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Original poster

New house. What do you do on moving day?

13 replies

Katie83a · 22/02/2015 20:07

Im just in the process of buying and selling. When you're in a chain how do you manage who moves and when? Just wondering cos i cant move out till previous owners move their stuff out of our new house and so on...

OP posts:
eurochick · 22/02/2015 20:08

The time to be out is written into the contract. Unfortunately mine were still there a few hours later but it shouldn't work that way!

Itwontletmenamechange · 22/02/2015 20:11

We didn't have a set time. Just waited for a call to say monies all ok and we left maybe an hour later. Other keys ready and waiting for us.

chocoshopoholic · 22/02/2015 20:18

We were bottom of a chain, our vendors, the woman of which was born in the house had no idea had long it would take to pack and load. Me, exP and the husbands of 4 friends turned up and they had only 25% or so of their possessions in their van! Wasn't worth complaining or going back so we set to and loaded their van too!

MehsMum · 22/02/2015 20:23

Once they are out and your monies have gone through, you can get the keys and move in (though our vendor let us have the keys before our monies cleared, as they were out and we had small DC and they were nice people...)

Label all boxes with the name of the room they are to go to, and have a very clearly labelled box with kettle, mugs, teaspoon, tea, coffee, sugar, milk, biscuits and enough plates and cutlery for a takeaway that evening!

RaphaellaTheSpanishWaterDog · 22/02/2015 20:40

Our last move (in December) we were lucky insofar as our vendor had already purchased and moved into his new house well before we were due to complete on our purchase and sale.

This meant that our removers were able to take all our garden stuff (sixty-odd large potted plants, outdoor furniture, shed contents etc) in one full van load the 150 miles to our new house and deposit them in the garden. I should add that a) this isn't the norm (although we have done it on previous moves), b) we obtained the agreement of our vendor beforehand and c) the house was insured by us from that point. Our vendor's EA met our removal co at the house to let them in.

Our move - a big one - actually took place over five days, so by completion day our house was empty apart from ourselves and the stuff we planned to take in the car with us, such as a few boxes and our pets! As a result apart from some finally vacuuming, we were all set to leave first thing on completion day.

Those beneath us in the chain - who had far less stuff, lol! - loaded their vans on the morning of completion day. By 10am we had a call to say completion had taken place and we took our keys in to our solicitor's office which happened to be next door but one to our buyer's house, so we spoke to our buyers en route.....in fact our sol said we could pop the keys round ourselves, which we did.

Original poster
Katie83a · 22/02/2015 21:07

Thanks for the help everyone. Its an absolute minefiled moving house!

OP posts:
fiorentina · 22/02/2015 21:48

We were in a small chain. We had completed by 12pm and were packed and out, our vendor completed shortly after but weren't out until 4.30pm. It was annoying, I did have a heavily pregnant rant at their removers, not that this helped. It's a frustrating day but over fast.

mineofuselessinformation · 22/02/2015 22:23

In theory everyone should complete at roughly the same time - you're telly only waiting for the money to work it's way through the chain.
As your solicitor roughly what time you will complete (it's a bit of a how long is a piece of string question though).
It's worth knowing as theoretically everything left in the house at that point becomes the property of the new owners.

mineofuselessinformation · 22/02/2015 22:23

Oops! Really, not telly!

specialsubject · 23/02/2015 10:04

removal firms are used to this, but it doesn't hurt to have some contingency. You get out of your house as early as possible on the day, and then wait for the keys to the new place. The money ripples through the chain, releasing each set of keys as it goes.

as most people want to move on a Friday, this is the day when banks are busiest and it can go wrong.

we moved into rental, so we actually left our property two days before completion, leaving the keys with the estate agent. Hence as soon as our buyers had completed, an empty property was ready and waiting for them. We also let them leave stuff in the garden (after exchange, and at their risk) to make life easier. If you do this create clear boundaries, as removal men don't hang about and you don't want to take the wrong stuff with you!

MehsMum · 24/02/2015 10:08

Just remembered: you have been told that the insurance risk is yours from the point of exchange, haven't you?

Get those quotes now!

specialsubject · 24/02/2015 10:33

...and of course that you keep insuring your current house until completion!

kittentwo · 25/02/2015 12:09

We moved ourselves due to exchange an complete at very short notice. We took as much stuff in evenings to friends family etc as we could hired a man an van on day managed to get loaded up for 1030. Dropped off our keys. Went and had breakfast an lots of coffee got the call about 1pm our keys were ready to pick up unloaded van spent weekend collecting rest of belongings an unpacking only cost us 180.

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