Moving day logistics

TheJP

weezie7 said:

booksandbikes..... interesting that your 'removalists' are doing the packing the day before completion.......how did you manage to get that done please? In the process of buying and hopefully moving, but our purchase house will need a major clean before we move in......thinking of suggesting it to the seller!

Suggesting the seller gives the house a major clean on your behalf...Good luck with that.

Its courtesy to leave the house in a clean standard, some do and some don't however there is no stipulation that it needs to be left in a professionally clean state. Just do it when you move in.

Bigphil1474

OP, we were in the middle of a 4 house chain, with the last house being empty. We were packed up and ready by about 11am, so the movers drove over to the new house while we went to the estate agents to get the keys. They didn't have them so we drove over to the house where they were still emptying it.

We got confirmation the money had changed hands about 12 ish, but the vendors had tried to DIY most of their move so had to put all their stuff on the drive, and the neighbours drive, and the footpath. Our movers just waited until the actual house was empty then unloaded everything into the house. A bit chaotic but it worked out. It took our vendors until late into the evening to eventually clear our drive way. I wouldn't DIY it myself.

Elliott.T123

We were extremely lucky and were buying off family who had moved out a few months prior (care home). So we had the keys about 1 month before we owned the house.

We used a local removals firm who had 3 teams, the other two were both doing moves in the same area but were apparently having to wait a long time for the keys so turned up to help unload ours. At one point we had 5 vans outside and about 14 removals guys. Never seen them empty two trucks and fill a house so fast!

booksandbikes

weezie7 said:

booksandbikes..... interesting that your 'removalists' are doing the packing the day before completion.......how did you manage to get that done please? In the process of buying and hopefully moving, but our purchase house will need a major clean before we move in......thinking of suggesting it to the seller!

They were the ones who suggested this to us. We were in a 3 bedroom house with quite a bit of stuff. They said that their aim is be fully cleared by 9am on completion day, so they suggested they collect the bulk the day before and just leave a few bits for us for the night. Then on completion day, they got the rest of it at 9am. 

We originally wasn't keen on this, but it worked out well for us. Couldn't imagine the hassle of moving all our stuff on the morning of moving day. 

booksandbikes

Thanks for the replies - I never got around to replying sooner as everything happened at once and I packed my PC away to be ready to move. 😅

So to answer my own question, we had our house fully emptied by 9am on completion day. Then we got the call from our solicitor at 10.45am to say that they could confirm receipt of funds from our buyer's solicitor. We left the house at that point, and then waited outside our seller's estate agent. It was a loooong wait for us, sat in the car....we were expecting to get the call around lunch time, but didn't end up getting the call until after 3.30pm! I chased our solicitor around 2pm who said they couldn't get hold of the seller's solicitor - they had left a voicemail and emails. I asked the seller's estate agent to chase up the solicitor, and finally after 3.30pm we got the call. The removalists said it was one of their longest waits! I was getting seriously worried, and started googling house move completion fails while waiting - not recommended. 😅

Anyway all sorted in the end and we are now in and enjoying our new home!

TheJP

booksandbikes said:

Thanks for the replies - I never got around to replying sooner as everything happened at once and I packed my PC away to be ready to move. 😅

So to answer my own question, we had our house fully emptied by 9am on completion day. Then we got the call from our solicitor at 10.45am to say that they could confirm receipt of funds from our buyer's solicitor. We left the house at that point, and then waited outside our seller's estate agent. It was a loooong wait for us, sat in the car....we were expecting to get the call around lunch time, but didn't end up getting the call until after 3.30pm! I chased our solicitor around 2pm who said they couldn't get hold of the seller's solicitor - they had left a voicemail and emails. I asked the seller's estate agent to chase up the solicitor, and finally after 3.30pm we got the call. The removalists said it was one of their longest waits! I was getting seriously worried, and started googling house move completion fails while waiting - not recommended. 😅

Anyway all sorted in the end and we are now in and enjoying our new home!

I would say that is a pretty standard timeline on completion, we had our buyers funds by 11am out of the house by 10am and got the keys at just after 4pm. Depending on the chain and how reactive some solicitors are further up the chain. At least you didnt have any issues which is the main thing.