Question about exchange and completion dates

Cuddlybearman

Hi all

Been noticing a lot of posts on here about people exchanging and completing on the same day or 1-2 days with a sense of "relief" about it (and not just because its taken a long time!)

I'm planning to have a 3 week difference between exchange and completion otherwise i cant arrange removals, broadband connections etc, which seems reasonable to me. My solicitor doesn't see it as an issue.

Am i leaving myself open to some kind of issue that i'm not aware of? How does someone find out they are 100% going to move and then logistically actually do the move on the same day?

wargrip

If you're asking why people are keen to sometimes exchange/complete on the same day it's because once you've exchanged, if anything prevents you from completing, well... you might want to read the fine-print in your documentation to see exactly how bad that is (enough to give you sleepless nights). A typical worry (especially at the moment) is a material change in circumstances which could affect your affordability (i.e. you get made redundant / furloughed) which causes your mortage offer to be rescinded.

Mineral1

The issue that people are trying to avoid is someone having to self isolate between exchange and completion as this can mean failure to complete, and some quite serious ramifications. To mitigate this, many people have used covid clauses in their contracts which mean if anyone has to self isolate, completion can be delayed without anyone taking a penalty (which can be loss of your whole deposit in some cases). However, lots of solicitors including mine are preferring to simply put exchange and completion as close together as possible, perhaps in the belief that exchanging with a covid clause in place gives no increased certainty of a completion date therefore rendering it pointless.

If you had the covid rider in place, and someone had to self isolate in the chain, your completion date would potentially change and therefore your removals, broadband etc would have to be changed anyway.

MaryNB

Some people are concerned about one of the parties getting covid and being too sick to complete the move or being suddenly made redundant between exchange and completion. Reducing the time between reduces the risk of the sale falling through post exchange.

I was supposed to have a week between exchange and completion, exchange got delayed and ended up happening the day before completion. I was lucky there was already a Virgin connection in the house so I got it delivered and set up in 4 days. I was planning to just cope with tethering off my phone for the first month. A month without broadband is expected for people exchanging and completing on the same day. I moved from rented so didn't use movers but I think others have accepted the risk of losing their deposit if the completion date moves. 

Cuddlybearman

ok well luckily i'm the only person in the chain who is actually living in either property so should be ok. The place i'm buying is empty and the person buying from me is for future rentals - so should be ok. But makes sense

retepetsir

We were also hoping to have two weeks between exchange and completion to get removals booked in, but this is looking less likely. Also our vendors haven't cleared the vacant property of furniture yet and want to wait until exchange for this to happen! 

annetheman

Very similarly, as a renter moving into an empty property (no chain), I also asked the same and the general concern about increasing length of time between exchange and completion was as said above:

wargrip said:

A typical worry (especially at the moment) is a material change in circumstances which could affect your affordability (i.e. you get made redundant / furloughed) which causes your mortage offer to be rescinded.

It seems very unlikely in my circumstances (work in digital pharma, big COVID boom, company recruiting like mad) but the risk is always there. And it may not be work-related, it may be something else - a sudden illness for example. Reasons the lender may not confirm the offer are in the conditions sent with it.

Personally I am going to leave a 4 week window between exchange and completion so I get my next months' pay and use it for the full monty moving works vs an uninsured JimBob and his truck from Gumtree. It's not like I can invite people over to help during lockdown...

Other practicalities you mentioned like setting up broadband - depending on your provider and the place you're moving to, a simple home move is usually completed in a few days rather than weeks.

Depends on your circumstances I guess, if the risk is worth it

eddddy

Cuddlybearman said:

ok well luckily i'm the only person in the chain who is actually living in either property so should be ok. The place i'm buying is empty and the person buying from me is for future rentals - so should be ok. But makes sense

There's still the risk that you (or your family?) become ill due to COVID between exchange and completion - and therefore you are unable to complete, maybe because you're isolating, feel too unwell to move, or you're in hospital.

Then, if you're still unable to complete for 2 weeks, you could lose your 10% deposit (plus a lot more) - unless your seller and buyer take pity on you, or your solicitor adds a COVID clause to the contract.

In the current situation, perhaps there's also an increased risk of you losing your job between exchange and completion (or your lender doing a new credit check between exchange and completion and being 'spooked' by the Audi finance!!) - and so your mortgage offer is withdrawn.