Completion question, moving on same road

cloo

We're about to exchange (hopefully) on a house on the street we live on now; all money with solicitors, just held up by one solicitor off sick yesterday that something had to be checked with! Our buyer is not in a chain and I suspect, though need to check, that they may not be moving straight in, but refurbishing first; our vendors our moving to an empty probate property nearby.

Parking on our road is rubbish, so we had been thinking about getting a small van to shuttle things up and down, and some things might even been walked down. I've just spoken to a mover, who has reminded me that we are supposed to have vacant possesion, and I know that includes our possessions, at point of completion, usually assumed to be about 12.30pm, and therefore we'll need a full size lorry that can fit everything.Though obviously he has a vested interest in us getting a large lorry!

Given the shortness of our chain and the fact that I don't think our buyer will move straight in, is there any chance the chain might be able to negotiate to start moving stuff before completion? (eg our vendors start getting their stuff in to the empty house in the morning, then we have a bit of time to get ours to theirs if our buyers could pick up keys later in the day)? I think I have heard of similar happening if all parties are willing.

Annie1960

Your idea sounds like a non-starter to me.

Keys will not be released until completion. You need to vacate the property you have sold before the keys for the property you are buying will be released to you.

penguingirl

You are likely to have a period between selling your old house and buying your new one where you have no house as the money is transferred up the chain. We were in a very short chain (our buyers weren't moving in straight as they were renting their first house out and had overlap, and our vendors went into rented, so we were the only to sell & buy) and we still had 2.5 hours without a house. Enough time to drive to the new house and have lunch whilst waiting for the EA to call! So based on that I would say no. Do you have any good neighbours with a garage they don't use much? That was our back up option if things didn't all fit in the van!

To be fair, I wouldn't expect there to be much difference in the quote for a small lorry and a big one as most of the money is for labour.

G_M

No sane seller will permit access to their property before Completion. If Completion then did not take place and some stranger had occupation, the seller would be both propertyless and moneyless.