Completion day of the week

onetimeatponycamp

Just wondering whether there's a "best" day to complete on, whether there are any days not to complete on etc.

Mine is a simple purchase - no chain, just me FTB, seller has already moved out. I put forward completion on a Monday and seller agreed, but now the other side solicitors are wanting to complete the Friday before. I thought it would be madness to complete on a Friday as everyone else does so it's super busy. It's better for me personally not to complete on the Friday as I won't be able to get down to get the keys - I'd rather do the Monday then book movers for the Tuesday. Any thoughts?

user1977

Would be daft to complete on Friday if you can't get keys until the Monday - means you're paying for three days of ownership when you can't do anything, and can't check for any immediate problems etc.

onetimeatponycamp

user1977 said:

Would be daft to complete on Friday if you can't get keys until the Monday - means you're paying for three days of ownership when you can't do anything, and can't check for any immediate problems etc.

Yes this is my logic - I mean I guess the estate agents could hold the keys, but I'm moving 1.5hrs away so I would rather use the weekend for packing then collect keys on the Monday. 

jog

We were advised not to complete on a Friday for a couple of reasons, one being that if for any reason things don’t go to plan, eg the money doesn’t move along the chain smoothly, you have another working day the following day to sort things out, if you complete on a Friday and there is an issue, you then have to wait until the Monday for it to be resolved. 

Secondly the removal firm advised completing on a Wednesday or Thursday, so that you have a day or two before and after for loading / unloading lorries. We have a 4 bed detached house, and they said they won’t get everything off the lorry on the day we complete, so will need to come back the following day, if we completed on a Friday, that would mean either paying extra fees for the team to work at the weekend, or not getting the rest of our belongings until the following Monday. 

Because of this we negotiated completing on a Thursday. 

user1977

onetimeatponycamp said:

user1977 said:

Would be daft to complete on Friday if you can't get keys until the Monday - means you're paying for three days of ownership when you can't do anything, and can't check for any immediate problems etc.

Yes this is my logic - I mean I guess the estate agents could hold the keys

Yes, there's no problem in the agents holding the keys until you're able to pop in, they won't care how long you take.

UnderOffer

By coincidence we’ve always completed on a Wednesday for our all moves. Always felt that was safe in case the banks had an IT issue or solicitors went offline, we’d be able to pick things up the next working day. 

Nice to have two working days to then notify utility companies of readings etc., 

badger09

Definitely avoid Friday as it’s the busiest day for both conveyancers & removal companies. 

We completed on a Thursday and vendor dropped the keys off with our friends who live in the same village. Removals couldn’t fit us in on either Thursday Friday, so as we were some distance away in temp accommodation we didn’t bother collecting the keys until Friday & took some of our ‘stuff’ over. Our furniture & the rest of our belongings arrived on Saturday. 

Any idea why other side’s solicitor wants Friday completion? 

eddddy

onetimeatponycamp said:

Mine is a simple purchase - no chain, just me FTB, seller has already moved out. I put forward completion on a Monday and seller agreed, but now the other side solicitors are wanting to complete the Friday before. I thought it would be madness to complete on a Friday as everyone else does so it's super busy. 

Give the estate agent a call, and ask them to give the seller a call to find out the background.  That way you might get an explanation back in 15 or 20 mins - which would be much faster than querying via solicitors.

(It could be something mundane, like the solicitor is on holiday from the Monday onwards, so prefers to get completions done before they go - rather than leaving them for a colleague to do. Or the conveyancing solicitor only works 3 days a week - excluding Monday.)

Maybe once you know the reasons, you can decide whether you want to push for Monday, or agree to Friday.

london21

Friday usually the busiest.

Better to aviod if you can 

Titus_Wadd

Are the vendors not buying with the proceeds from the sale?  Maybe they are teachers and can't take time off midweek to unpack?  The party with most flexible circumstances should, in an ideal world, fall in step with the more time-restricted parties.  However, that rarely seems to be the case whenever we have moved: last time it was a buyer with nothing to sell at the bottom of the chain throwing a strop about a particular weekend and threatening to pull out otherwise. 

As a FTB and later when buying from rented we've always allowed a few days to do any major upheavals like laying carpets and move in gradually a few days later (particularly good when we had 2 toddlers, not having to do it all the same day).

diystarter7

Never on a Friday as if things go belly up re monies transferring it wont get sorted until Monday at the very soonest