Post exchange / how long to leave between exchange and completion

F37A

Hi 

What activities need to be undertaken after exchange and before completion. 

Don't want to shoot myself in the foot and put a week after exchange to complete and there is stuff to do.
Its vacant possession so can't see why not move in a week.

Thanks

CSI_Yorkshire

It's perfectly possible to exchange and complete at the same time.

user1977

Depends what you've already done by exchange! Do you mean legal formalities (signing deeds etc) or more practical things (booking removal company)?

chanz4

I did day before

F37A

user1977 said:

Depends what you've already done by exchange! Do you mean legal formalities (signing deeds etc) or more practical things (booking removal company)?

Both i'd say. 

Bigphil1474

Just sold my dad's house and exchanged and completed on same day. House was empty and bought by first time buyers. Depends on how long you need to get sorted. Most obvious thing is arranging removal company.

eddddy

• Are you an FTB?

• You say the flat you are buying is vacant - so presumably the seller has no timescale constraints. They probably just want to complete asap.

• If you're an FTB, where are you moving from? Rented / Parents / Friends? What are the constraints on you moving out?  

As you probably know, nothing is final until contracts are exchanged - so the sale could still be delayed or fall through until exchange of contracts occurs.

So some people don't start packing for the move until they've exchanged contracts - so they might want 2 weeks or more before completion.

But if you don't have to be out of your current place on completion day, you can gradually do your packing and moving after completion. Obviously, you don't have to move into the new property on completion day.

Scotbot

You need to arrange  things like removals and Internet connection.  If you are hiring removals firms you will need to give them several days notice at least, more if you do it on a weekend.  If you  are doing it yourself you still need to hire a van. Swapping Internet connections can take up to 2 weeks.

Yorkie1

You will need to arrange buildings insurance from the day of exchange, not completion

F37A

eddddy said:

• Are you an FTB?

• You say the flat you are buying is vacant - so presumably the seller has no timescale constraints. They probably just want to complete asap.

• If you're an FTB, where are you moving from? Rented / Parents / Friends? What are the constraints on you moving out?  

As you probably know, nothing is final until contracts are exchanged - so the sale could still be delayed or fall through until exchange of contracts occurs.

So some people don't start packing for the move until they've exchanged contracts - so they might want 2 weeks or more before completion.

But if you don't have to be out of your current place on completion day, you can gradually do your packing and moving after completion. Obviously, you don't have to move into the new property on completion day.

Yeah i'm FTB. 
Seller wants to complete.
I'm moving into place i'm purchasing from rented and need to vacate rented from 15th September as current landlord is selling up. So need a smooth transition.

Yeah so I spoke to solicitor today and drainage survey and roof survey have been declined by Freeholder and MA which raises suspcion and no answers to queries from vendor solicitor on those subjects. It could be that MA is just slow getting responses but has been 2.5 weeks since queries raised. I'm at the point where i might say sod it and  exchange (6-6.5 months) to buy a 1 bed flat is a joke. 

Jonboy_1984

When we sold last year our buyer was saying he wanted a fairly quick transaction. Our solicitor said the fastest a leasehold sale would go through was 16 weeks and 20 wouldn’t be unusual, so 26 weeks isn’t really too far out the (very frustrating) ball park.

How does your proposed property relate to the roof space for a survey? If there are other flats at roof level, they may have parts of the lofts within their demise, and the freeholder might not be able to arrange full access?

Our last flat only had 6 metres of pipe that would have been relevant to a drain survey for that flat.