How long after completion do we get the keys?

lookstraightahead

Our vendors were out by 11. This is the time we agreed to.
Your vendors sound like a nightmare. Your sob story is as good as theirs as they are now in YOUR house.

MaryNB

pinkteapot said:

While it's true that legally, at the very moment of completion it's yours and in theory that's when you get the keys, in reality this sort of delay happens ALL the time. Far more often than not we've got the keys later in the day. Typically we've completed mid-morning and got the keys early afternoon. In the worst case we completed early morning and the seller finished moving out at 4.50pm, but that was because they thought they could self-move in a hired transit from a 4-bed house. *sigh*

The reality is that these days the bank transfers and legal bit can happen very quickly, but the removers for everyone in the chain are very likely to need the whole morning to load the trucks. So, as long as there are no solicitor issues or idiots being disorganised, everyone empties their house in the morning and unloads at their new house in the afternoon. 

I agreed my sellers could move out at 3pm. I still had my rental for another month so was in no rush. 
They forgot to confirm with my solicitors that the funds had cleared and there was panic on that end. Turns out it had been done a few hours previously, their solicitor just never bothered to call or respond to my solicitor. Then 3pm became 4pm, I got the key from the EA at their office. I turned up at 4:30 and they still hadn't left. Finally got in at 5pm.

It's a small house and only two of them moving out so not too much to move. However, I think they were probably using his own van instead of paying for movers so it took a lot longer. They would have had to do numerous trips so would have needed the keys to their onward purchase hours before giving my the keys. 

mjane93

Yeah I completely understand things do come up but our vendors have messed us about so much. This is a chain free purchase and we exchanged 5 weeks ago so really have not got much patience with them. We’re off to the shop now to buy a bottle of bubbly and off to get the keys to our house! 

MaryNB

mjane93 said:

Yeah I completely understand things do come up but our vendors have messed us about so much. This is a chain free purchase and we exchanged 5 weeks ago so really have not got much patience with them. We’re off to the shop now to buy a bottle of bubbly and off to get the keys to our house! 

Don't forget to pick up some cleaning materials. I think it's safe to say they probably didn't leave time to clean...

JCarmello

If it's chain free, they should have vacated over the weekend, or on Friday, in my opinion. Why leave it to the last minute

mjane93

@MaryNB I’ve got my cleaning basket at the ready haha

@JCarmello yep our thoughts exactly

Surrey_EA

AdrianC said:

It's your house, you should get the keys IMMEDIATELY.

The vendor is now the ex-owner, and shouldn't have anything left in the property. They should not need the keys. But, of course, they might be busy with their new house... Which is why the EA (the vendor's EA, not yours) usually does the handover.

That's not really the case. There is almost always a time stated in the contract, usually 13:00 or 14:00, as it's possible for completion to take place at 09:01, but a touch unrealistic to expect the vendors to have packed up and left the property at that time of the morning.

Skiddaw1

When we completed on our previous house we waited ages for the seller to drop the keys off at the EA's office as agreed. Turned out her partner had set out on foot with said keys but he was epileptic and had a fit en route. A passer-by had called an ambulance and he'd ended up in A&E. It then took time for him to recover sufficiently to remember where he was going (and to call the seller to make alternative arrangements). Poor man- we did feel for him but it was a bit of a nightmare. Thankfully, keys were all ready at the EA's office this time.

annieb64

Can remember  pushing my year old grandson around in his pushchair until after 3 p.m as my daughter's vendor didn't  start packing up the furniture  van until lunchtime. It was a very long day!

AFF8879

Your contract should stipulate, but I believe the standard is 12 noon on day of completion.