Exchange and completion same day!

livbundy89

Am supposed to be exchanging and completing on the same day this week. Absolutely terrified - anyone on here had experience of this and how quick/simple the process is? Or if you've had a bad experience, what was it that went wrong? My solicitor has been pretty poor in terms of communication and there have been hurdles every step of the way so I'm eager for this to go smoothly! If anyone can think of anything that I should double check with my solicitor before the Big Day, your advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance, all!
Liv

greatcrested

The main problem is uncertainty.

Because you have not Exchanged in advance there is no contract guaranteeing things will happen on the day intended.

It may be delayed for any number of potential reasons, or indeed not happen at all.

If you are in a long chain, it only needs one person in the chain to have a last minute financial issue, change of mind, unanswered legal query, etc etc for it not to happen.

All you can do is

* ensure all your finance is ready

* ensure your solicitor has done all the legalwork required

* check with your EA that he's spoken with all the other EA and believes everyone else has done the same-  - bearing in mind EAs don't always know, and are not always told the full story

I know none of this is what you wanted to hear, but you need tobe realistic.

The above is the reason that pre-Covid most people have a gap between Exchange and Completion (and many still do now too). That way you can Exchange one day, and then know for sure what date the following week (or two or whatever) Completion will happen, which then allows you to plan the move eg book time off work, book removals, arrange grandma to look after the kids that day etc etc

MovingForwards

FTB in rental, done during first lockdown.

Exchanged just before my solicitor logged off for the evening and completed the following morning when he logged on, got the keys a few hours later.

It meant I could serve notice on my rental and have a 28 day overlap with moving out, I arranged removals for a few days later, I could clean my home, paint one room and then settle in the day me / my furniture moved in. That just left sorting out the rental and returning the keys.

Obviously if you're selling and buying you've got to empty, tidy, move in a day.

breakfast_epiphanies

E and C same day two weeks ago. All went fine, completion happened at about 2.30pm

pinkteapot

Are you just buying (FTB/chain-free), buying and selling in the middle of a chain, or selling-only? 

MaryNB

I was so supposed to have a week in between. My sellers and their sellers proposed the exchange and completion dates and then exchange came and went with barely any communication from them. They didn't bother to respond to say there were outstanding queries. I ended up exchanging the afternoon before completion.

Keep on top of the EA. I was constantly chasing him to get a response from the other parties. Also make 100% sure with your solicitor that nothing else is needed from you. So many chinese whispers during the last few days of mine. EA said twice they were waiting for info from me, on one occasion he said it was my solicitor who told him - nope! Nothing was outstanding on my end and my solicitors never said there was.  

Make sure all the money is will your solicitor. I had to send over the 10% house deposit before exchange and my solicitor originally told me to wait until I exchanged to send the rest of the cash I was putting towards the purchase. The gap between the two narrowed and I nearly didn't leave myself enough time to transfer it all (I was using 3 faster payments over 3 days). Make sure you know if you can use Faster Payments or give yourself time to set up CHAPS.

Mineral1

MaryNB said:

Make sure all the money is will your solicitor. I had to send over the 10% house deposit before exchange and my solicitor originally told me to wait until I exchanged to send the rest of the cash I was putting towards the purchase. The gap between the two narrowed and I nearly didn't leave myself enough time to transfer it all (I was using 3 faster payments over 3 days). Make sure you know if you can use Faster Payments or give yourself time to set up CHAPS.

How do you know if you can do faster payments or have to use CHAPS? It's the first time I've ever sent this much money, can it just be done via internet banking or should I be telling my bank in advance. Thanks

badger09

Mineral1 said:

MaryNB said:

Make sure all the money is will your solicitor. I had to send over the 10% house deposit before exchange and my solicitor originally told me to wait until I exchanged to send the rest of the cash I was putting towards the purchase. The gap between the two narrowed and I nearly didn't leave myself enough time to transfer it all (I was using 3 faster payments over 3 days). Make sure you know if you can use Faster Payments or give yourself time to set up CHAPS.

How do you know if you can do faster payments or have to use CHAPS? It's the first time I've ever sent this much money, can it just be done via internet banking or should I be telling my bank in advance. Thanks

Mineral1 said:

MaryNB said:

Make sure all the money is will your solicitor. I had to send over the 10% house deposit before exchange and my solicitor originally told me to wait until I exchanged to send the rest of the cash I was putting towards the purchase. The gap between the two narrowed and I nearly didn't leave myself enough time to transfer it all (I was using 3 faster payments over 3 days). Make sure you know if you can use Faster Payments or give yourself time to set up CHAPS.

How do you know if you can do faster payments or have to use CHAPS? It's the first time I've ever sent this much money, can it just be done via internet banking or should I be telling my bank in advance. Thanks

You need to check your bank's website. That will tell you their daily faster payment limit, how to do a CHAPS payment & how much it costs. Pre COVID, some banks insisted on branch visit, but I doubt many do now.

Which bank?

greatcrested

Check your bank's website or call them - most banks have a limit on the size of Faster Payments, either per day or per transaction. So you may need to do several transactions if the amount is above your bank's limit.

Make 100% sure you get the destimation code right - there have been cases of scammers intercepting emails from solicitors, and changing the details to their own! Double check the details with the solicitor, and/or send a £1.00 FP as a test & confirm it arrives.

Mineral1

badger09 said:

Mineral1 said:

MaryNB said:

Make sure all the money is will your solicitor. I had to send over the 10% house deposit before exchange and my solicitor originally told me to wait until I exchanged to send the rest of the cash I was putting towards the purchase. The gap between the two narrowed and I nearly didn't leave myself enough time to transfer it all (I was using 3 faster payments over 3 days). Make sure you know if you can use Faster Payments or give yourself time to set up CHAPS.

How do you know if you can do faster payments or have to use CHAPS? It's the first time I've ever sent this much money, can it just be done via internet banking or should I be telling my bank in advance. Thanks

Mineral1 said:

MaryNB said:

Make sure all the money is will your solicitor. I had to send over the 10% house deposit before exchange and my solicitor originally told me to wait until I exchanged to send the rest of the cash I was putting towards the purchase. The gap between the two narrowed and I nearly didn't leave myself enough time to transfer it all (I was using 3 faster payments over 3 days). Make sure you know if you can use Faster Payments or give yourself time to set up CHAPS.

How do you know if you can do faster payments or have to use CHAPS? It's the first time I've ever sent this much money, can it just be done via internet banking or should I be telling my bank in advance. Thanks

You need to check your bank's website. That will tell you their daily faster payment limit, how to do a CHAPS payment & how much it costs. Pre COVID, some banks insisted on branch visit, but I doubt many do now.

Which bank?

Thanks, its Barclays and the website isnt very helpful as depending on what page you read it gives two different answers! I think I might ring them tbh.

badger09

greatcrested said:

Check your bank's website or call them - most banks have a limit on the size of Faster Payments, either per day or per transaction. So you may need to do several transactions if the amount is above your bank's limit.

Make 100% sure you get the destimation code right - there have been cases of scammers intercepting emails from solicitors, and changing the details to their own! Double check the details with the solicitor, and/or send a £1.00 FP as a test & confirm it arrives.

Good advice, but sending a £1 test payment shouldn't be necessary as presumably a payment on initial instruction will already have been made to solicitor's correct account. Also, small test payments followed by much larger payment have been known to trip bank's security process. Shouldn't happen with a CHAPS payment though.