Exchange / Completion Process

RedCannon94

Hey all,

Exciting times as we're targetting September 20th as our target date (All parties in the chance have agreed on this) - Important to note that the Solicitors are working towards this too.

Report on title has been provided back to the solicitors this morning and they are due to provide us with the final completion statement within the next 24h. 

Where we are slightly confused is regarding the timeline we've been given beyond this. We're due to pay a decent chunk of our legal fees on Credit Card which we have been told will take 4 working days to clear. Assuming we pay these tomorrow, that would mean Friday / Monday. 

The Solicitors will not provide an Exchange / Completion date until all funds have been paid to them meaning it could be Monday where we hear. This is a bit scary given Wednesday we are all due to move. 

Is this all normal with nothing to worry about?

Thanks

Tiglet2

Does your solicitor accept credit card payments?

The solicitor will not exchange until all monies are received.  Whether that's Monday or before won't affect anything, other than you being on tenterhooks wondering whether your preferred completion date will be met.  They can even exchange and complete the same day if absolutely necessary.

If it's not possible to meet your completion date, it may have to be moved to a later date.  Is that going to be an issue?

RedCannon94

Tiglet2 said:

Does your solicitor accept credit card payments?

The solicitor will not exchange until all monies are received.  Whether that's Monday or before won't affect anything, other than you being on tenterhooks wondering whether your preferred completion date will be met.  They can even exchange and complete the same day if absolutely necessary.

If it's not possible to meet your completion date, it may have to be moved to a later date.  Is that going to be an issue?

Yeah they'll accept a chunk of the fees on card which is nice. 

Completely get that however they seem really confident on delivering for the 20th but it just seems to be cutting it very very fine.

Do get the impression exchange will likely happen alongside completion. 

propertyrental

You need to discuss/agree whether to exchange/Complete same day, or with a gap ( a day? a week? a month?). All parties in the chain will need to agree this, and inform their agents and solicitors.

Planning to move 2 days after exchange (Monday to Wednesday) is not much time if you need to plan eg time off work, book removals, whatever

You really cannot guarantee a date (eg sept 20th). OK, it's a target date, but you need to recognise it may slip and be flexible/have a plan B.

If your fees will take 4 working days to reach your solicitor, then the earliest you'll be able to exchange is 4 working days-but other last minute factors might come into play too.


I exchanged today, and no chain. I've already moved out, emptied the property etc, and my buyers are moving in from rented. Yet we don't Complete till Friday.

eddddy

Have you mentioned to your mortgage broker / mortgage lender that you're going to increase your credit card borrowing shortly before completion?

Sometimes mortgage lenders do a final credit check just before completion, and they might be alarmed if your borrowing has increased significantly since you made the mortgage application.

TheJP

eddddy said:

Have you mentioned to your mortgage broker / mortgage lender that you're going to increase your credit card borrowing shortly before completion?

Sometimes mortgage lenders do a final credit check just before completion, and they might be alarmed if your borrowing has increased significantly since you made the mortgage application.

Its unlikely this would show up on the file days before completion if the lender did a credit check, lenders only tend to do this as an audit check or if the applicant is high risk. Again credit files are update every 30+ days so don't see that being an issue. 

RedCannon94

TheJP said:

eddddy said:

Have you mentioned to your mortgage broker / mortgage lender that you're going to increase your credit card borrowing shortly before completion?

Sometimes mortgage lenders do a final credit check just before completion, and they might be alarmed if your borrowing has increased significantly since you made the mortgage application.

Its unlikely this would show up on the file days before completion if the lender did a credit check, lenders only tend to do this as an audit check or if the applicant is high risk. Again credit files are update every 30+ days so don't see that being an issue. 

Yeah it’ll be a few days between when we pay a chunk on credit card and actual completion. 

Shouldn’t really be an issue. 

RedCannon94

propertyrental said:

You need to discuss/agree whether to exchange/Complete same day, or with a gap ( a day? a week? a month?). All parties in the chain will need to agree this, and inform their agents and solicitors.

Planning to move 2 days after exchange (Monday to Wednesday) is not much time if you need to plan eg time off work, book removals, whatever

You really cannot guarantee a date (eg sept 20th). OK, it's a target date, but you need to recognise it may slip and be flexible/have a plan B.

If your fees will take 4 working days to reach your solicitor, then the earliest you'll be able to exchange is 4 working days-but other last minute factors might come into play too.


I exchanged today, and no chain. I've already moved out, emptied the property etc, and my buyers are moving in from rented. Yet we don't Complete till Friday.

As it stands, all parties are working towards the 20th. Agreed across the board.

We’ve prepped everything for next Wednesday in terms of moving + Have time off for this. Just nervewracking that in theory we won’t get confirming on when the exchange is likely to happen until next week.

No chain with us + both sets of solicitors seem confident it’ll be done for the 20th so we shall see.

martindow

TheJP said:

eddddy said:

Have you mentioned to your mortgage broker / mortgage lender that you're going to increase your credit card borrowing shortly before completion?

Sometimes mortgage lenders do a final credit check just before completion, and they might be alarmed if your borrowing has increased significantly since you made the mortgage application.

Its unlikely this would show up on the file days before completion if the lender did a credit check, lenders only tend to do this as an audit check or if the applicant is high risk. Again credit files are update every 30+ days so don't see that being an issue. 

The solicitor is also acting for the lender.  I'm slightly surprised that they don't feel the need to let the lender know of the increased credit card borrowing regardless of when it might appear on the credit file.

RedCannon94

martindow said:

TheJP said:

eddddy said:

Have you mentioned to your mortgage broker / mortgage lender that you're going to increase your credit card borrowing shortly before completion?

Sometimes mortgage lenders do a final credit check just before completion, and they might be alarmed if your borrowing has increased significantly since you made the mortgage application.

Its unlikely this would show up on the file days before completion if the lender did a credit check, lenders only tend to do this as an audit check or if the applicant is high risk. Again credit files are update every 30+ days so don't see that being an issue. 

The solicitor is also acting for the lender.  I'm slightly surprised that they don't feel the need to let the lender know of the increased credit card borrowing regardless of when it might appear on the credit file.

Valid but the solictor is aware that we'll be paying this back within a few days of moving when we get the deposit back on the flat we're renting. 

EssexHebridean

Having just had a "slipping of exchange dates issue" meaning that we exchanged on a Tuesday and moved on the Friday, it's not something I'd recommend where there is a chain involved. If you are a FTB, or are moving out of the property you are selling without an upwards purchase, then potentially less of an issue, but it was certainly a problem for us and our sellers as it meant we had to gamble on committing to paying the cost of our booked removals before actually having the certainty of our completion date, and with a VERY flaky conveyancer acting for our buyers, too. Very nervewracking. 

I too am surprised that your lender's solicitor isn't informing them of you paying the fees on a CC - because while they know you have said that you will be clearing this when you get the deposit returned, they don't know that is actually what you will end up doing! 

The usual way of working things with requesting money is that once a completion date is agreed on, the solicitor completes the certificate of title to the lender asking for drawdown of funds for the day before planned completion. 
A completion statement is drawn up detailing what funds are required to be transferred by you - if a deposit has already been transferred then this may be simply the legal fees, stamp duty (if payable) and any other disbursements. As a rule the monies are requested to be as cleared funds in your client account at your solicitor's firm the day before completion to avoid the risk of anything holding things up on the day - as I was shifting money from a couple of different locations as it was going to require a couple of transfers across to the solicitor's due to the amounts involved I actually opted to transfer mine two days ahead - just for peace of mind as much as anything. 

If the entire chain is ready, and you have already transferred your deposit, there is absolutely no reason why exchange couldn't happen, say, today, in order to give everyone a longer lead-time of certainty about when things are going to happen. Oh - and remember that if you will be responsible for putting buildings insurance in place for your new home you must do this from exchange!