What happens between exchange and completion?

[bonzo77]

Our vendors have informed us last minute that they want to complete on 14/5/15! We've not yet exchanged. Our solicitor is doing as much as he can and hopes it will be possible but cannot guarantee, normally he says minimum 2 weeks between exchange and completion. Just wondered what needs to be done between the two. I could ask him but I'm curious rather than doubting him and don't want to put his back up.

2 week minimum sounds a bit odd to me, I moved last year and there was about 5 days between the two, mainly because the buyers wanted to move in on a specific date.

Unless it's a contractual clause on your mortgage that does sound odd. I think ours was also 5 days. Apparently some allow you to do it on the same day but I've never seen it.

14th seems pretty reasonable, unless solicitor is going away. It is a case of getting the funds in place and coordinating transfers on the day for completion.

Depends if they need to get mortgage money in time, lenders usually want 5 working days notice to draw down funds.

Also allows time for transfer deeds to be signed if not already.

It can be done quicker but you might have to draw down your mortgage prior to or at the point of exchange which means you're paying your new mortgage for an extra few days.

It takes 5 working days for mortgage funds to appear. Minimum. Sometimes longer.

You can exchange and complete simultaneously. Solicitors hate that and so do lending banks (they have to work much faster than they like!).

So there is no "minimum". That's utter bull. Looks like your solicitor is busy so he is managing your expectations.

It's your purchase. Your mortgage etc and solicitor is the hired help. Tell him what YOU want to do.

Clearly the vendor will have an opinion too....

We had a simultaneous exchange & complete. I did not enjoy it. Thankfully we were ftbs then. It all seemed so rushed with the added worry that it might not go ahead! Got the keys about 2.30pm in the end

We had same day exchange and completion - thankfully we'd already moved out but still stressful

with a near simultaneous exchange and completion; you can't have post redirect because it takes five days to set up. You will struggle to organise removals. You can't sort phone/broadband which takes 5 days. You'll have a lot of extra work to do.

a week is possible if you are already mostly packed with everything else ready.

fight back and ask for two weeks.

why on earth would you want the removal van turning up on a day when you don't actually know that you are moving????

We didn't want it at all. Our buyers buyer (apparently ) had issues with deposit which delayed exchange until last possible day for our buyers mortgage offer. So no choice for us - all or nothing - stress was immense!

thanks MNers. I can't see a simultaneous exchange and completion working. There are 4 properties in the chain, at least 3 of whom will need to arrange removals. The lawyer really is working hard on it. I'm confident that if he can do it in a week / 5 working days we will be able to too. The reason it looks like a week is because the person at the top of the chain had a date in mind and didn't communicate this properly with our lawyer. It really is as simple as that. Our lawyer reckons its all bluster as if there really was such a rush on then he would have heard about it from the lawyer up the chain, and also he's been trying to get information off them since last week and not got any response. He's still chasing as hard as he can, but if the vendors lawyers don't get back to him in time even with him chasing, that's not his fault.

Is a gap between exchange & completion possible with first time buyers? I am assuming out buyers (ftb) won't have the 10% required upon exchange...?

Why would they not have the deposit at exchange?

My parents recently exchanged and completed on the same day, they were moving into a rental property. They made their buyers sign an agreement that if the sale fell through they would be reimbursed removal costs and rental costs. They had to sign a six month tenancy agreement and if the buyer had pulled out they would have still had to pay six months rent.

i guess then anything is possible, and it all depends on specific circumstances. And the shorter the chain the faster it can be done.

mrsdran I understand that an agreement to this effect is usual, i.e that if things fall through between exchange and completion then the at-fault party will be held liable to for costs. In your parents' case the agreement because effective at the point they agreed to exchange, rather than when they exchanged.

As it happens, information has transpired to suggest that indeed our vendor's agent is bullshitting. Our solicitor has finally had an email from our vendor's solicitor discussing dates. To exchange on the 14th and complete 11/6/15 or soon after. These suit us and our purchasers, and solicitor is happy with them. The solicitor of our vendor's vendor (the person at the top of the chain that we were told was instigating the timescale I mentioned in my OP) has not applied any pressure down the chain, i.e. on our vendor's solicitor and therefore on ours, to hurry things along. As our very dry, cynical lawyer pointed out, the process has to be mediated by the solicitors, and the communication has to go through them. If he didn't hear it (or better still read it) from one of the solicitors, it didn't happen!