Time between moving on completion day

eurobabe

Hi I've moved in the past but each time I've moved to a property I've bought off a developer.How many hours do you usually get to move out of your property to the next one?I take it the move would start at the top of the chain and end with the bottom of the chain, who'd usually be a first time buyer.

sammyjammy

You should be ready to leave lock stock and barrel from mid morning onwards IMO.

propertyrental

It can vary enormously.

You'll need to be packed up and ready to move out by late morning. However, Completion (when ownership transfers) may happen late morning, or not till late afternoon.

There are cases where a buyer is sitting outside their new home, with removal vans full, waiting for funds to clear at 5 pm......

Completions on Fridays are especially fraught as so many people choose that day (so as to have the w/end to settle in), so solicitors are much busier and take longer.

It's possible Completion gets delayed to next day (if fund transfer is delayed for whatever reason) and 'next day' = next business day ie Monday......

eurobabe

Surely there's a time buffer though say person at the top of the chain moves out by 11am then next buyer below moves out of their place by 1pm and into new place etc.

Flugelhorn

eurobabe said:

Surely there's a time buffer though say person at the top of the chain moves out by 11am then next buyer below moves out of their place by 1pm and into new place etc.

no  - everyone should really be ready and out by late morning - say 11am.  All the stuff will be in vans and then you move in to the new place when the keys are released. 

propertyrental

Yes it depends where in the chain you are.

There are also 2 factors in play

1) the funds. Money has to be transferred consecutively up the chain which takes time

2) people have to physically move out. Sometimes you get someone who's not prepared, has not packed, and does not physically vacate till late - very rude, not really even legal, but it happens.....

Flugelhorn

propertyrental said:

Yes it depends where in the chain you are.

There are also 2 factors in play

1) the funds. Money has to be transferred consecutively up the chain which takes time

2) people have to physically move out. Sometimes you get someone who's not prepared, has not packed, and does not physically vacate till late - very rude, not really even legal, but it happens.....

LOL yes - once found my removals men, who were getting pretty bored waiting in the van outisde the new house,  going to help with those moving out to try and hurry them up 

BarelySentientAI

eurobabe said:

Surely there's a time buffer though say person at the top of the chain moves out by 11am then next buyer below moves out of their place by 1pm and into new place etc.

That's not how it's supposed to work, contractually.

Everyone loses access to their old house at the same time and everyone gets access to their new house at the same time.

Although practically there will always be a little bit of a delay as things get passed up the line, and there's often someone who left everything to the last minute and hasn't finished packing etc.  Don't be that someone.

elsien

Neighbours who were moving themselves several hundred miles away and had booked a van that was far too small were still in the house at 11 pm moving day frantically trying to shift the rest of their belongings into my dining room.

That is the extreme, but luckily their buyers were not moving in straight away. Could’ve been interesting otherwise. 

saajan_12

eurobabe said:

Surely there's a time buffer though say person at the top of the chain moves out by 11am then next buyer below moves out of their place by 1pm and into new place etc.

You're assuming each person moves out of their house, immediately moves into their purchase, then the next one starts when they have an empty property to move into. The problem with that is if its a very long chain, you'll run out of hours in the day. 

Instead, there's a "holding" stage. So in theory probably never in practice):
1. Everyone moves out at 11am with their stuff loaded in vans
2. Money and keys transfer at 12pm, while the stuff is being driven or held on the road. 
3. Everyone moves in at 1pm and into the afternoon. 

pjs493

The last time my sister moved, she had the removals van loaded up with everything bar the air mattresses everyone was sleeping on and clothes, toiletries bags, etc. On the morning of completion they loaded those things in the car and waited for the call to say the keys to the new house had been released. They would have stayed in a hotel for the night but they were moving just a few streets away so it seemed easier to just camp in the old house and wait until they could get the keys to the new one. Notably, the new house was empty because it had been part exchanged by the previous owner when they bought a new build. So it really was just a case of waiting for the call to say funds had been received so she could collect the keys from the estate agent.