What happens on the Completion Day

mazibee

Hi All,

FTBs, will be exchanging in the next few days and will be extremely thankful if someone can explain normally what happens on the completion day.

When we will get the keys? Any specific time of the day?

Who will give us the keys?

Do we need to collect it from vendors, EA or any othe nominated person?

What if we are unable to get the keys on the day of completion.

Any specific things to do on the completion day as the FTBs

Will be extremely thankful for any advice/ suggestion?

gary83

As first time buyers I remember it being a bit of an anti climax to be honest, collected the keys from the estate agents around lunchtime, timings and location will depend on when you actually complete & the money goes through, we got into the house there my priorities were, checking their were no issues, changing the locks, taking photos of the gas & electric meters then settled down on the floor with fish & chips a bottle of wine & relaxed

sheepy21

I had a call from our sol at 8.30am to confirm that she was completing our purchase, I think by about 11.30 we had a call confirming the house was ours. We then headed to the estate agents to get the keys and started the actual move at about 1pm ��

cybervic

Are you in a chain? moving in the same day?

You will first receive a confirmation from solicitor usually midday if no chain or later if you are in a chain that completion has taken place and the keys are released at specified location (usually estate agent's office or seller's home (now yours)).

You can find out who supply the energies beforehand and once you are in, take photo of your electricity, gas and water meter for proof of reading. If you are not moving in the same day, take a good look around and check if there's any repair needed and get it sorted before moving in if possible.

Remember to bring some paper cups and a bottle of fizz to celebrate!

Davesnave

This isn't the sort of question you need to ask here; there are pages of it on Google and probably something in the sticky at the top of the Forum.

In my case, very little. I didn't view my house properly for days, or maybe a week after completion, though others did. We got the keys from under a brick in the garden.

Now, that probably didn't help very much did it?:rotfl:

mazibee

Davesnave wrote: »

This isn't the sort of question you need to ask here; there are pages of it on Google and probably something in the sticky at the top of the Forum.

In my case, very little. I didn't view my house for days, or maybe a week after completion, though others did. They got the keys from under a brick in the garden.

Now, that probably didn't help very much did it?:rotfl:

Wow, What an idea Dave?

ScottishSaver14

There's a show on 4od called 'the property chain ' which has Kirsty allsop involved. It's a bit dated, and it's England based, however it gives a lot of details of the ins and outs of completion and everything in the run up.

It was very helpful for me to give some context to the whole process (even though I live in Scotland!)

cheeky-peach

I collected the keys around 12pm after a call from the Estate Agent saying they were 'ready'. When I got there, I was asked "Are you moving in today?" I replied we were and they I got told that the vendor would be another couple of hours... grrr. Hubby sat outside with a small van of 'immediate' things we needed for a few nights before the official moving van arrived with the rest of our stuff.

PasturesNew

Usually, you will get two phone calls:
1/ your solicitor telling you it's done.
2/ the estate agent handling the sale telling you to collect the keys.

You then go collect the keys (ID usually required, then you sign for them).

But - it is possible that even though you have the keys the sellers are still packing/loading a van as they got behind.

I got my solicitor phone call at 10.30am and the agent phone call at 10.40 and I was in their office collecting the keys at 10.50. The sellers hit a snag with their van/moving and didn't vacate until about 5.30pm. They shoved their set of keys through the letterbox. I spent the day driving past the house until I could see the windows were closed and there was no van present.

I stepped inside and immediately it all looked half the size my memory told me .... and then you get an overwhelming feeling of disappointment and a spot of despair. Empty houses always look smaller.

Murphybear

We bought a lovely detached bungalow with gardens on all sides. We had visited it a few times and had tea and cake with the lovely old couple who had to sell for health reasons.

We collected the keys about lunchtime and opened it up. I wandered through the whole property and especially in the garden and shouted “this is ours” or something. When the cat arrived from the chattery a few days later she did something similar

We only sold that bungalow when we moved 200 miles

[Deleted User]

PasturesNew wrote: »

Usually, you will get two phone calls:
1/ your solicitor telling you it's done.
2/ the estate agent handling the sale telling you to collect the keys.

You then go collect the keys (ID usually required, then you sign for them).

But - it is possible that even though you have the keys the sellers are still packing/loading a van as they got behind.

I got my solicitor phone call at 10.30am and the agent phone call at 10.40 and I was in their office collecting the keys at 10.50. The sellers hit a snag with their van/moving and didn't vacate until about 5.30pm. They shoved their set of keys through the letterbox. I spent the day driving past the house until I could see the windows were closed and there was no van present.

I stepped inside and immediately it all looked half the size my memory told me .... and then you get an overwhelming feeling of disappointment and a spot of despair. Empty houses always look smaller.

Exact same thing happened to us. I collected the keys around 1.30, went to the new house sellers still loading the van (said they had an issue and the van was late or something).

My mum came and met me (OH was working) and we went for a stroll round the village, went back an hour later still not gone. Mum and me went to the local for a drink. Over an hour again and they still had not finished! Ended up not getting out till gone 6pm. Woman said she was going to have a whip round with the vacuum i said not to bother as they were annoying me by this point and i just wanted them gone.

Anyway, walk into the house and thought 'oh my god what have we done'. The house was disgusting. Absolutely stank of dog and urine. And there was dirt and dog hair everywhere. Would have taken more than a whip round with the hoover to sort that out.

Luckily we weren't moving in for another week, so spent the next 3-4 days cleaning everywhere and shampooing the carpets ready for moving day the following weekend.

Really put a downer on what was supposed to be a special day, but once the smell disappeared and we got some decorating done we did grow to love our house.