Exchange and complete on the same day

Threebabes

We may exchange and complete on the same day.

How in earth are you supposed to organise everything in case it falls though? Do you take a chance and arrange removals etc. :eek:

Any advice would be great.

Our first house was a new build. Our 2nd we had been staying with family in between houses so we had the keys had a week before we moved in.

agrinnall

Why bother risking it? Just arrange different exchange and completion dates.

PasturesNew

Exchanging/moving on the same day isn't recommended for people living in the house.....

JR4

I have done this twice ( not by choice ) it is very stressful but you do just have to be prepared have your removals booked phone all
the utilities etc ( which is tricky is short notice we were told on the Wednesday we were moving on Friday ) and just pack as if it is all going ahead on the plus side both of my moves went without a hitch. Good luck.

Snakey

I've done it twice, but it was years ago (early/mid 90's) so things may have changed. Both times the property was already empty, the first time we were moving from rented so there was just the one move to worry about, the second time we were also selling and so there were two of us needing to move on the same day. If there's a chain of you all doing everything simultaneously then there's a chance that something will go wrong on moving day, so have a Plan B in mind (even if it's only the number/address of a local self-storage facility) just in case it's you who ends up with all your furniture on the front lawn of your new home and the estate agent won't hand over the keys!

Make sure you sort out the funds with your solicitor and the bank as banks usually like five clear days between exchange and completion so don't just assume they will be fine with it. It can be done, but it does need to be arranged about a week in advance.

For everything else, you have to take a chance and accept that you will lose any money you have paid in advance if things don't work out (removal men etc). I'm assuming here that you cannot arrange an overlap so that you don't have to also move in to the new property on exchange/completion day?

Do not arrange to get anything delivered to the new place or tell anyone you've changed address until you have actually exchanged, because if it all falls through you will have no access to your would-have-been new home to pick these things up. This makes mail redirection a little tricky as the Royal Mail likes to have ten days' notice to set it up, so you'll need to let the people who are having your old place know your new address to forward things during that period and be prepared to do the same for the people who are moving out of your new home. Similarly, you might have to take a chance on the phone because I think most providers need a couple of days' notice to get that disconnected so if the new people move in and phone the speaking clock in Australia you'd be on the hook for the bill.

Do not forget to read your meters in the rush on the last day!

I was going for a near-simultaneous exchange and completion on the flat I nearly bought in late 2012, and I had everything packed into boxes and everything. Had to unpack it all again when it fell through at the last minute. C'est la vie. It was a chance I took in order not to have to pay an overlap of rent and mortgage.

andilong1

On Friday we exchanged and completed on the same day, this was because our deposit was not sufficient for the seller to use as their deposit, so those that say "don't do it" and "avoid it" its not always possible.

But i would say if it is possible, Avoid it !

we received a phone call from our solicitor at 12:50 Friday to say we had completed, congratulating us and saying that key collection should be now arranged (already agreed to meet the seller at the property once we had completed)

I gave it an hour and turned up at my new house to meet the vendors and collect the keys.

The elderly couple were still in the process of packing stuff away, the far too small van they hired had just set off for the first of many trips and i was not moving in anytime soon !
Luckily we are in rented so have a little time to move, this has been the only way this could have worked !
The vendors were still moving stuff out by 7pm and we were given keys and told they would post the rest through the letterbox once the property was empty later that evening.

we received a phone call from the sobbing vendors apologizing it was taking so long but asking if it was OK to leave items in the garden and detached garage to collect over the course of the weekend.
As we were not moving in until it was cleaned anyway this was agreed, we have spent the last 3 days cleaning the inside of the house and the vendor is still emptying the garden and the garage, they have assured us they will be finished by Wednesday, looking at whats left i would say its going to be the weekend !

I shudder to think how this would have all gone down if we were needing to move in the same day

We had our offer accepted on may 15th so the move had come at no surprise although it was only 5 days between agreed date and the moving date.

Unitoons

We are edging closer to this reality.

We are all planning to complete Friday and were meant to exchange last Friday but it didn't happen. It was then meant to happen yesterday - but didn't.

I then got an email saying we would exchange Weds to complete Friday - who knows what will actually happen in reality. All I know is this is stressful enough - I cannot imagine doing it on the same day!

Good luck to you!

2nd_mortgage

It can get pretty nerve wracking if you have to move on the same day.
I have exchanged & completed on the same day twice but didn't move in on the same day.
I was in a rented accomodation the 1st time & had a few more days left so took the keys, cleaned my new house, moved in, cleaned the rental apartment & ended the tenancy.
The 2nd time round we were not selling our home but renting it out after a few days so again I didn't have to move on the same day. The exchange was significantly delayed due to vendor & vendor's solicitors & I had to threaten to pull out if we didn't exchange/complete on the 1st day of my son's new high school. We dropped my son off at his new school (30 miles from existing home), got confirmation of exchange from the solicitors, celebrated in a pub, waited, waited a bit more, completed in the afternoon, picked my son up & then straight to the EA to collect the keys. This was on a Wed.
We moved in on Sat. So I had to travel 120 miles daily (30+30 in the morning & 30+30 in the afternoon) for next 2 days to drop my son & pick him up.
But it was still easier than exchanging, completing & moving on the same day I think.

Alias_Omega

We can do it, converting current house into a BTL and buying a house to move into.

Potentially we can exchange and complete on the same day, and move in when the other house is painted/cleaned enough to move into.

However, unsure if its physically possible as the BTL mortgage needs to pay us some £££, unless its paid to the solicitor direct and we top him up with savings & mortgage..

thats a question we need to ask i think.