When should I hand him my keys

mumof3beauts

Hi I am splitting up from my ex. We bought a home together and he is buying me out. The completion date is this week. He is saying he won't transfer me the money until I have handed him the keys. I'm worried I will give him the keys and then he will either pull out of it or it won't go through. I thought I didn't hand back the keys until the funds were in my account?   I'm not using a solicitor but he is. Can anyone advice me when to ha d over the keys please? 

Slinky

Not saying you should, but key cutters are available in many places......

housebuyer143

mumof3beauts said:

Hi I am splitting up from my ex. We bought a home together and he is buying me out. The completion date is this week. He is saying he won't transfer me the money until I have handed him the keys. I'm worried I will give him the keys and then he will either pull out of it or it won't go through. I thought I didn't hand back the keys until the funds were in my account?   I'm not using a solicitor but he is. Can anyone advice me when to ha d over the keys please? 

I mean once he sends you the money he's legally bought it so I'm not sure what he's concerned about. 
Equally he could just change the locks tomorrow and keep you out, so do as above, get another cut, give him the key and when you get the money post the other through the letterbox or just throw it in the bin 

hazyjo

Can his solicitor transfer to you? I would've thought they'd have to anyway. Can you leave the keys with them?

mumof3beauts

Thanks everyone for your quick replies. I think handing them to the solicitor is a good idea 

user1977

How does he know how many sets of keys you have? It's not a necessary part of the process in this scenario - if he really wanted to make sure, he could just change the locks.

subjecttocontract

In any conventional property sale the keys are never released until the money has been paid......why should this be any different ?

user1977

subjecttocontract said:

In any conventional property sale the keys are never released until the money has been paid......why should this be any different ?

Because it isn't a conventional property sale, and one of the parties isn't represented. So some trust is going to be involved from one or both of them.

loubel

If he has a solicitor then I'd expect them to be transferring you the money after completion, not for him to be paying it directly to you. Give him the keys once his solicitor has called you to confirm they are ready to complete. 

propertyrental

user1977 said:

subjecttocontract said:

In any conventional property sale the keys are never released until the money has been paid......why should this be any different ?

Because it isn't a conventional property sale, and one of the parties isn't represented. So some trust is going to be involved from one or both of them.

But it sounds like there is limited trust - on either side...

Yes, normally the money is transferred from buyer/his solicitor to seller/his solicitor, and then the keys are released to the buyer.

No reason this should be different except that the buyer seems not to trust the seller to release the keys  after payment.

What kind of lock? Most locks can easily have duplicate keys cut. Hand over the keys, then provided the transaction completes/payment made, throw away the duplicate.

_Penny_Dreadful

Sounds like he is playing silly buggers.  If he was really concerned about you being able to access the house following the buyout he would have the locks changed.  It's what I do when I buy somewhere new as you never know how many sets of keys are floating around.  Asking the solicitor to act as an intermediary for the keys sounds like a reasonable compromise although of course if he doesn't complete then you are still an owner of the house so could enter it if you wanted, key or not keys.