Exchange and complete on same day

NervyBuyer

Cash purchase, empty property, not moving in immediately. Vendors are pushing to complete quickly, solicitor has suggested exchange and completion on the same day, with me transferring the money online in stages for several days in advance.

Is there anything to be wary of in this scenario or is that a typical approach in a chain-free cash transaction? 

gwynlas

Same day exchange and completion became far more common during covid for some reason.
You can still visit the property to inspect all is as it should be before instructing solicitor to proceed so I cannot see where there could be a problem.
With a traditional exchange of upto 28  days there is far more scope for property problems to occur which is why you need to take out insurance from exchange

saajan_12

No particular concern, but also no huge benefit of same day vs a few days apart. 

Check if your solicitors charge extra for a same day exchange / completion - some have an extra £100 or so, not a deal breaker but a small difference.

Btw you don't have to do multiple transfers, can send £1 first to be sure its the right details but then send the lot via CHAPS. If its a large amount, often the lost interest over several days of small online transfers exceeds the chaps fee. 

loubel

As you are a cash buyer, a simultaneous exchange and completion allows you to complete as soon as you are ready to exchange, rather than exchange ge and then complete later. The disadvantage of this is that nobody is contractually committed until it happens, but this shouldn't be an issue for you as you aren't moving in on completion and so won't lose costs if for some reason it didn't happen.

MyRealNameToo

NervyBuyer said:

Cash purchase, empty property, not moving in immediately. Vendors are pushing to complete quickly, solicitor has suggested exchange and completion on the same day, with me transferring the money online in stages for several days in advance.

Is there anything to be wary of in this scenario or is that a typical approach in a chain-free cash transaction? 

Main thing is uncertainty of when completion will happen but as you arent moving immediately it presumably isnt a problem if it slips a few days whereas if you had to coordinate moving vans etc it is. 

Normally best practice to inspect the property, get meter reads etc on completion so depends if you can do that no matter which day it completes on or if you want more certainty by fixing it in advance by exchanging. 

Albermarle

It can depend where your cash sources are.

For example if I was withdrawing tax free cash from a pension, and then sending it to the solicitor in advance of exchange.
Then if the exchange did not happen/deal fell through at the last minute, I would get all that cash back and have to find somewhere to put it.
If there was the more normal delay between exchange and completion, I could wait until contracts were exchanged before amassing the cash needed. 

Bigphil1474

I've seen elsewhere a solicitor charging around £200 to expedite when exchange and completion are 3 days or less apart - see whether there's any cost. Agree with others though, no particular concerns. We had a week between, simply so we could confirm removal company as we would have lost a lot of money if we'd had to cancel them and rearrange.

20122013

As mentioned above check any extra fees.

1.
Make sure your solicitor is able to check all paper work between. Exchange and completion and no hiccups

2.
Also, do it on a Tuesday Wednesday. As Monday is usually busy and Fridsy prople wind down early and no-one to call over the weekend ie solicitirs etc

I seller was asking to exchange and complete on the same day as the chain was delaying. Agent suggests to fo same day, my solicitor said '1'

Good luck.

bouicca21

I did it. Checked the property the day before. I did double check with the bank about the transfer which was a good thing to do as despite their public statements about the amount that could be transferred, in reality if I hadn’t notified them my transaction would have been flagged as potentially fraudulent.

Yorkie1

20122013 said:

As mentioned above check any extra fees.

1.
Make sure your solicitor is able to check all paper work between. Exchange and completion and no hiccups

2.
Also, do it on a Tuesday Wednesday. As Monday is usually busy and Fridsy prople wind down early and no-one to call over the weekend ie solicitirs etc

I seller was asking to exchange and complete on the same day as the chain was delaying. Agent suggests to fo same day, my solicitor said '1'

Good luck.

I agree to avoid Fridays, but this is because it's the busiest day for completions as people want to move in on  Friday and have the weekend to start unpacking.