Not moving on completion date - can we wait to pick up keys until evening?

Elfbert

And please make an arrangement - whatever that may be

When we sold our last flat we heard absolutely nothing from our buyer. We had no idea what we ought to do with the keys, despite my solicitor asking for someone to get in touch with us repeatedly in the lead up to completion.

We ended up leaving the keys with the caretaker of the block and our solicitor emailed the buyer's solicitor the guy's mobile number! We never heard anything back from the buyer or their solicitor, but I went to see the caretaker a few weeks later and he said the woman had picked up the keys... it was totally bizarre!

G_M

Elfbert wrote: »

......We never heard anything back from the buyer or their solicitor, but I went to see the caretaker a few weeks later and he said the woman had picked up the keys... it was totally bizarre!

I wonder who the woman was...... :rotfl:


Might be worth wandering around big blocks of flats randomly asking caretakers for keys........

Miss_Samantha

After completion it's your house and they keys are yours as well, so you do pretty much whatever you want.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

jils wrote: »

A lot of articles online suggest checking the property is in order with the estate agent present, this may be better to do in the light of day!

Out of interest can you reference any article that says this? I'd like to see what they suggest the estate agent could or would do if the property wasn't "in order".

rosyw

I have NEVER collected keys from the EA! I've always collected them from the vendor, at the property, VERY shortly after completion, although I know this wouldn't be possible for everyone. Some EAs don't like this arrangement, when I bought my current place I had a call from a very distressed vendor saying that the the EA was INSISTING she take the keys to them ( she was waiting at the house for me, I was 5 minutes away) I called them and said that there was no way in hell they'd be given he keys to MY house!

Just make an arrangement with the vendor - and stick to it!

Glover1862

rosyw wrote: »

I have NEVER collected keys from the EA! I've always collected them from the vendor, at the property, VERY shortly after completion, although I know this wouldn't be possible for everyone. Some EAs don't like this arrangement, when I bought my current place I had a call from a very distressed vendor saying that the the EA was INSISTING she take the keys to them ( she was waiting at the house for me, I was 5 minutes away) I called them and said that there was no way in hell they'd be given he keys to MY house!

Just make an arrangement with the vendor - and stick to it!

What's the big deal if the Estate agent has the keys??In fact if I was the seller, I wouldn't want to see the new purchaser, especially a picky one!

rosyw

Glover1862 wrote: »

What's the big deal if the Estate agent has the keys??In fact if I was the seller, I wouldn't want to see the new purchaser, especially a picky one!

When the EA in question has been nothing but useless from start to finish I wouldn't have been surprised if they managed to lose the keys in the few minutes between being given them and my arrival to collect them! :rotfl: I'd developed a very good relationship with the seller, I'd had to deal with them directly through most of the buying process, we both agreed that the sale/purchase would probably have fallen through otherwise, all down to the EA!

jils

ScorpiondeRooftrouser wrote: »

Out of interest can you reference any article that says this? I'd like to see what they suggest the estate agent could or would do if the property wasn't "in order".

AnotherJoe wrote: »

First I've ever heard that, never done it myself, its not the responsibility of the EA to "check the property is in order" or anything to do with them. Where did you read this? Was this perhaps in respect of rental?

davidmcn wrote: »

I have never heard of this. Normal procedure is the agents hand the keys to you and that's it. If you discover anything isn't in order, that's for the solicitors to argue about.

Message received - we can pick the keys up at any time, in whatever arrangement suits us! Obviously my mistake re: estate agents, perhaps read it in an article mentioning rental properties.

sparky130a

Relax, in the grand scheme of property purchases this is a small matter.

I bugge55ed off to Prague for a week on the day i completed on my flat. The EA etc didn't bat an eyelid.

I picked the keys up a week later.