four days. First time buyers again ...... Perhaps solicitors just assume "everyone" knows how it works so don't bother explaining ?

TeamLowe

do the keys have to be released via the EA?

The house we're buying is a two minute walk from where we live now, the house the vendors are buying is a ten minute drive one way, the EA is a ten minute drive the other way.

it would make sense practically for me to get the phone call saying 'you can get the keys' and then walk round to the actual house and get the keys from the vendor as they're leaving

or am i just being a naive first time buyer and that's fraught with complications? worse that i can see is that they won't actually be finished emptying the house when they say i can have the keys but we're moving in the day after so the most i'll be doing is going in and having a good clean. possibly a good cry as well, hormones being funny things at the best of times

moneyistooshorttomention

hazyjo wrote: »

Bear in mind everything needs to be wrapped and ready to go into the removal van the day of completion. Don't expect them to come in and wait for you to wrap plates, pack boxes, etc. Stating the obvious, but wanted to make you aware they won't do that for you - it can take days/weeks to get everything wrapped and packed into boxes ready to be loaded onto the truck. Wait until exchange before you start doing any of that in case the transaction falls through!

You can pay removal bods to pack for you (usually another £300+ or so). Worth every penny IMO (despite this being a money saving site!). They usually do that the day before (unless a weekend when they either don't work, or are likely to charge a fee (mine wanted another £50 to pack on a Sat - I declined as what's another day! Completed on the Monday).

Jx

As you know, I am paying my removal firm that £300 odd extra to do my packing for me and they will be doing this the day before Completion/Moving Day.

Bearing in mind that they've charged a price for my house that equates to a 3 bedroom house (well...I do have quite a bit of stuff:o) on the one hand, but I have been getting everything as "organised" as possible on the other hand
= how long do they take to do the packing of that size house normally? I'm assuming that it will be 2 men that turn up and that they will take around 2/3 hours. Does that sound about accurate?

Malks

When we moved, I just handed the keys to the new owner after the Solicitor called to say the property is now sold and you now own the next one up the chain.

For us it made sense as the new owner was a neighbor a couple doors up the road in a rented property, so driving into town, dropping the keys with the agent, and then coming back to go to the new house didn’t make sense. The Solicitor agreed, but the agent didn’t he wanted the keys to pass on as he wanted to ID check the person collecting the keys. When we handed the keys over we were also able to run through a few things with them as well, which was nicer than leaving a note.

As for actual completion time, we were completed by 11am, and at our new property by midday, chasing the old owners out! By Luck we had used the same removal company, so our removal team helped their team move everything onto the van, so in the end we were starting to unload at 1pm.

We opted for the removers to pack us, Ok it cost more, but I think it was worth every penny, as they partially packed the van the day before which gave us a great headset.

harrys_dad

I was moving 150 miles, and had a four bedroom house full of stuff. Paid to have everything packed day before completion, the stuff stayed in their van overnight, (I stayed next door), then drove up to new house and collected keys on the second day (which was completion day) and everything was moved in. It cost more, but was seamless, and a small price to pay compared with cost of house.

hazyjo

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

As you know, I am paying my removal firm that £300 odd extra to do my packing for me and they will be doing this the day before Completion/Moving Day.

Bearing in mind that they've charged a price for my house that equates to a 3 bedroom house (well...I do have quite a bit of stuff:o) on the one hand, but I have been getting everything as "organised" as possible on the other hand
= how long do they take to do the packing of that size house normally? I'm assuming that it will be 2 men that turn up and that they will take around 2/3 hours. Does that sound about accurate?

Honestly, it's worth every penny. Don't forget to keep things out that you'll need - and I mean HIDE IT somewhere other than in your house!

They packed my cat basket yet I still had to take mine to my mum's! And they packed handwash from the bathroom in my other house, and they said they never pack keys, but several keys were packed, including one of my car keys (thankfully I had the other one!).

You won't be able to walk round saying 'leave that' cos they will forget, or one won't be there or listening.

Took much longer than 2/3 hours. I'm sure they came early in the morning, and I'm sure they were still there in the afternoon - and they had to finish the rest the day of the move as that was a Fri and I was moving on the Mon so still obviously had bedding, pillows, clothes, toiletries, cutlery, food stuff, etc to be packed up. A lot could be kept in a separate case.

I have a ridiculous amount of 'stuff' too. That last house was four floors though. It takes forever to wrap every glass, plate, bookcase, mirror, stack books into boxes, etc. The time before was a 2 bed 2 storey, but easily a 3-bed's worth of stuff (like you). That also took longer than 2-3 hours, I think.

Jx