Completing on Friday before Bank Holiday Monday?

alex_163163

Guess I’m looking for reassurance! I think I am over-worrying about things all going wrong at the very end.

situation:
4 parties in the chain, we are number 2. Our buyers are cash buyers with the money in the bank.

I’ve always preferred to complete on a day that isn’t Friday, just in case anything goes wrong and then there’s at least 1 more working day of the week for things to get sorted out.

however the chain above us all want to complete on Friday 3rd May. It just makes me a bit nervous as that’s the Bank holiday weekend, and IF anything went wrong, then it’s 3 days before it can be sorted out.
i would prefer to complete on the Thursday if I had total control over the date.

i should add that the plan is to exchange the Friday the week before, so it’s not like it’s simultaneous exchange & completion.

shall I just go with everyone else’s flow?!
am I over-concerned?

any thoughts / suggestions / etc all welcome! 

Scotbot

Issues between exchange and completion are uncommon and with a week in between there is time to sort them out. It's more common for issues to delay exchange but if that happens you can still ask for a week in between and push completion back. If the exchange date alters then all parties have to agree to the completion date again.


A bank holiday weekend will be attractive to some people as more time to move in.

lika_86

Scotbot said:

Issues between exchange and completion are uncommon and with a week in between there is time to sort them out. It's more common for issues to delay exchange but if that happens you can still ask for a week in between and push completion back. If the exchange date alters then all parties have to agree to the completion date again.


A bank holiday weekend will be attractive to some people as more time to move in.

The issue here isn't so much delays between exchange and completion but the issue of something happening on the day of which means funds don't arrive or get lost (as we've seen from another post).

The risk here is that the OP ends up potentially without a home for longer if something goes tits up. The chance is small but there. I think I'd agree that Thursday would be better but for many would mean two days off work rather than one so the issue would be persuading others to do it. Being lower in the chain does help with lowering the risk a bit.

propertyrental

99% (OK - that's a guess) of Completions happen on the day specified within the contract.

But in the 1% where Completion is delayed (and we see them reported here), it's a lot less stressful if it can be resolved the next day, rather than having to wait through the weekend.

And waiting through a bank holiday weekend would be more stressful still.

It's a tiny risk but a big impact.

You would certainly be within your rights to insist on Completing the day before (Thursday) or the day after the BH (Tuesday), but if you do, make clear to all involved why.

The counterargument of course is the convenience for all concerned of having 3 days to settle into their new homes before going back to work.

housebuyer143

It will probably be fine, but my mates tried to move the Thursday before Easter weekend and the completion monies went astray, it didn't come through until too late and they couldn't complete and then couldn't talk to anybody about it untill Tuesday. It was very stressful for them, but then I suppose if it does go well you have more time to move.