In a property chain and handing over the keys

[KandN]

Dear all

Sorry but we don't have much experience with buying a property and being "in chain". The last property we bought, we were lucky to be living with family and the seller had already found somewhere so basically, when we "completed", we were handed the keys to our new flat and we had all the time in the world to move all our belongings to the new flat.

Different circumstances now, we are looking to get a house and we will need to sell our flat. So basically we are in a chain. In terms of "logistics", ie getting the keys to our new house and then handing over the keys of our flat to the new owners, does that mean we need to aim to have the SAME completion date for everyone involved? (Probably unlikely...But just though i'd ask).

And if we do manage to complete the sale on our flat before getting the keys to the new house, when would be the best time to start moving out ALL of our furniture and other belongings? My wife thinks that it's actually feasible to complete on the sale of our flat (i.e hand the keys over to the new owners) and get removal companies to move ALL our stuff on that day?!...I think that will be nearly impossible and the stress!!!....Is this typical? How and when do people actually start moving their stuff out? Presumably they either store it at friends/family place/storage/rent a place? The question is WHEN would be the best time to move the things out? (Surely not on the day of completion right?) I can also appreciate that we can't move the things out too far in advance (otherwise we will be sleeping on the floor in an empty flat).

I would greatly appreciate if others could share their own experience of house buying and moving out etc. As I was getting a bit frustrated with what the wife actually suggested.

Please no cocky or rude comments, if you don't like the question or don't want to share, please scroll on.

Whatever you do don’t have exchange and completion on the same day. If there is a last minute hitch or buyer changes their mind you are stuffed!

Our last move we also had a removal firm who came the day before who packed up and loaded most things in the van. They just left is with a few overnight essentials, e.g. beds, fridge, hoover to clean with.
This meant the next day we were quickly packed up and ready to move. We were actually at our next place before notification had arrived that the money had moved so there was an anxious wait of about an hour before we got the nod.

And yes it does work exactly how your wife describes. Sometimes keys aren’t swapped until late afternoon or the sellers have under estimated just how much clobber they have and tried to move themselves. But that is a whole new thread….

So you move everything on the day of completion, however, you are already packed up so it's just moving boxes.

It's definitely worth getting a reputable removal company. Also it's worth considering a packing service if they offer it. We paid £500 and they achieved more in 3 hours than I had in 4 weeks.

The day before completion, they packed up the massive removal truck and left us with our bed, a sofa, a TV and then brought a smaller van the following day to pack them in.

Then we all drove to our new house and waited till the funds had cleared. The estate agent gave us our key.

Hope the above makes sense. Good luck

@KandN

@KandN

Apologies posted too soon.

Our last move was From a 4 bed house to another 4 bed house and relocating some distance away with 2 young DC so we decided to pay for packing.

The time before we were moving from a rented flat to a house nearby and had about 3 weeks crossover so we did it all ourselves and paid a man with a van for the big stuff.

I would definitely recommend packers if you have a lot of stuff, it was just so much easier and less stress