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What to do with the keys???

tea-bag
tea-bag Posts: 548 Forumite
500 Posts
in House buying, renting & selling
I am hoping to exchange in the next few weeks However I have used a online estate agent and online solicitor. As I am moving into rented 200 miles away I was planning on moving a few days before completion.

How do I give the keys to the new owner? As above I have nobody to hand them to!
«1

Comments

  • Annie1960
    Annie1960 Posts: 3,009 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Can you leave them with a neighbour?
    Is your solicitor in the area where the house you are selling is?
  • rosie383
    rosie383 Posts: 4,981 Forumite
    I'd ask the EA what their policy is. I'm sure they would have come across this scenario before.
    Father Ted: Now concentrate this time, Dougal. These
    (he points to some plastic cows on the table) are very small; those (pointing at some cows out of the window) are far away...
    :D:D:D
  • audigex
    audigex Posts: 557 Forumite
    Assuming you don't have family in the area you trust to do it: Perhaps you may be able to entail the services of a local solicitor or estate agent to liaise with your online ones? There would presumably be a cost, but I can't think of any other way to do it and allow the keys to be handed over the same day
    "You did not pull yourself up by your bootstraps. You were lucky enough to come of age at a time when housing was cheap, welfare was generous, and inflation was high enough to wipe out any debts you acquired. I’m pleased for you, but please stop being so unbearably smug about it."
  • PasturesNew
    PasturesNew Posts: 70,698 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    If you live near me you can drop them off and I'll hand them over on your say so on the day for £20.

    :)
  • G_M
    G_M Posts: 51,977 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Leave with neighbour, local friend/family (with strict instructions not to release them till either you or your solicitor ring with permission)

    Hide under (stone, flowerpot etc) in the garden, and ring the buyer with instructions once Completion has taken place.

    Pay a modest fee to a local estate agent/solicitor to hold it for you.


    Note: of course, this is another benefit of using localsoliciors rather than online......
  • Owain_Moneysaver
    Owain_Moneysaver Posts: 11,393 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Leave them in a key-safe attached to the house and release the code number when your solicitor confirms receipt of funds.
    A kind word lasts a minute, a skelped erse is sair for a day.
  • Davesnave
    Davesnave Posts: 34,741 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    G_M wrote: »

    Hide under (stone, flowerpot etc) in the garden, and ring the buyer with instructions once Completion has taken place.

    We didn't wish to meet the greasy agent our vendors employed, so we got them to do this! :rotfl:
  • tea-bag
    tea-bag Posts: 548 Forumite
    500 Posts
    I think the flower pot will work.
  • nicegirl
    nicegirl Posts: 190 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    If I was buying a house from someone and they told me they'd left the keys under a flower pot I would not be impressed at all! :eek:
  • agrinnall
    agrinnall Posts: 23,344 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Just do what the sellers of my mum's house did and leave a door unlocked so that we (and indeed anybody) could just walk in anway - it actually proved useful to us as it took until late in the day to actually get the keys, by which time the movers had got everything into the house.
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