What happens on completion day

ladymarmalade222

We are completing on Friday and are mostly packed just bits to finish off tomorrow.

We have booked a local Luton van and 2 men as we also have a small van and estate car. We are not taking a lot of the bigger items either.

I have not moved in 20 years so wondering what happens. What time would you expect the van guys to get here, we are only moving 3 miles away.

Is it always afternoon when you have to leave or could it be early morning?

I know the solicitor has the money from the bank arriving the day before and we are second in the chain as ftb is buying our house.

Any help to calm my nerves would be great.

Xx

lee111s

You'll need to ask the removal guys for a time.

Personally I'd have them there early to have the van packed ready to go as soon as you get the phone call.

The call could come at any time. My last move the keys were ready at 10:30am (I was a ftb and there was no oneward chain).

eddddy

ladymarmalade222 wrote: »

We have booked a local Luton van and 2 men as we also have a small van and estate car. We are not taking a lot of the bigger items either.

I have not moved in 20 years so wondering what happens. What time would you expect the van guys to get here, we are only moving 3 miles away.

I don't think it's a good idea to leave it to the van driver to decide when you move.

People typically aim to complete at 12 noon - but you can ask your solicitor if he/she has a different target time.

Assuming you're selling and buying at the same time, you should aim to have the van loaded and the old house empty before completion time - and then start unloading at the new house after completion time.

So discuss with the van people how long loading will take, and arrange a time accordingly.

ladymarmalade222

The van guys mentioned 10.30 but I thought that could be a little late. We only need one load in the Luton so shouldn't take too long to load and we will have the others loaded before they arrive. My mum will also be doing the finishing clean here:)

G_M

What happens on completion day

You do a lot of waiting and a lot of stressing!

You need to be packed, van loaded and ready early. As do your sellers! When you arrive at their (your new) property, you don't want to find them still loading do you? Well, nor do your buyers.

Having said that there is no way to anticipate at what time Completion will happen and you'll get the keys. Yes, midday is a theoretical target, but there are a multitude of reasons why it may be delayed.

You, and your van drivers, just have to be prepared to sit and wait..........

eddddy

ladymarmalade222 wrote: »

We only need one load in the Luton so shouldn't take too long to load...

You can't really do more than one load in a single van anyway (you would have nowhere to unload the van between journeys).

If you did have more than one van load, you'd have to get a second van.

Ithaca

Most removal teams are experts in chilling out over lunchtime waiting for clients to finalise completion. Better to get them in early, get everything packed without rushing, and then accept you'll have a bit of a wait for the call from your solicitor and estate agent.

Worth keeping some folding camping chairs available so you have somewhere to sit, and keep any power chargers for phones / tablets handy (you don't want to be waiting for your solicitor to call with 1% battery and all the chargers buried in the van).

Another tip we found useful is to leave your wifi modem/router plugged in as well so you can watch netflix / catch up on facebook / access emails etc while you are waiting (assuming your service isn't yet disconnected).

always_sunny

G_M wrote: »

What happens on completion day

You do a lot of waiting and a lot of stressing!

I know right? Why, I will never understand; is it a British tradition? When my solicitor was explaining it to me I was really struggling to understand.

Surely after completion it'd be so much easier and civilised to move the day after rather than headless chickens panicking and rushing to move based on a phone call!
I would book a team of cleaners to prep the place before whilst the van arrives and everything is inside to that when you move stuff in it's pre-cleaned.
Very bizarre system :eek:

BJV

1st good luck, enjoy and best wishes for your new home.

Completion is the day when all the solicitors transfer money over to each other. It can take a while depending upon where you are in the chain. For example FTB start of the chain transfer money over to the people they are buying thier house from. Solicitors confirm money is in and call estate agents to say release the keys. Meanwhile the people the FTB's are buying from then start to transfer their money over to the vendors of the property they are buying and so on and so on.

I moved in early this year and we had a fab removal team. They where like ants and had the house cleared in hours( we had packed almost everything in preparation. Still mopping floors hovering it always takes longer than you expect so make a plan to be out at the latest 12.

I would call the removal company and get them to confirm a start time. We where up at 6 shower b/fast kids to school and they arrived at 8. Even then where had only just finished.

The only advice I would give is to leave the house the way you would want to find it. We left coffee, tea, an old kettle, toilet role and a few other bits. We had an issue with the house we where buying and long story short did not get to move in the same day.

When we finally got the keys it was ???? well terrible. rubbish in the garden, two bin bags of dog poo!!!! things I have never thought any lady would leave anywhere in the bathroom.

We love our house and it is all ours but I will never forget the day we moved in and for all the wrong reasons.

Rain_Shadow

always_sunny wrote: »

I know right? Why, I will never understand; is it a British tradition? When my solicitor was explaining it to me I was really struggling to understand.

Surely after completion it'd be so much easier and civilised to move the day after rather than headless chickens panicking and rushing to move based on a phone call!
I would book a team of cleaners to prep the place before whilst the van arrives and everything is inside to that when you move stuff in it's pre-cleaned.
Very bizarre system :eek:

You want to sell your house and stay living in it?


Very bizarre idea :eek:

always_sunny

Rain_Shadow wrote: »

You want to sell your house and stay living in it?


Very bizarre idea :eek:

Not at all, just no need to do it based on phone calls.
Abroad you'd go to the notary (suppose solicitor does the same) and seller/buyer agree on the sale and exchange of keys. It is very simple but then again there's no real concept of 'chain' or 'getting on the ladder'.

In the rest of the world offers are binding, etc so there's no risk of gazumping or gazundering. One day [hopefully] England will also catch up!